Evaluation of Therapeutic Activity of Tualang Honey on Oral Cancer: Histopathological Study.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The use of natural products has been gaining interest, notably, in the area of cancer therapy. In this study, we determined the chemotherapeutic activity of Tualang Honey (TH) Malaysian wild local honey, on an animal model induced for oral cancer using 4NQO. METHODS: A total of 28 male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomized into four groups (n=7 per group) as non-treated, treated (1000 mg/kg) 1000, treated 2000 mg/kg and control group. All groups' rats received 4NQO, followed by 10 weeks administration of TH at 1000 and 2000 mg/kg, respectively, for the treated groups.  All rats from all experiments were sacrificed to evaluate the incidence of oral neoplasms with histopathological changes and histological evaluation of oral cancer metastasis. RESULTS: TH significantly reduced the incidence of SCC from 100% to 28.6 % in the TH high dose group of 2000 mg/kg. furthermore, TH has the ability to inhibit the metastasis of oral cancer to adjacent organs. CONCLUSION: TH inhibited the proliferation of the cancer cells in an animal model of oral squamous cell carcinoma and therefore, has the potential to be developed as a chemotherapeutic agent.