Assessing Lycopene and Beta-Carotene’s Effect on Human Breast Carcinoma and Fibroblasts and Their Potential Use as Novel Cancer Therapies

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer and chemotherapy frequently yields poor results with toxic side effects. Hence, there is a focus on using alternative therapies such as the natural plant extracts, Lycopene and Beta-Carotene. These antioxidants are known to possess several biological effects such as removal of free radicals, alleviation of biological oxidative injury, and inhibition of tumor growth. In this study, the aim was to illustrate the effect of Lycopene and Beta-Carotene on tumor cell proliferation and modulation of cancer progression as well as its possible underlying mechanisms in the human breast carcinoma cell-line T47D cells in vitro. T47D and HFF cells were treated with different Lycopene and Beta-Carotene concentrations. Lycopene (75μM) and Beta-Carotene (50μM) treatment resulted in effective lethal dose for both T47D and HFF however, no dose was found that only effected T47D. Nonetheless, concentration of 25μM was found an effective dose that led to decreased migration in T47D cells while not effecting HFF. Lycopene upregulated the expression of p53 proteins, Beta-Carotene downregulated Bcl-2 and both downregulated Cyclin-D1. In conclusion, 25μM Lycopene and Beta-Carotene inhibits migration of T47D cells, possibly by regulating apoptotic proteins and downregulating cell cycle regulators while leaving HFF cells unaffected.