New Guava Compound Synthesis Offers Hope for Liver Cancer Treatment

New Guava Compound Synthesis Offers Hope for Liver Cancer Treatment
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A team of chemists at the University of Delaware, led by Associate Professor William Chain, has developed a new and efficient method for creating a molecule from guava plants that shows promise in the fight against aggressive liver cancer, SciTech Daily reported. The discovery, published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, uses natural product total synthesis to produce these compounds from widely available chemicals.

The breakthrough provides a low-cost and scalable “recipe” for researchers to generate large quantities of the molecule. This accessibility could lead to the development of more affordable and effective treatments for liver cancer, one of the deadliest forms of cancer worldwide.

“The majority of clinically approved medicines are either made from a natural product or are based on one,” said Chain. “But there aren’t enough natural resources to make enough treatments. Now chemists will be able to take our manuscripts and basically follow our ‘recipe’ and they can make it themselves.”

The research is a significant step forward, as current chemotherapies for liver cancer represent a multi-billion-dollar health burden, and the five-year survival rate for late-stage cases is under 15%. In 2025 alone, over 42,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with the disease, and more than 30,000 will lose their lives.

The team is currently collaborating with the National Cancer Institute to explore the next steps for this process and to determine if the guava-based molecule is effective in combating other types of cancer.