HALIFAX – Dalhousie researchers say two unlikely ingredients are showing some promise in the fight against an aggressive form of breast cancer: apple peels and fish oil.
Wasu Fernando, a Pathology Ph.D. candidate at Dalhousie’s Agricultural Campus in Bible Hill, N.S., and her supervisor Vasantha Rupasinghe, the Canada Research Chair in Bioactives and Bioproducrs, said the natural substances are producing promising results when it comes to triple negative breast cancer.
According to the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation, this form of cancer is estrogen receptor-negative, progesterone receptor-negative and HER2-negative, which means triple negative tumours do not respond to receptor targeted treatments or hormone therapies.
This type of cancer makes up between 10 to 20 per cent of breast cancers, however the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation notes it is particularly aggressive and responsible for a large proportion of breast cancer deaths.
Fernando said she is working on an anti-cancer compound made from apple peels and fish oil that could be used either intravenously or in a capsule.
“What will happen if you combine them together? Can we see results better than the compounds being used individually?” she said.
She adds that the qualities of both apple peels and fish oil complement one another when it comes to fighting the breast cancer.
Fernando said initial studies show the compound suppressed the growth of triple negative breast cancer cells in vitro and significant suppressed breast cancer tumours in mice.
“We saw the size of the tumour shrunk significant compared to a group that was not treated with the compound.”
Rupasinghe describes the two ingredients as having a symbiotic relationship.
“What is unique in this research is that we conjugated, we combine two molecules with two different physiological properties to create a normal molecule where each molecule actually supports the biological properties of the other molecule,” he said.
Rupasinghe said fish oil is normally susceptible to environmental conditions so the apple peel components help stabilize it in the compound while the fish oil components help the apple peel components get absorbed into the body and reach the targeted tissue.
“This simply is a kind of marriage between two individuals who are helping each other.”
The research is of interest to breast cancer survivors, including Verna Siteman-Burns, 55.
She was 49 years old when she first noticed symptoms of breast cancer.
Siteman-Burns noticed her left breast was swollen then a couple weeks later, she noticed the lump was much larger and feeling more uncomfortable.
A biopsy and ultrasound later confirmed she had triple negative breast cancer.
“They couldn’t operate. The tumour was too large. There was also a tumour under the breast wall and it had gone into my skin. It was localized inflammatory breast cancer,” she said.
Siteman-Burns underwent chemotherapy, a mastectomy and radiation.
While she said she would be cautiously optimistic about the research out of Dalhousie, she notes that any news about breast cancer research is good news.
“I really do think they’re going to find a cure.”
Fernando said more work needs to be done before the compound can be tested on humans.
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