Tocotrienols in Pancreatic Cancer Treatment and Prevention

Oxidative stress is a documented factor in the pathogenesis of inflammation and cancer. Vitamin E with its antioxidant properties holds promise for use in clinical practice. There are two main forms of vitamin E, tocopherols and tocotrienols. Palm oil contains almost 70% of tocotrienols. Tocotrienols exerts its antiproliferative activity against malignant cells but not on normal cells. Tocotrienols play an important role in counteracting cellular inflammatory response secondary to oxidative stress, thus exerting an anticancer property. Tocotrienols mediate function of NF-kappa B, STAT3 (signal transduction and activators), and COX-2. In addition to its role as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent, tocotrienols also mediate multiple cell cycle pathways. More work needs to be done on animal models and in genetic models of pancreatic cancer to gather more data to eventually consider phase III clinical trial in human subjects