Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Dec 12, 2025 1 hour, 12 minutes ago
Medical News: A Natural Compound Shows Promise Against Aggressive Breast Cancer
A new scientific discovery is offering hope for patients battling one of the most dangerous forms of breast cancer. Researchers from the Department of Science in Korean Medicine and the Department of Cancer Preventive Material Development at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea, have found that a phytochemical called rhapontigenin may help shut down a process that allows triple-negative breast cancer to grow and spread rapidly. This
Medical News report highlights how this compound disrupts a harmful chain reaction triggered by the obesity-linked hormone leptin, which is known to worsen cancer outcomes. Rhapontigenin is a stilbenoid is found in plants like Vitis coignetiae or from Gnetum cleistostachyum.
Natural compound rhapontigenin shows potential in slowing aggressive breast cancer growth.
Understanding How Cancer Creates Its Own Fake Blood Vessels
Triple-negative breast cancer, or TNBC, lacks the usual receptors doctors target with common treatments. This makes it harder to control and more likely to spread. One of its survival tricks is vasculogenic mimicry, a process where cancer cells build fake blood-vessel-like channels to feed themselves. The new findings show that leptin, a hormone found in higher amounts in people with obesity, plays a major role by activating a protein called STAT3. Once activated, STAT3 increases levels of another protein, aquaporin-1, which helps cancer cells become more invasive and form these vessel-like networks.
Rhapontigenin Interrupts the Cancer Feeding Chain
The study demonstrated that rhapontigenin, at safe and non-toxic levels, sharply reduced the harmful effects caused by leptin. It lowered the production of aquaporin-1 and blocked STAT3 from switching on genes that fuel cancer aggressiveness. In laboratory experiments, cancer cells exposed to leptin became far more invasive and created dense, branching tube-like structures. But when rhapontigenin was added, both invasion and vessel formation dropped dramatically. The compound also reduced the activity of key proteins such as VE-cadherin, LAMC2 and MMP-2—molecules that help cancer cells break tissues and build networks needed for tumor expansion.
What These Findings Mean for Future Treatment
The research suggests that rhapontigenin may one day serve as a helpful addition to treatment strategies for TNBC, especially in patients whose obesity-related hormone changes worsen their disease. By blocking several steps in the leptin–STAT3–AQP1 pathway, the compound targets cancer growth at its roots. While more studies are required, including animal and human testing, the early results show strong potential. These findings also open the door to combined treatments where rhapontigenin could work alongside existing anti-cancer drugs to overcome resistance and slow tumor spread. The results underscore the growing recognition that natural compounds may provide new tools against complex cancers.
The study findings were published in the p
eer reviewed journal: Biomedicines.
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/13/12/3000
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Read Also:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/herbs-and-phytochemicals
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/cancer
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