While cancer care continues to advance, significant challenges remain. Many patients continue to experience issues such as drug resistance, adverse effects, and multiple treatment limitations. For this reason, it remains critical to search for new cancer treatment modalities and ways to better care for patients. Some of these solutions may lie in herbal medicine, repurposed drugs, and G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).
Although herbs should not be considered cancer treatments, they are rich sources of small molecules. These small molecules can influence cellular growth, chemical signaling, and stress responses. For this reason, plant-derived compounds should not be disregarded. Compounds of recent interest in cancer research include curcumin from turmeric, celastrol, and triptolide. These compounds influence pathways associated with inflammation, cellular death, and the tumor microenvironment. The message is not that all herbs are potential medicines, but rather that medicinal herbs can help generate better drug discovery questions.
Similarly, drug repurposing is a valuable option. This involves investigating a new therapeutic indication for a drug already approved for another purpose. This is particularly important in cancer because many drugs approved for non-cancer indications influence pathways involved in tumor metabolism, inflammation, and cell survival. Statins and metformin are two examples of drugs currently being investigated in cancer research. Here, GPCRs are valuable. GPCRs, or G protein-coupled receptors, are cell-surface signaling receptors.
Almost one-third of FDA-approved drugs target GPCRs. In cancer research, GPCRs are of interest because certain GPCR signaling pathways can become involved in cellular growth, immune signaling, and interactions between tumor cells and surrounding tissues. They are part of signaling networks that regulate when cells become active, how they adjust their activity, or whether they remain continuously active.
When these concepts are integrated, they raise interesting research questions. Can a natural product act on a GPCR-mediated signaling pathway? Can a previously approved drug act on the same pathway from a different perspective? If the answer is affirmative in laboratory studies, this could provide a starting point for testing new combinations or developing more targeted treatment strategies. This is not a shortcut to treatment. Most early discoveries do not progress to clinical use. However, they provide a strong foundation for developing more meaningful therapeutic strategies.
This approach also relates to Integrative Oncology. Integrative Oncology refers to the use of evidence-informed complementary therapies alongside conventional cancer treatments to improve symptom management, well-being, and the overall patient experience. Integrative Oncology does not replace therapeutic approaches such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or immunotherapy. Its purpose is to combine the science of supportive care with patient-centered care. This is particularly important because when the general public is exposed to the terms ‘natural’ and ‘alternative’, they often assume they mean the same thing.
Cancer research is not solely about creating a brand-new molecule. It highlights the importance of asking innovative research questions. Can we identify a novel target using a phytochemical? Can an older drug be repurposed for use in cancer? Can we bridge discovery with an advanced understanding of cell signaling and patient care?
As precision oncology continues to evolve, combining molecular profiling with drug repurposing and natural-product discovery may help identify more personalized therapeutic strategies for individual patients.
The future of cancer care will be built on the foundation of strong clinical research; however, the road to that research may take some unconventional pathways. It may begin with a focused research question, a familiar drug, a plant-derived compound, or a cellular receptor. That is why this research area is both timely and relevant.
Dr. Asmaa Abu Obaid
Assistant Professor in Molecular Biology and Genetics
Department of Biomedical Sciences
College of Health Sciences
References
- Xia, Y., Sun, M., Huang, H., et al. (2024). Drug repurposing for cancer therapy. Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, 9, 92. doi:10.1038/s41392-024-01808-1
- Zhang, M., Chen, T., Lu, X., et al. (2024). G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs): advances in structures, mechanisms, and drug discovery. Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, 9, 88. doi:10.1038/s41392-024-01803-6
- Mao, J. J., Ismaila, N., Bao, T., et al. (2022). Integrative Medicine for Pain Management in Oncology: Society for Integrative Oncology-ASCO Guideline. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 40(34), 3998–4024. doi:10.1200/JCO.22.01357