Lin, X.D., et al. Natural Compounds as Potential Therapeutics for Pancreatic Cancer: A Narrative Review. Curr Drug Metab, 2025 Sep 30.

Lin, X.D., et al. Natural Compounds as Potential Therapeutics for Pancreatic Cancer: A Narrative Review. Curr Drug Metab, 2025 Sep 30. PMID: 41031495

• The goal of this review is to comprehensively summarize recent research on natural compounds as potential therapeutics for pancreatic cancer (PC), highlighting their mechanisms of action, therapeutic potential, and the challenges faced in their clinical application. Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal malignancy with a very low 5-year survival rate, largely due to its aggressive nature, late diagnosis, and resistance to conventional therapies. Although current treatments like chemotherapy offer limited benefits and are often associated with severe adverse effects, natural compounds, such as polyphenols, saponins, and alkaloids, have demonstrated promising anti-tumor activities, including inhibiting tumor growth, inducing apoptosis, and modulating tumor microenvironment factors, such as the gut microbiota and metabolism.
  
• The paper highlight the potential of natural compounds, particularly polyphenols, saponins, and alkaloids, as promising therapeutics for pancreatic cancer (PC). These compounds exhibit multiple anticancer mechanisms, including inhibiting tumor cell growth, inducing apoptosis, preventing angiogenesis, and modulating the tumor microenvironment. The review emphasizes that many natural compounds act via complex, multi-target pathways, such as STAT6, PI3K/AKT/mTOR, and Hedgehog signaling, which are involved in pancreatic tumor progression.

• Despite their potential, significant hurdles remain, including poor bioavailability, target identification, and formulation issues, which hinder their translation into effective clinical therapies. Therefore, this review explores the current state of research and future directions, emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary collaboration and advanced technologies to overcome existing barriers and realize the therapeutic promise of natural compounds against PC.

Click here to access the full scientific paper.