Cytotoxic Responses of Pancreatic Cancer Cell Line to Bitter Leaf (Vernonia Amygdalina), Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum) and Coconut (Cocos Nucifera) Milk Extracts

Abstract

Cancer is a disease involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other part of the body. Presently cancer has been declared as a global burden by the World Health Organization and the second-leading cause of death in the world. An estimated 26,000 people die each year of cancer and in the year 2018 alone, an estimated 9.5 million people died of cancer worldwide. Particularly in Africa, the burden of cancer and cancerrelated diseases is on the increase, due to inefficient prevention strategies and poor prognosis following late diagnosis [1-3].

Among all the forms of cancer, pancreatic cancer, the cancer of the pancreas is the fourth leading cause of cancer death. It is the tenth most common cancer in men and the eighth most common in women. The disease remains elusive to effective screening approaches and 80% of cases presents an unresectable or incurable stage. The symptoms do not appear until the later stages [4-7]. 

Some of these symptoms are abdominal or back pain, jaundice, low appetite, weight loss, swelling of the gall bladder or liver blood clots, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, diabetes, pale gray or fatty stool, nausea and vomiting, fever, and chills, fatigue, diarrhea or constipation and indigestion [8].