The current webpage is designed to make additional research available concerning how various fruits and fruit components influence HER2+ breast cancer and treatment with Herceptin (trastuzumab). Below are links to studies relating to the beneficial fruits listed in Foods to eat & avoid for HER2+ and Foods to eat & avoid during Herceptin treatment.
Fruit consumption inhibits HER2+ disease primarily through the actions of polyphenols, among them anthocyanins (found, for example, in blackberries, boysenberries, and passion fruit), delphinidin (black grapes, blueberries, cranberries), fisetin (apples, grapes, strawberries), myricetin (black currants, cranberries & ligonberries), phloretin (apples), quercetin (black currants, raspberries), resveratrol (blueberries & bilberries, red grapes, red currants), and ursolic acid (apples, cherries, plums), as well as melatonin (cherries) and fiber. Herceptin treatment is enhanced by the same fruit micronutrients.
Fruit micronutrients should be obtained by eating fruit rather than taking supplements. When a beneficial micronutrient is administered at low doses by consuming food, it is likely to have subtle chemopreventive effects, whereas the same compound administered at high doses is more likely to have pharmacological effects, with possible unwanted outcomes. For example, resveratrol supplementation has been shown to promote mammary tumor development in a mouse model of ER+/HER2+ breast cancer — resveratrol given in drinking water shortened the time to HER2+ tumor development and increased the number of tumors.