Can a combination of two simple nutraceuticals heal one of the deadliest brain cancers?

Treatments from chemotherapy and radiotherapy to immunotherapy aim to treat cancer by killing it.  But what if we’ve got it wrong – and the key to curing cancer is not to harm it but to heal it? 

That’s the tantalising question being posed by the team led by Professor Indraneel Mittra, of the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer, Mumbai, India.

The idea dates back to an article in the New Journal of Medicine in 1986, in which Dr Harold Dvorak proposed that cancer is very similar to a non-healing wound. Indeed, the two share many features, and Professor Mittra believes that rather than attacking tumours, we should be trying to heal them. 

Now, in a groundbreaking study involving glioblastoma patients, Professor Mittra’s team has shown that a combination of two simple and inexpensive nutraceuticals appears to do just that.
 

Treating one of the most dreaded cancers

Glioblastoma is a highly aggressive and hard-to-treat brain cancer.  Patients have a median survival time of just 15 months, despite treatment with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, either alone or in combination.

For the study, which is published in BJC Reports, Professor Mittra’s group gave ten glioblastoma patients a tablet containing small quantities of the nutraceuticals resveratrol and copper four times a day for an average of 11.6 days before surgery.

Another ten patients, whose tumours were similarly aggressive and who did not receive resveratrol and copper, acted as controls.

Samples of brain tissue were taken from both groups during their operations and compared extensively via microscopy, immune-staining, immunofluorescence and transcriptome analysis.

The results show that the nutraceutical tablet had a profound effect on the tumours.

• The average levels of the protein Ki-67, a widely used marker of how fast glioblastoma is growing, were almost a third lower in the treated samples than in the untreated samples, suggesting the cancer was less aggressive.

• Biomarkers of nine hallmarks of cancer were found in 57% fewer cells in the treated samples.

• Levels of six immune checkpoints – proteins that stop the immune system from attacking cancer cells – were 41% lower, on average.

• Three markers of stem cells – cells that may contribute to the spread of cancer – were 56% lower.

• Importantly, the patients did not suffer any side-effects.

“These results suggest that a simple, inexpensive and non-toxic nutraceutical tablet potentially has the power to heal glioblastoma,” said Professor Mittra.
 

How to heal cancer

So, just how does this healing occur?

It is all down to the effect of resveratrol and copper on cell-free chromatin particles (cfChPs) – fragments of DNA that are released from dying cancer cells and aggravate the malignant behaviour of the surviving cancer cells, says Professor Mittra.

Earlier studies by Professor Mittra’s group have shown that oxygen radicals that are generated by mixing resveratrol and copper deactivate or destroy cfChPs.

In this study, cfChPs were present in vast amounts in the brain tissue taken from the untreated tumours – but were virtually absent from the tissue from the treated tumours.

The results indicate that dead cancer cells were cleared from the body through a process called apoptosis before they could release their cfChPs.

Professor Mittra explains: “The cell-free chromatin particles, fragments of DNA released by dying cancer cells, inflame the surviving cancer cells.  This makes the disease more aggressive.

“If you eliminate the cell-free chromatin, which is what the resveratrol-copper tablets do, the cancer is subdued.”

It is possible that longer-term treatment could completely heal the cancer i.e. make it benign, says Professor Mittra.

Of note is the finding that the resveratrol-copper tablets downregulated several immune checkpoints. Immune checkpoint inhibition is the breakthrough treatment of cancer. However, these drugs are very expensive and can have many side-effects.  By contrast, the nutraceuticals are simple, safe and inexpensive. 
 

A new approach to treating cancer

“We have been trying to kill cancer cells for 2,500 years, since the time of the ancient Greeks, without success,” says Professor Mittra.

“Maybe it is time to look at cancer treatment differently and work towards healing tumours, rather than annihilating them.

“Of course, the number of patients in this study was rather small.  However, the results were so striking that I’d fully expect them to be replicated in a larger sample of patients.

“I believe that we may be on the brink of transforming the way cancer is treated.”

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Reference

Bandiwadekar, C., Naorem, L.D., Moiyadi, A.V. et al. Attenuation of malignant phenotype of glioblastoma following a short course of the pro-oxidant combination of Resveratrol and Copper. BJC Rep 3, 68 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44276-025-00177-8

About Professor Indraneel Mittra

Professor Indraneel Mittra is Dr. Ernest Borges Chair in Translational Research and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Surgical Oncology at the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai.

Funding information

This study was supported by the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, through its grant CTCTMC to the Tata Memorial Centre awarded to Indraneel Mittra.