LUNG CANCER

The conventional treatments of cancer like chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation have failed to eradicate lung cancer completely. In a report by World Health Organisation (WHO), dated 12 September 2018, it was observed that 1.8 million deaths happened due to Lung cancer that year which is the largest number as compared to other cancers! Henceforth it won’t be wrong to say that lung cancer is the deadliest cancer. In the pursuit to fight cancer, researchers have discovered Tocotrienol which is supposed to exhibit anti-cancer activities. Several studies have been conducted over Annatto based Tocotrienol (DeltaGold-Eannatto). One such study, ‘Delta-Tocotrienol inhibits non-small lung cancer cell invasion via the inhibition of NF-kb, uPA activator, and MMP-9’, was conducted where it was observed that Delta-Tocotrienol attenuated tumor invasion and metastasis by the repression of MMP-9/uPA via downregulation of Notch-1 and NF-kB pathways and upregulation of miR-451. The data also suggested that Delta-Tocotrienol may have potential therapeutic benefit against NSCLC metastasis.

Why Tocotrienol?

Antioxidants

Antioxidants,especially Tocotrienol was observed to exhibit anti-cancer activity against lung cancer cells.

Angiogenesis

Angiogenesis which is the process of formation of blood vessels in cancer cells like in your brain cancer. Tocotrienol promotes cancer cell death to a very great extent and good results of anti-angiogenesis property of Tocotrienols have been observed against lung cancer cells in the study.

Apoptosis

Apoptosis or programmed cell death is the process of elimination and death of cancer cells. All isoforms of Tocotrienols have been observed to induce apoptosis in lung cancer cells through the activation of caspase-8 and mitochondrial cyt.c release. Tocotrienol was also reported to induce apoptosis in human lung adenocarcinoma that harbors Ras mutation.

Cell Proliferation

Cell Proliferation is the process by which cancer cells copy their DNA and multiply into more cancer cells and thus leading to the spreading of cancer. Delta Tocotrienol has been observed to possess maximum anti-proliferative characteristics against HCC cells by upregulating peroxiredoxin-4. Although other isoforms of Tocotrienol also were observed to have commendable anti-proliferative characteristics.

Cell Proliferation

Cell Proliferation is the process by which cancer cells copy their DNA and divide into two cancer cells during mitosis and rapidly multiply into more cancer cells. It was observed that Delta-Tocotrienol inhibited lung cancer cell proliferation, induce cancer cell death and prevented cell cancer invasion.

Chemopreventionand

Chemopreventionand anti-cancer activity against lung cancer have been observed in Tocotrienols. Delta-Tocotrienol was observed to exert anti-cancer activity in lung cancer by elevating microRNA, miR-34a, that led to the downregulation of Notch-1 and its downstream targets such as Bcl-2, cyclin D1, and survivin. Moreover, it was also observed that a redox-silent analogue of Alpha-Tocotrienol, 6-O-carboxypropyl-alpha-tocotrienol was found to possess higher anti-cancer potential than Tocotrienol in A549 lung cancer cells.

Hypoxia adaptation

Hypoxia adaptation of lung cancer cells was observed to be suppressed by Tocotrienol through the inhibition of Src-induced Akt activation and decreased HIF-2 alpha.

Dosage

Under the study, 900 mg/day of Tocotrienols were used to treat lung cancer cells and no adverse effects were observed and the death of breast cancer cells was witnessed.

Why Tocotrienol and Not Tocopherol?

Tocopherol, the enemy of Tocotrienol

Tocopherol has been observed to attenuate lung cancer inhibition, inhibits absorption, reduces adipose storage, and compromises cholesterol and triglyceride reduction. Tocopherol hinders the functioning of Tocotrienol and even when they are consumed simultaneously, Tocopherol obstructs all the functions of Tocotrienol.

Tocotrienol, the protector of State

Tocotrienol, the protector of State: Tocotrienol has more mobility than Tocopherol due to its small structure so it can cover a larger area targeting more number of lung cancer cells.

Small structure and less molecular weight

Small structure and less molecular weight: The higher anti-oxidant activity of Tocotrienols is due to their small structure and less molecular weight which assist in their integration of the cell, unlike Tocopherols.

Tocopherol, the antagonist in liver cancer treatment

Tocopherol, the antagonist in liver cancer treatment: It has been observed that Tocopherol not only interfered with the functioning of Tocotrienol but also showed harmful effects during the treatment.

References