Combination of Doxorubicin and Areca Ethanolic Extract Induces Apoptosis by Increasing Caspase-3 Level on Breast Cancer (T47D) Cells

Despite causing many side effects, doxorubicin (Dox) is still one of breast cancer drug of choice. Thus, combination of chemotherapy is developed in order to decrease doxorubicin regimen dose. The aim of this research is to examine the combination effect of doxorubicin (dox) and areca extract (AE) on T47D human breast cancer cells. The cytotoxic activity was determined using MTT assay. The combination index (CI) of the combination treatment was calculated to determine the effects (synergistic, additive or antagonistic). The combination application of dox (6-22nM) and AE (8-30µg/ml) on T47D cells showed synergistic (CI<0.9) or additive effect (CI=0.9-1.1). The effective combination of dox-AE was 6 nM - 8 µg/ml on CI