Carcinogenesis
Carcinogenesis
5 years ago

Melatonin as a Promising Agent to Treat Ovarian Cancer: Molecular Mechanisms.

Lupi Júnior LA, Reiter RJ, Chuffa LGA
Ovarian cancer (OC) has the highest mortality rate of all gynecological cancers, and most patients develop chemoresistance after first-line treatments. Despite recent advances, the 5-year relative survival is approximately 45% for all OC subtypes, and invasive epithelial OC has only a 17% survival rate when diagnosed at a late stage. Identification of new efficacious molecules or biomarkers represents important opportunities in the treatment of OC. The pharmacological and physiological properties of melatonin indicate this agent could be useful against OC progression and metastasis. In normal cells, melatonin has potent antioxidant and antiapoptotic actions. Conversely, melatonin has pro-oxidant as well as antiproliferative, antiangiogenic, and immunomodulatory properties in many cancer types including hormone-dependent cancers. Although melatonin receptors have been identified in OC cells, the exact mechanism by which melatonin induces anticancer activities remains incompletely understood. Clinical studies have reported negative correlation between aggressiveness of OC and serum levels of melatonin, reinforcing the idea that melatonin may be a critical factor determining OC development. In vitro and in vivo studies suggest melatonin differentially regulates multiple signaling pathways in OC cells. This focused review explores the potential mechanisms of action of melatonin on cultured OC cells and in experimental models of OC in an attempt to clarify how melatonin modulates the signaling pathways involved in cancer cell apoptosis, survival, inflammation, proliferation, and metabolic processes. Based on the evidence presented, we feel that melatonin, as an agent that controls cellular signals associated with malignancy, may be beneficial in combination with other therapeutics for OC treatment.

Publisher URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28575150

DOI: PubMed:28575150

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.