{"id":6265,"date":"2025-08-30T19:59:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T02:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/?p=6265"},"modified":"2025-08-31T10:49:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T17:49:49","slug":"ovarian-cancer-csc-tcm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/en\/womens-health\/ovarian-cancer-csc-tcm\/","title":{"rendered":"The discovery of ovarian cancer stem cells and supportive treatment with Chinese medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Author: Lai Rongyan, a physician integrating Western and Chinese medicine <br>Chief Advisor of Yanghe Chinese Medicine<br>General Director of Ai Gang Medical Group<br>Former Vice President of the Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University \/ Former Professor of China Medical University&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"666\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_4127-666x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Dr Lai\" class=\"wp-image-6241\" style=\"width:139px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common malignant tumor among women. Due to the highly heterogeneous nature of ovarian cancer cells and the lack of reliable early detection methods, despite the continuous development of chemotherapy and surgical techniques in recent years, ovarian cancer patients usually respond initially to platinum\/taxane chemotherapy, but most patients develop resistant tumors within one and a half years after treatment and deteriorate with conditions such as cancer recurrence and metastasis. Therefore, up to seventy percent of ovarian cancer patients cannot survive for more than five years, which makes ovarian cancer a highly lethal gynecologic malignancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key role of ovarian cancer stem cells (CSC)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2005, scientists, while studying the high mortality rate of ovarian cancer, for the first time confirmed the presence of ovarian cancer stem cells (CSCs) in the abdominal fluid of patients with ovarian cancer. Increasing research evidence suggests that drugs that can eliminate all subsets of ovarian cancer stem cells (CSCs) can demonstrate therapeutic effects in inhibiting ovarian cancer cell growth, reducing drug resistance, recurrence rates, and metastasis, regardless of whether they are tested in vitro or in vivo. Therefore, ovarian cancer stem cells (CSCs) originating from ovarian and\/or fallopian tube epithelial cells have become a focus of research in the treatment of ovarian cancer drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most researchers believe that repeated damage and repair during the ovulation process leads to the accumulation of mutated epithelial stem cells on the surface of the ovary (including p53 mutations), or causes mutations in genes that originally suppress ovarian cancer (TP53 and Rb1) due to various reasons, which subsequently transform into ovarian cancer stem cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\u622a\u5716-2025-08-30-\u4e0b\u53487.57.47.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\u622a\u5716-2025-08-30-\u4e0b\u53487.57.47.png 650w, https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\u622a\u5716-2025-08-30-\u4e0b\u53487.57.47-300x175.png 300w, https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\u622a\u5716-2025-08-30-\u4e0b\u53487.57.47-18x12.png 18w, https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\u622a\u5716-2025-08-30-\u4e0b\u53487.57.47-480x281.png 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenges and bottlenecks in precision therapy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The evolved subgroups of CSCs possess different cell surface and intracellular biomarkers, and also exhibit heterogeneity characteristics among the subgroups of cancer cells. The advantage is that scientists can target the cell surface biomarkers of each subgroup of CSCs with specific antibodies or small molecule drugs, effectively inhibiting tumor growth. Additionally, targeting intracellular biomarkers associated with CSCs (such as ALDH1, Autotaxin, Oct4, Sox2, Nanog, Hif1a, etc.) can also be reduced by small molecule inhibitors or gene deletion, thereby reducing the growth and survival of ovarian subgroups of cancer cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, due to the heterogeneity within the individual subgroups of cancer cells, no universal biomarker has yet been discovered that can simultaneously target all subgroups of cancer cells. Therefore, in the complex situation of the individual subgroups of ovarian cancer, current treatment, although precise, can only temporarily target the most common subtypes.<strong>Dual targeting<\/strong>Therapeutic strategies are developed and temporary therapeutic effects are achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Without the presence of residual sub-groups of cancer cells that have not yet been completely eradicated, they will continue to proliferate through complex mechanisms.<strong>Tumor-related signaling pathways<\/strong>(tumor-associated macrophage, epithelial-mesenchymal transition) and<strong>Tumor microenvironment<\/strong>The interaction between the tumor microenvironment and the development of next-generation sub-populations of cancer cells with resistance to treatment creates a more favorable microenvironment for tumor metastasis. This is also the reason why ovarian cancer is the fifth most common and highly lethal malignant tumor in women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The potential of complementary and alternative medicine in supportive treatment<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While studying various therapeutic drugs, a series of herbal ingredients were found to significantly inhibit the self-renewal and proliferation of ovarian cancer stem cells and significantly reduce the expression of their surface biomarkers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Similar\u00a0<strong>\u03b3-secretase inhibitors<\/strong>(gamma-secretase inhibitor), which can inhibit the Notch tumor signaling pathway.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Added into platinum-based ovarian cancer cell therapy<strong>Cinnamic aldehyde<\/strong>Eugenol can effectively inhibit the growth of ovarian cancer stem cells and eliminate drug resistance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Tea extract<\/strong>Polyphenolic compounds can downregulate the expression of various proteins.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Reishi saponin Rb1<\/strong>and its metabolic products<strong>K compound<\/strong>Compound K can effectively inhibit the self-renewal of ovarian cancer stem cells.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, because these individual active ingredients lack integration, they often lead to confusion among patients with ovarian cancer regarding how to combine them to comprehensively consider the patient\u2019s overall condition while simultaneously blocking the pathways through which residual sub-group cancer cells attempt to escape by signaling related to tumors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Traditional \"Dianchaongzhi\"<strong>The holistic body-type concept of traditional Chinese medicine not only enables the formulation of anti-cancer prescription formulas tailored to ovarian cancer patients, but also includes ingredients that can be used to produce<\/strong>Ginseng saponin K<strong>\u7684<\/strong>Three Seven**<strong>Chinese knot<\/strong>Add rich in<strong>Quercetin from Ginkgo biloba<\/strong>(Genistein)<strong>Gegen<\/strong>Including<strong>Cinnamic aldehyde<\/strong>(eugenol)<strong>Rosemary<\/strong>Wait, these medicinal herbs can inhibit ovarian cancer cell proliferation and induce apoptosis. This provides a better treatment model that can be combined with platinum\/cisplatin chemotherapy and dual-targeted therapy, providing more comprehensive care for ovarian cancer patients.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u4f5c\u8005\uff1a\u8cf4\u69ae\u5e74&nbsp;\u4e2d\u897f\u91ab\u6574\u5408\u91ab\u5e2b \u990a\u548c\u4e2d\u91ab\u9996\u5e2d\u9867\u554f\u611b\u7fa4\u91ab\u7642\u6a5f\u69cb\u7e3d\u9662\u9577\u524d\u4e2d\u570b\u91ab\u85e5\u5927\u5b78\u9644\u8a2d\u91ab\u9662\u526f\u9662\u9577 \/ \u524d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fertility","category-womens-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6265"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6268,"href":"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6265\/revisions\/6268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acupotter.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}