herbal therapy for treatment of neoplasia of the urogenital system in small animals

Cancers have attracted a great deal of attention over time due to scientific progress and increasing prevalence. thus, investigating potent treatments has always been a major issue in veterinary medicine research. using medicinal plants revealed many opportunities in the discovery of anti-cancer drugs and significant benefits associated with lesser side effects. urogenital tumors notably have been important targets in those evaluations. particular herbal medicines used for kidney, bladder, or prostate cancers mostly inhibit tumor growth by immunomodulatory effects. mistletoe (viscum album) extracts have been useful medicaments for tumors in decades. they are associated with immune system stimulation due to the plant’s lectin. in a study, mistletoe extract was administrated intraperitoneally in various dose levels, and significantly inhibited tumor growth in colon, testicular, and renal cell carcinomas (1). astragalus, cnidium, and black cumin have also been found to have remarkable efficacy in renal carcinogenesis treatment. some investigations claim that special herbs like garlic and kava have noteworthy therapeutic value for treating bladder cancer. in particular, kava (piper methysticum) flavokawains led to more than 50% inhibition of bladder tumor cells in nude mice models (2). furthermore, studies to develop prostate cancer treatment have proven therapeutic applications of some medicinal plants like saint john’s wort, milk thistle, red clover, etc. saint john’s wort (hypericum perforatum) demonstrated significant tumor growth and metastases number reduction due to serotonin reuptake inhibition (3). as a result, medicinal plants have shown to be natural phenomena and valuable resources for developing anti-cancer therapeutics.