A New Anticancer Agent
Several decades ago a new anticancer drug (BEC) was discovered. Sadly lack of funding has restricted this most promising drug (actually it is an extract that comes from a variety of vegetables) from being developed as quickly as desired.
However there is now considerable interest in BEC. There are many reasons for this.
BEC is relatively non toxic (especially compared to traditional chemotherapeutic drugs). The reason for this is a quirk of nature (the BEC molecule is taken up into cancer cells much more preferentially than normal healthy cells because cancer cells have many more uptake receptors which are specific for BEC type molecules).
Yet BEC is very cytotoxic to most cancer cells.
Systemic application has not been as successful as hoped (at least to date) but injection of BEC into cancerous lesions has a highly effective kill rate.
Below is a recent review summary.
In 1987 it was first reported that plant-derived glycoalkaloids solasodine glycosides, including solamargine, solasonine, mono- and di-glycosides of solasodine, known as BEC, induced remarkable anticancer effects in cell culture, animals and humans.
Since then, a plethora of further investigations have resulted in the placement of BEC and its individual components as very promising antineoplastic agents with vast potential to serve as targeted anticancer agents.
With BEC, solamargine accounts for 86% antineoplastic activity and solasonine accounts for 9% antineoplastic activity, whereas, the mono- and di-glycosides of solasodine contribute 5% anticancer activity. The anticancer activity of these glycoalkaloids is considered to be concerted and additive.
The governing principle that determines the potency of antineoplastic activity is the plant sugar rhamnose that forms part of the glycoalkaloids. BEC targets specific mutant proteins on cancer cell membranes that act as specific receptors. After binding to these characterised specific receptors, BEC is internalised by cell receptor-mediated endocytosis followed by the anticancer sequelae of identifiable anticancer properties on a variety of biological pathways, including cell survival pathways, tumour suppressor pathways, lysosomal pathways, mitochondrial pathways, caspase activation pathways, death receptor pathways, protein kinase pathways and signal pathways that impede invasion/migration and multidrug resistance.
BEC exhibits much higher cytotoxic effects on cancer cells than currently used antineoplastic agents such as vinblastine, vincristine, camptothecin, cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil, gemcitabine, epirubicin, cyclophosphamide, taxol and doxorubicin.
Furthermore, the absolute concentrations of these drugs to obtain comparable efficacy as BEC, are in the order of 6 - 40 times higher.
Moreover, the therapeutic index (TI: also referred to as the therapeutic ratio) is much higher for BEC compared with other antineoplastic agents as shown with cell culture studies and animal studies. The high TI of BEC translates to high safety margins.
BEC is active against a wide variety of cancer cells, such as ovarian cancer, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, colorectal cancer, bladder cancer, oral epidermoid carcinoma, breast cancer, leukemia, prostate cancer, liver cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, gastric carcinoma, renal cancer, uterine cancer, mesothelioma, glioblastoma and osteosarcoma. In addition, BEC has curative properties in animals with terminal cancer.
This information is too brief to form a considered opinion and so I provide a link to the full review here: https://www.scirp.org/pdf/ijcm_2020102716411223.pdf
This article will provide a full explanation of how BEC works but also provide numerous references to scientific and medical papers which outline research evidence of the success of BEC as an anticancer agent.
There is no doubt in my mind that BEC should be the first line of treatment to be considered for Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC). However I also consider that it would be a very effective choice for treatment of other cancers - especially in terminal situations where quality of life and pain control are of great importance.
