Breast cancer is one of the most common
malignancies in women, and exhibits high
metastasis, recurrence and fatality rates. Novel
therapies for
breast cancer are constantly emerging, such as targeted
therapy,
oncolytic virotherapy, and
immunotherapy. Despite their potential, these new
therapies are still in their infancy, and
chemotherapy remains the standard treatment for
breast cancer. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop safe and efficient treatment drugs or adjuvants for
breast cancer treatment.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long clinical history in China, in which Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi exhibits favorable antibreast
cancer activities. We therefore conducted a systematic review of the available literature to better understand the molecular mechanisms of S. baicalensis in
breast cancer treatment. S. baicalensis and its active components (
baicalein,
baicalin,
wogonin,
wogonoside,
oroxylin A and
scutellarin) exhibited promising antibreast
cancer activity through proliferation inhibition, apoptosis induction, invasion and
metastasis blockading, and drug-resistance and
non-coding RNA regulation. Additionally, senescence, autophagy, angiogenesis, and glycolysis mechanisms were observed to play a role in their antibreast
cancer activity. Furthermore, multiple signaling pathways contributed to the antitumor effects of S. baicalensi, such as the NF-[Formula: see text]B, Wnt/[Formula: see text]-
catenin, SATB1,
Bcl2 family proteins,
Caspase, PI3K/Akt, mTOR, ERK, p38-MAPK, TGF-[Formula: see text]/Smad, and Hippo/YAP pathways. This review provides valuable insights into the role of S. baicalensis as a
breast cancer treatment and acts as a foundation for further investigations in this field.