Solasodine, Solamargine and Mixtures of Solasodine Rhamnosides: Pathway to Expansive Clinical Anticancer Therapies

Cancer remains a major cause of mortality worldwide. Progresses have been made in the understanding of the molecular basis of cancer, cancer detection, and cancer treatment. Important strides by treating early-stage cancers have resulted in improved outcomes. Despite these achievements, mortality of cancer patients is high and still there is no cure. Some oncologists remain optimistic that cytotoxic chemotherapy will significantly improve cancer survival. However, notwithstanding the use of new and expensive single and more recently, combination drugs, the improvement of the response rates remains very low. In the United States, cancer death rates decreased by a mere 1.4% to 1.8% from 2004 to 2013. Compared to other serious diseases, the improvement of the cancer patient has been disappointingly lagging, and by far, most patients with advanced cancer eventually die of their disease. The need for improved cancer therapies is self-evident. This communication gives an overview of the overwhelming resurgence of solasodine and its glycosides in cancer therapy.