title: The effects of dietary supplementation with Agaricales mushrooms and other medicinal fungi on breast cancer: evidence-based medicine.
abstract: Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in women. The most frequent therapeutic approaches for the treatment of this disease are chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy, and surgery. Conventional pharmacological treatments cause many harmful side effects in patients. To improve the quality of life of breast cancer patients, researchers have sought alternative adjuvant treatment strategies. To assess the effects of fungi and other basidiomycetes Agaricales on the co-adjuvant treatment of breast cancer, we conducted a literary review of the available scientific evidence. We selected articles published in refereed journals from 1990 to 2011 in Medline, Lilacs, CAPES, Scielo, and Pubmed. Articles written in English, Spanish, and Portuguese were reviewed. We used the following descriptors: Agaricales, medicinal mushroom/fungus, breast cancer, dietary supplementation, synonyms, and related terms. The pharmacological effects of nutritional and medicinal mushrooms have been reported in several experimental clinical studies and have shown promising results in the adjuvant treatment of breast cancer. Adjuvant treatment with mushrooms is associated with improvements in the immunological and hematologic parameters of breast cancer, as well as in the quality of life of these patients. Randomized clinical studies are needed to elucidate the possible mechanisms of action and clinical benefits of these fungi with respect to survival time, disease progression, and metastasis in breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Universidade de Brasília, School of Medicine, Institute of Health Science, Brasília/DF, Brazil. ritanovaes@ig.com.br
authors.forename: Maria Rita Carvalho Garbi
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Novaes
authors.forename: Fabiana
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Valadares
authors.forename: Mariana Campos
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Reis
authors.forename: Daniella Rodrigues
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.forename: Marilia da Cunha
authors.initials: Mda C
authors.lastname: Menezes
mesh_terms: D000363:Agaricales / Q000737:chemistry*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000178:diet therapy*; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy / Q000379:methods*