Scientists at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center stated that tamoxifen together with a chemical compound discovered in the flowering plant feverfew may thwart early or future resistance to the medicine.

Lead researcher, Robert Clarke, PhD, DSc, a professor of oncology and physiology & biophysics at Lombardi, a part of Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) stated, "A solution to tamoxifen resistance is sorely needed, and if a strategy like this can work, it would make a difference in our clinical care of breast cancer."

Clarke also said that the distilled study chemical they analyzed, parthenolide, a derivative of feverfew, is being examined by other researchers as cure for different cancer types as well as other lethal conditions.

Feverfew has long been a staple of natural medication, and is mainly well-known for its therapeutic effects on headaches and arthritis.

"The chemical clearly has potential, and we ought to be able to figure out fairly quickly if it can help solve tamoxifen's resistance problem," Clarke added.

Tamoxifen is a cure of choice for carcinoma, which is estrogen receptor positive, meaning that the hormone estrogen drives cancer expansion.

The majority od newly diagnosed carcinomas fall under that group. However, about half of these breast cancers do not primarily react to tamoxifen, the world's most prescribed breast cancer agent.

Most of the patients that do respond are at risk for developing resistance and cancer relapse.

The study authors published the results online Feb. 12 in FASEB.