Cancer
Medical Studies on Melatonin – Cancer
There have been studies on melatonin as an effective anti-cancer hormone for several decades. It has been demonstrated to alleviate the symptoms of the early-stage, progression and metastasis phases and have a positive impact on the course of the disease. The anti-oxidative and immunoregulatory properties of melatonin and its effect on tumour-specific cell division are responsible for this.
Melatonin inhibits tumour growth
As a “natural killer”, melatonin plays a key role in the uncontrolled growth of cells. Specifically, it reduces the cell division rate, for example by reducing telomerase activity, which results in the programmed cell death of the tumour cells. The researchers also found that melatonin possesses the ability to affect angiogenesis, which is the growth and formation of blood vessels that supply the tumour with oxygen and nutrients, thus facilitating its growth.
An effective accompaniment to therapy
The supportive effect of melatonin during conventional cancer treatments is also proven – for instance, the often toxic consequences of radiotherapy or chemotherapy can be mitigated using melatonin while also enhancing its effectiveness – according to the results of many studies. Studies have also shown that melatonin can affect the treatment resistance of some tumours, making them more susceptible to chemotherapy.
Medical Studies on Melatonin – Cancer
The rationale for treating uveal melanoma with adjuvant melatonin: a review of the literature
Uveal melanoma is a rare form of cancer with high mortality. The incidence of metastases is attributed to early seeding of micrometastases from the eye to distant organs, primarily the liver. Once these seeded clusters of dormant tumor cells grow into larger radiologically detectable macrometastases, median patient survival is about 1 year. Melatonin is an important hormone for synchronizing circadian rhythms. It is also involved in other aspects of human physiology and may offer therapeutic benefits for a variety of diseases including cancer.
Use of Melatonin in Cancer Treatment: Where Are We?
Cancer represents a large group of diseases accounting for nearly 10 million deaths each year. Various treatment strategies, including surgical resection combined with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, have been applied for cancer treatment. However, the outcomes remain largely unsatisfying.
Melatonin: Regulation of Prion Protein Phase Separation in Cancer Multidrug Resistance
The unique ability to adapt and thrive in inhospitable, stressful tumor microenvironments (TME) also renders cancer cells resistant to traditional chemotherapeutic treatments and/or novel pharmaceuticals.
Melatonergic index as a prognostic biomarker of reproductive organ cancers: correlations with metabolic parameters as well as clock genes PER1 and TIMELESS
Cancers of the reproductive organs are often hard to be detected, and patients’ survival rate drops considerably even when the tumor is removed.
Blood melatonin level can serve as a potential biomarker for prostate and hepatocellular carcinomas
Many systemic functions display circadian rhythms driven by an endogenous mechanism that is regulated by circadian-related genes and these gene expressions control a central clock in the brain and subordinate clocks in peripheral tissues. However, modern life has introduced environmental factors that often interfere with natural circadian rhythms. Importantly, circadian disruption has been identified as an independent risk factor of cancers.
Anti-Warburg Effect of Melatonin: A Proposed Mechanism to Explain its Inhibition of Multiple Diseases
Glucose is an essential nutrient for every cell but its metabolic fate depends on cellular phenotype. Normally, the product of cytosolic glycolysis, pyruvate, is transported into mitochondria and irreversibly converted to acetyl coenzyme A by pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC).
The role of melatonin in colorectal cancer treatment: a comprehensive review
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common types of cancer worldwide, known as the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths annually.
Melatonin as a Radio-Sensitizer in Cancer
Radiotherapy is one of the treatments of choice in many types of cancer. Adjuvant treatments to radiotherapy try, on one hand, to enhance the response of tumor cells to radiation and, on the other hand, to reduce the side effects to normal cells.
Melatonin Inhibits COVID-19-induced Cytokine Storm by Reversing Aerobic Glycolysis in Immune Cells: A Mechanistic Analysis
The pathogenesis of a COVID-19 respiratory infection, in a major way, is related to what is referred to as the cytokine storm [cytokine storm syndrome (CSS, hypercytokinemia, etc.], i.e., it is a hyper-inflammatory response.
Melatonin in Mitochondria: Mitigating Clear and Present Dangers.
In cancer cells, glucose is primarily metabolized to pyruvate and then to lactate in the cytosol.
Clinical Impact of Melatonin on Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy; Effects on Cognition, Sleep and Depressive Symptoms: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.
This randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial tested the hypothesis that 20mg of melatonin before and during the first cycle of adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer (ACBC) reduced the side effects associated with cognitive impairment.
PAK1-blockers: Potential Therapeutics against COVID-19.
PAK1 (RAC/CDC42-activated kinase 1) is the major "pathogenic" kinase whose abnormal activation causes a wide variety of diseases/disorders including cancers, inflammation, malaria and pandemic viral infection including influenza, HIV and COVID-19.
Melatonin a Promising Candidate for DNA Double-Stranded Breaks Reduction in Patients Undergoing Abdomen-Pelvis Computed Tomography Examinations.
Cancer incidence is 24% greater in children and young adults exposed to Computed Tomography (CT) scans than those unexposed. Non-repair of ionizing radiation-induced DNA double-Strand Breaks (DSBs) can initiate carcinogenesis. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the radioprotective potential of melatonin against DSBs in peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients undergoing the abdomen-pelvis CT examinations.
Effect of Melatonin Supplementation in Combination With Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy to miR-210 and CD44 Expression and Clinical Response Improvement in Locally Advanced Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity (OSCC) is the sixth most common malignancy. Surgery is mainstay treatment for oral cancers. Surgery in locally advanced OSCC presents many challenges primarily because the head and neck have critical structures that can be damaged by tumor or treatment.
Melatonin: A new inhibitor agent for cervical cancer treatment.
Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers between women and is known as the third leading cause of female cancer related deaths annually. Its detection in early stages allows it to be a preventable and generally treatable disease.
Melatonin and its ubiquitous anticancer effects.
Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxy-tryptamine), which is generally considered as pleiotropic and multitasking molecule, secretes from pineal gland at night under normal light or dark conditions. Apart from circadian regulations, Melatonin also has antioxidant, anti-ageing, immunomodulation and anticancer properties.
The Effects of Melatonin on the Descending Pain Inhibitory System and Neural Plasticity Markers in Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy: Randomized, Double-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled Trial.
Adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer (ACBC) has been associated with fatigue, pain, depressive symptoms, and disturbed sleep. And, previous studies in non-cancer patients showed that melatonin could improve the descending pain modulatory system (DPMS).
Melatonin and (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate: Partners in Fighting Cancer.
We have demonstrated previously that melatonin attenuates hepatotoxicity triggered by high doses of (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) in mice. The current work investigated the influence of melatonin on the oncostatic activity of EGCG in two cancer cell lines, wherein melatonin induced an opposite response of p21.
Night-shift work, circadian and melatonin pathway related genes and their interaction on breast cancer risk: evidence from a case-control study in Korean women.
Our purpose is to investigate the impact of circadian and melatonin pathway genes as well as their interactions with night-shift work (NSW) on breast cancer risk in Korean women.
Co-administering Melatonin With an Estradiol-Progesterone Menopausal Hormone Therapy Represses Mammary Cancer Development in a Mouse Model of HER2-Positive Breast Cancer.
Melatonin has numerous anti-cancer properties reported to influence cancer initiation, promotion, and metastasis. With the need for effective hormone therapies (HT) to treat menopausal symptoms without increasing breast cancer risk, co-administration of nocturnal melatonin with a natural, low-dose HT was evaluated in mice that develop primary and metastatic mammary cancer.
Melatonin: Countering Chaotic Time Cues.
Last year melatonin was 60 years old, or at least its discovery was 60 years ago. The molecule itself may well be almost as old as life itself. So it is time to take yet another perspective on our understanding of its functions, effects and clinical uses.
New Insights Into the Circadian Rhythm and Its Related Diseases.
Circadian rhythms (CR) are a series of endogenous autonomous oscillators generated by the molecular circadian clock which acting on coordinating internal time with the external environment in a 24-h daily cycle.
Melatonin and pancreatic cancer: Current knowledge and future perspectives.
Pancreatic cancer has a high mortality rate due to the absence of early symptoms and subsequent late diagnosis; additionally, pancreatic cancer has a high resistance to radio- and chemotherapy. Multiple inflammatory pathways are involved in the pathophysiology of pancreatic cancer.
Melatonin and non-small cell lung cancer: new insights into signaling pathways.
Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a type of malignancy with progressive metastasis having poor prognosis and lowered survival resulting from late diagnosis. The therapeutic approaches for the treatment of this incurable cancer are chemo- and radiotherapy.
Melatonin is a potential inhibitor of ovarian cancer: molecular aspects.
Ovarian cancer is one of the most common causes of morbidity related to gynecologic malignancies. Possible risk factors are including hereditary ovarian cancer, obesity, diabetes mellitus, alcohol consumption, aging, and smoking.
Mechanisms Underlying Tumor Suppressive Properties of Melatonin.
There is considerable evidence that melatonin may be of use in the prevention and treatment of cancer. This manuscript will review some of the human, animal and cellular studies that provide evidence that melatonin has oncostatic properties.
Melatonin and Fertoprotective Adjuvants: Prevention against Premature Ovarian Failure during Chemotherapy.
Premature ovarian failure is one of the side effects of chemotherapy in pre-menopausal cancer patients. Preservation of fertility has become increasingly important in improving the quality of life of completely recovered cancer patients.
Melatonin, a Full Service Anti-Cancer Agent: Inhibition of Initiation, Progression and Metastasis.
There is highly credible evidence that melatonin mitigates cancer at the initiation, progression and metastasis phases. In many cases, the molecular mechanisms underpinning these inhibitory actions have been proposed. What is rather perplexing, however, is the large number of processes by which melatonin reportedly restrains cancer development and growth.
Melatonin as an antioxidant: under promises but over delivers.
Melatonin is uncommonly effective in reducing oxidative stress under a remarkably large number of circumstances. It achieves this action via a variety of means: direct detoxification of reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species and indirectly by stimulating antioxidant enzymes while suppressing the activity of pro-oxidant enzymes.
Efficacy of Melatonin in Prevention of Radiation-Induced Oral Mucositis: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Evaluating the effectiveness of melatonin in prevention of radiation-induced oral mucositis.
Clinical uses of melatonin: evaluation of human trials.
During the last 20 years, numerous clinical trials have examined the therapeutic usefulness of melatonin in different fields of medicine. The objective of this article is to review, in depth, the science regarding clinical trials performed to date.
Basic mechanisms involved in the anti-cancer effects of melatonin.
It is commonly accepted that melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine), the most relevant pineal secretory product, has oncostatic properties in a wide variety of tumors and, especially, in those identified as being hormonedependent.
Melatonin: action as antioxidant and potential applications in human disease and aging.
This review aims at describing the beneficial properties of melatonin related to its antioxidant effects. Oxidative stress, i.e., an imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen species and antioxidant defences, is involved in several pathological conditions such as cardiovascular or neurological disease, and in aging. Therefore, research for antioxidants has developed. However, classical antioxidants often failed to exhibit beneficial effects, especially in metabolic diseases.
Melatonin induces pro-apoptotic signaling pathway in human pancreatic carcinoma cells (PANC-1).
Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal disease with a poor prognosis for long-term survival rate at all stages of invasiveness. It responds poorly to radio- and chemotherapy because the tumor cells are resistant to apoptosis.
Sleep duration, melatonin and breast cancer among Chinese women in Singapore.
Sleep duration has been hypothesized to be inversely associated with breast cancer risk, possibly due to greater overall melatonin production in longer sleepers. However, data are inconclusive from the three studies conducted in Western populations on sleep duration and breast cancer risk.
Urinary 6-sulfatoxymelatonin levels and risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.
Low urinary melatonin levels have been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women. However, the association between melatonin levels and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women remains unclear.
Melatonin inhibits both ER alpha activation and breast cancer cell proliferation induced by a metalloestrogen, cadmium.
Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal affecting human health both through environmental and occupational exposure. There is evidence that Cd accumulates in several organs and is carcinogenic to humans.