Breast cancer is the most common cancer disease in women. In 2008, there were about 1.38 million new cases of breast cancer worldwide, with 60% of breast cancer deaths occurring in developing countries. International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2012 showed that breast cancer ranks first in Indonesia with an estimated incidence rate of 40 people per 100,000 women.
Cancer is a disease that is difficult to cure although existing treatment modalities can kill most of the cancer cells, there are still cancer cells that can survive to re-grow even spread in other organs such as bones and lungs. Another problem that arises of chemotherapy for people living with cancer is the harmful side effects of chemotherapy treatment. There are side effects in the form of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss, and the most serious is the reduced number of blood cells due to bone marrow damage as a producer of blood cells. Therefore, the treatment of cancer from natural materials need to be developed to reduce the side effects of cancer treatment as well as lowering mortality rates and increasing the life expectancy of people living with cancer. One of the natural materials that have been obtained in Indonesia that can be used as a traditional medicine of cancer is the soursop leaves with the Latin name Annona muricata. Soursop leaves contain anti-cancer compounds that are acetogenin.
To prove the ability of soursop leaves in killing cancer cells, Soilia and friends observed the effects of soursop extract in breast cancer cells. In this study, the first phase is drying the leaves in the oven, pounded until smooth, and inserted in alcohol for 24 hours. The second stage is isolating human breast cancer cells and breed. The breast cancer cells are given the extract of soursop leaves in varying concentrations, and they compared the result with breast cancer cells without the extract. After 24 hours, a count of the number of cancer cells is still alive in each group. The observation clearly showed that there was an increase in cancer cells died in cell culture with soursop extract compared to cancer cell culture without the extract.
From this research, it can be concluded that soursop leaf extract can kill breast cancer cells. Thus, soursop leaf extract for patients with breast cancer will be very beneficial to inhibit the growth the cells.
Author: Willy Sandhika Lecturer in Faculty of Medicine Universitas Airlangga
The Cytotoxic Activity of Annona muricata Linn Leaves Ethanolic Extract (AMEE) on T47D Breast Cancer Cell Line yang dimuat pada majalah Medical Laboratory Technology Journal, Vol. 6 no. 1, Juni 2020.
Link: http://ejurnalanaliskesehatan.web.id/index.php/JAK/issue/view/18
