Professor Marc Alber from the University of California, Riverside and Professor Sharon Slack from the University of Notre Dame have identified how Ovarian cancer spreads (1). In their latest study, published in Oncogene, the showed that a group of proteins called cadherins cause cancer cells to stick to new sites in the pelvis and peritoneum. The cancer releases either single cells or clusters of cells which are inflamed and the cadherins do the rest.
Cadherin dysfunction has long been linked to tumour progression and metastases (for example, ref 2, and, ref 3 with melanoma).
As usual with cancer, something has gone wrong. Previous research with lung cancer metastases (4) has looked at how problems with cadherins could be corrected naturally. The lung cancers concerned were described as ‘wound healing gone wrong’.
Three bioactive natural compounds were studied; none worked well on its own, but all three did work in combination. These natural compounds were:
- Shikonin, a component of zicao, Chinese herbal medicine already used in anti-cancer research studies on metastases.
- Notoginsenoside R 1 is the principal active component in panax ginseng.
- Aconitine which is a notorious Chinese herbal poison!
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