Chemopreventive Effects of Propolis in the MNU-Induced Rat Mammary Tumor Model

Currently, one of the central problems in cancer management is the relapse of disease following conventional treatments, yet few therapeutic agents targeting resistance and tolerance exist. Propolis is known as a healing agent since ancient times. Therefore, over time, its curative properties have kept the interest of scientists, thus leading permanently to investigations of its other possible undiscovered effects. In this context, current experiments were performed to establish the chemopreventive potential of propolis extract (PE) (1.05 mg/kg BW/day) in N-methyl-N-nitrosourea- (MNU-) induced rat mammary tumors. MNU-inoculated/PE-treated rats had tumors of different physical attributes compared with control rats MNU-inoculated. The number of developed tumors (mean 49% versus 100%), incidence (mean 49% versus 100%), multiplicity (1.8 versus 3.7 (p < 0.001)), tumor volume (mean 10 cm³ versus 16 cm³ (p < 0.001)), and weight of the tumor mass (mean 7.42 g versus 9.00 g (p < 0.05)) were noted. The numbers of grade I tumors recorded for MNU-inoculated rats were 24 (Group 1) and 7 (Group 2) for MNU-induced/PE-treated rats. In the serum of rats MNU-inoculated/PE-treated were found higher levels of antioxidative enzymes (SOD, CAT, and GPx) than in MNU-induced. Taken together, these data indicate that propolis could be a chemopreventive agent against MNU-induced mammary carcinogenesis.