Resveratrol as an adjunct therapy in cyclophosphamide-treated MCF-7 cells and breast tumor explants

Cyclophosphamide (CPA) has efficacy as a breast cancer therapy. However, toxicity to CPA limits its clinical applications. Hence there is a need to develop compounds that may be combined with it to improve the efficacy and overcome toxicity. We showed previously that Resveratrol (RES), a chemopreventive agent, increased the growth inhibitory effect of CPA-treated MCF-7 cells. Here we have explored the molecular basis of 5 mM CPA and 50 μM RES as a combination on cell-cycle progression, apoptosis and oxidative stress in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Efficacy of the combination was also evaluated in a serum-free tumor explant culture model. The combination elicited enhanced anti-proliferative action coupled with differential expression of cell-cycle, apoptosis and stress factors. Furthermore, co-treatment superiority in histologically validated ER positive breast cancer explants suggests that this combination may be a worthy future clinical anti-neoplastic regimen.