2.12. Xenograft Tumor Growth

HepG2 cells (4 × 10⁶ in 125 μL PBS) were subcutaneously injected into 5-week-old BALB/c nude mice. About one week later, the mice with tumors were randomly divided into 4 groups, with 8 mice per group. The mice were orally administrated with aspirin (100 mg/kg/day), berbamine (50 mg/kg/day) or both as previously described [7,8,9,13,33]. The control group was treated with a vehicle. Tumor size was measured every 3 days. Tumor volume (v) was calculated using the formula: v = (length × width²)/2. Twenty-six days after inoculation of cancer cells, all mice were sacrificed. The tumors were collected and stored for subsequent analysis. All procedures adhered to the guidelines approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of the West China Hospital of Sichuan University (approval No. 2020227A).