A number of the drugs used by conventional Western medicine for cancer treatment come from plants originally. For example the vinca alkaloids are a group of drugs extracted from the periwinkle plant, vinca rosea.This group includes the chemotherapy drugs vincristine, vinblastine, vindesine and vinorelbine. Another group of chemotherapy drugs are the taxanes; Taxol and Taxotere which originate from the bark of the Pacific yew tree. So some chemotherapy drugs do actually have natural origins.
As far as herbal medicines are concerned, there are no preparations that have been scientifically proven to help treat cancer. Despite this a recent survey in the UK has suggested that more than a third of people being treated for cancer are supplementing their conventional therapy with herbal treatments, the most commonly used being echinacea, evening primrose oil, milk thistle and essiac.
Although there is no evidence that any of these compounds actually help in the treatment of cancer, it is usually the case that they won’t actually do any harm. However this is not always true, some herbal remedies do contain chemicals that can react with conventional drugs and may lead to harmful side-effects. For example echinacea can interfere with some conventional treatments for lymphoma, while evening primrose oil and ginkgo can react with drugs like warfarin (used to treat or prevent thrombosis and blood clots) and aspirin, increasing the risk of abnormal bleeding.
Given that there is no proof that herbal remedies have any effect in treating cancer, the best advice is for you to go ahead with conventional treatment.
If you feel that you would like to try supplementing your treatment with herbal preparations then do mention this to your doctors, so they can check that the remedies you are intending to use will not have harmful effects on any of the other medicines you are taking.
Reference
- Potential health risks of complementary alternative medicines in cancer patients, Werneke U et al, British Journal of Cancer, 2004; 90: 408-413.