Ekeuku SO, Etim EP, Pang KL, Chin KY, Mai CW. Vitamin E in the management of pancreatic cancer: A scoping review. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2023; 15(6): 943-958 [PMID: 37389119 DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v15.i6.943]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Chun-Wai Mai, BPharm, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UCSI University, No. 1, Jalan Menara Gading, UCSI Heights (Taman Connaught), Cheras, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia. mai.chunwai@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jun 15, 2023; 15(6): 943-958 Published online Jun 15, 2023. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v15.i6.943
Vitamin E in the management of pancreatic cancer: A scoping review
Sophia Ogechi Ekeuku, Effiong Paul Etim, Kok-Lun Pang, Kok-Yong Chin, Chun-Wai Mai
Sophia Ogechi Ekeuku, Kok-Yong Chin, Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia
Effiong Paul Etim, Faculty of Applied Sciences, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia
Kok-Lun Pang, Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia, Iskandar Puteri 79200, Johor, Malaysia
Kok-Yong Chin, Chun-Wai Mai, State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Renji-Med X Clinical Stem Cell Research Center, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200127, China
Chun-Wai Mai, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia
Author contributions: Ekeuku SO, Etim EP, Pang KL, Chin KY, Mai CW were involved in the data collection and validation; Ekeuku SO, Etim EP provided the first draft of the manuscript; Ekeuku SO, Etim BP, Mai CW prepared the figures and tables; Ekeuku SO, Etim EP, Pang KL, Chin KY, Mai CW wrote and finalized the manuscript; Chin KY and Mai CW designed the outline and coordinated the writing of the paper.
Supported byUniversiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Through Research University Grant, No. GUP-2020-021; and Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission, No. 20WZ2504600.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report having no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Chun-Wai Mai, BPharm, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UCSI University, No. 1, Jalan Menara Gading, UCSI Heights (Taman Connaught), Cheras, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia. mai.chunwai@gmail.com
Received: November 8, 2022 Peer-review started: November 8, 2022 First decision: January 3, 2023 Revised: February 3, 2023 Accepted: April 7, 2023 Article in press: April 7, 2023 Published online: June 15, 2023 Processing time: 218 Days and 17.2 Hours
Abstract
Pancreatic cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Research investigating effective management strategies for pancreatic cancer is ongoing. Vitamin E, consisting of both tocopherol and tocotrienol, has demonstrated debatable effects on pancreatic cancer cells. Therefore, this scoping review aims to summarize the effects of vitamin E on pancreatic cancer. In October 2022, a literature search was conducted using PubMed and Scopus since their inception. Original studies on the effects of vitamin E on pancreatic cancer, including cell cultures, animal models and human clinical trials, were considered for this review. The literature search found 75 articles on this topic, but only 24 articles met the inclusion criteria. The available evidence showed that vitamin E modulated proliferation, cell death, angiogenesis, metastasis and inflammation in pancreatic cancer cells. However, the safety and bioavailability concerns remain to be answered with more extensive preclinical and clinical studies. More in-depth analysis is necessary to investigate further the role of vitamin E in the management of pancreatic cancers.
Core Tip: Vitamin E is a natural bioactive agent found in a variety of foods. Our scoping review found that it inhibits pancreatic tumor progression, and modulates key pathways in carcinogenesis. Vitamin E might support the current pharmacological approach for treating pancreatic cancer. However, more studies are needed to investigate its safety and efficacy.
