Scientists derive new agent for treatment of skin cancer

A new experimental study by Dhiraj Kumar and his colleagues from Dr. Gopal C Kundu’s group from India’s premier cancer research laboratory-National Centre for Cell Science, Pune-showed that highly chemoresistant skin cancer (melanoma) stem cells are responsible for tumor relapse and invasion of secondary organs (metastasis).

The researchers have shown that andrographolide (andro), isolated and purified from the extract of andrographis paniculata (a herb native to the Indian peninsula) effectively inhibits melanoma growth and lung metastasis by targeting melanoma stem cells. This study has recently been published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
Melanoma is a form of malignant skin cancer that becomes dreadful when the cancer cells infiltrate to secondary organs like lungs. Interestingly, andrographolide is more effective against cancer stem cells in melanoma than other known drugs such as dacarbazine, doxorubicin, trametinib and debrafenib, which are used routinely for melanoma treatment.

Notably, the Government of India has recently approved two next generation cancer drugs. One is keytruda from Merck and the other is opdivo from Bristol-Myers Squibb. These clinical agents are engineered blocking antibodies meant for amelioration of complications associated with advanced melanoma, lung cancer, etc.

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Till date, there is hardly any agent/drug that has been shown to specifically target the cancer stem cell population in melanoma. Currently, andrographolide is in the process of clinical trial in combination with capecitabine for the treatment of colorectal cancer by a Chinese group.

Thus, substantial experimental evidences from the current study indicate that andrographolide has therapeutic potential for the management of cancer stem cell-mediated melanoma growth and lung metastasis.