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“To summarize, our present study establishes PE as a potent inhibitor of the growth of human pancreatic cancer in vitro with a greater efficacy than current chemotherapeutics.
Not only does ellagic acid and pomegranate extract inhibit pancreatic cancer cells but, according to the studies below, they work better than common chemotherapies. Don’t misunderstand me, I think there is a place for “standard-of-care” chemotherapy such as gemcitabine in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
I can make a serious case for the integration of conventional chemo with curcumin, EGCG, and ellagic acid for the pancreatic cancer patient in an effort to shrink the tumor to a small enough size for it to be removed (Whipple).
The articles linked and excerpted below point out that because conventional oncology has little to offer pancreatic cancer patients, patients must think about both evidence-based non-conventional therapies such as ellagic acid and pomegranate extract as well as integrative therapies such as curcumin that have been shown to be cytotoxic to pancreatic cancer as well as enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy.
“Ellagic acid was previously shown to have anticarcinogenic, antioxidant and antifibrosis properties. The anticarcinogenic effect of ellagic acid was shown in several types of cancers including skin, esophageal, and colon cancers. However, the mechanisms mediating anti-cancer effect of ellagic acid, in general, remain unknown.
A research article published on 21 June 2008, in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Dr. Edderkaoui from West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center showed that Ellagic acid increases programmed cell death and decrease proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells.
They showed that the mechanism through which ellagic acid causes cell death is through decreasing the activity of the pro-survival transcription factor NF-kB. The compound does not affect mitochondria. The results presented in this article shows for the first time how this polyphenol regulates cancer cell proliferation and resistance to death and may help surpass the resistance of these cells to radio and chemotherapies.”
“To summarize, our present study establishes PE, for the first time, as a potent inhibitor of the growth of human pancreatic epithelial cancer in vitro with a greater efficacy than current chemotherapeutics. Our data indicate that PE acts through mechanisms that target cell cycle progression. Furthermore, PE targets those subpopulations of cells in heterogeneous tumors most likely to cause a recurrence of the tumor, the pancreatic cancer stem cell…”
