Review Article Chinese Medicines Induce Cell Death: The Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms for Cancer Therapy

Copyright © 2014 Xuanbin Wang et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Chinese medicines have long history in treating cancer. With the growing scientific evidence of biomedical researches and clinical trials in cancer therapy, they are increasingly accepted as a complementary and alternative treatment. One of the mechanisms is to induce cancer cell death. Aim. To comprehensively review the publications concerning cancer cell death induced by Chinese medicines in recent years and provide insights on anticancer drug discovery from Chinese medicines. Materials and Methods. Chinesemedicines (includingChinesemedicinal herbs, animal parts, andminerals) were used in the study.Thekeywords including “cancer”, “cell death”, “apoptosis”, “autophagy, ” “necrosis, ” and “Chinesemedicine ” were used in retrieval of related information from PubMed and other databases.Results.The cell death induced byChinesemedicines is described as apoptotic, autophagic, or necrotic cell death and other types with an emphasis on their mechanisms of anticancer action.The relationship among different types of cell death induced by Chinese medicines is critically reviewed and discussed. Conclusions.This review summarizes that CMs treatment could induce multiple pathways leading to cancer cell death, in which apoptosis is the dominant type. To apply these preclinica