Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Apr 24, 2024; 15(4): 523-530
Published online Apr 24, 2024. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v15.i4.523
Britanin – a beacon of hope against gastrointestinal tumors?
Agnieszka Kajdanek, Damian Kołat, Lin-Yong Zhao, Mateusz Kciuk, Zbigniew Pasieka, Żaneta Kałuzińska-Kołat
Agnieszka Kajdanek, Damian Kołat, Zbigniew Pasieka, Żaneta Kałuzińska-Kołat, Department of Biomedicine and Experimental Surgery, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz 90-136, Lodzkie, Poland
Damian Kołat, Żaneta Kałuzińska-Kołat, Department of Functional Genomics, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz 90-752, Lodzkie, Poland
Lin-Yong Zhao, Department of General Surgery & Laboratory of Gastric Cancer, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy/Collaborative Innovation Center of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Lin-Yong Zhao, Gastric Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Mateusz Kciuk, Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Genetics, University of Lodz, Lodz 90-237, Lodzkie, Poland
Author contributions: Kajdanek A, Kołat D, and Kałuzińska-Kołat Ż conceptualized the article; Kałuzińska-Kołat Ż supervised the article; Kajdanek A, Kołat D, Zhao LY, Kciuk M, Pasieka Z, and Kałuzińska-Kołat Ż reviewed the literature; Kajdanek A wrote the original draft; Kajdanek A, Kołat D, Zhao LY, Kciuk M, Pasieka Z, and Kałuzińska-Kołat Ż reviewed and edited article; all authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report 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: Żaneta Kałuzińska-Kołat, BSc, MSc, Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant, Department of Biomedicine and Experimental Surgery, Medical University of Lodz, Narutowicza 60, Lodz 90-136, Lodzkie, Poland. zaneta.kaluzinska@umed.lodz.pl
Received: December 21, 2023
Peer-review started: December 21, 2023
First decision: January 30, 2024
Revised: February 3, 2024
Accepted: March 22, 2024
Article in press: March 22, 2024
Published online: April 24, 2024
Core Tip

Core Tip: Natural compounds have settled in the development of novel drugs. Britanin is a sesquiterpene lactone whose effect on gastrointestinal tumors has not been summarized before. Our paper reviews the current state of knowledge and proposes novel research directions. Britanin was found to counteract liver, colorectal, pancreatic, and gastric tumors via the regulation of proliferation, apoptosis, autophagy, immune response, migration, and angiogenesis. Future research should examine the link between Britanin and acetylcholinesterase, mast cells, osteolysis, and ischemia. The compound holds promise as an anti-cancer agent and may overcome the paucity of treatment options or high mortality rate in gastrointestinal tumors.