Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT) for the Treatment of Malaria. ACTs that combine an artemisinin derivative with a slower acting medication became the first-line treatment for malaria in 2001 and is now recommended for the treatment of P. falciparum malaria. Artemisinin-Derivatives for Cancer Treatment. Artemisinin and its derivatives also exert remarkable anticancer effects for a wide variety of tumor types. In 2001 artesunate was screened against 55 cancer cell lines and proved most effective against leukemia and colon cancer but was also found to be active against resistant cancer cell linessuch as prostate, cervical cancers. Artemisinin derivatives overall have been shown to induce cancer cell death in 115 different cell lines. Artemisinin-type drugs are also active against diverse syngeneic animal tumors and human xenograft tumors in nude mice. Artesunate also protects from in-flammatory and oxidative tissue injury in vivo caused by carcinogens. Compassionate uses of artemisinins and Artemisia annua preparations for cancer therapy of veterinary and human tumors encouraged the performance of several clinical phase I/II trials in Germany, the UK and the US. Placebo-controlled, randomized and double-blind phase II trial in colorectal carcinoma patients demonstrated that patients taking artesunate tablets in addition to standard surgical therapy had a survival advantage. Despite clinical activity of artemisinins against cancer, longitudinal studies on the efficacy of artemisinin and Artemisia annua preparations upon longer application times are missing. 

Malaria.

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease afflicting humans caused by parasitic protozoans belonging to the Plasmodium type. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases it can cause yellow skin, seizures, coma, or death. If not properly treated, people may have recurrences of the disease months later. The disease is most commonly transmitted by an infected female Anopheles mosquito that introduces the parasites into a person’s blood during the bite via the mosquito’s saliva. The parasites travel from there to the liver, where they mature and reproduce. Five species of Plasmodium can infect and be spread by humans. The majority of deaths are caused by P. falciparum, with P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae generally causing a milder form of malaria.

Cancer.

Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Not all tumors are cancerous; benign tumors do not spread to other parts of the body. Over 100 types of cancers affect humans. In 2015 about 90.5 million people had cancer. About 14.1 million new cases occur a year (not including skin cancer other than melanoma). Cancer caused about 8.8 million deaths (15.7%) of human deaths. The most common types of cancer in males are lung cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer and stomach cancer. In females, the most common types are breast cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer and cervical cancer. If skin cancer other than melanoma were included in total new cancers each year it would account for around 40% of cases. In children, acute lymphoblastic leukemia and brain tumors are most common except in Africa where non-Hodgkin lymphoma occurs more often. In 2012, about 165,000 children under 15 years of age were diagnosed with cancer. The risk of cancer increases significantly with age and many cancers occur more commonly in developed countries. Rates are increasing as more people live to an old age and as lifestyle changes occur in the developing world. The financial costs of cancer were estimated at $1.16 trillion USD per year as of 2010.