A new study indicates that glioblastoma becomes less aggressive after treatment with resveratrol and copper, a potentially game-changing finding that could pave the way for a radically new approach to cancer therapy.
Treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy are all designed with a single goal in mind: to destroy cancer. However, what if this long-standing approach is wrong, and the real path to curing cancer lies not in damaging it but in helping it recover?
This is the intriguing possibility being explored by a research team led by Professor Indraneel Mittra at the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer in Mumbai, India.
The concept traces back to a 1986 article in the New Journal of Medicine, where Dr Harold Dvorak suggested that cancer behaves much like a wound that never heals. The two conditions share several characteristics, and Professor Mittra argues that focusing on healing tumors, instead of attacking them, may be more effective.
In a new study involving patients with glioblastoma, the team has found that two inexpensive nutraceuticals may help trigger this healing response.
Treating one of the most dreaded cancers
Glioblastoma is among the most aggressive and challenging types of brain cancer. It grows rapidly, infiltrates surrounding brain tissue, and is known for its genetic diversity, which makes it extremely difficult to treat.
Its highly invasive nature means that even after surgery, microscopic cancer cells typically remain, contributing to quick recurrence. Although standard care includes surgery followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy with temozolomide, the median survival remains only about 15 months, and long-term survival is rare.
In the study, published in BJC Reports, ten glioblastoma patients were given a tablet containing small amounts of resveratrol and copper four times daily for an average of 11.6 days before their scheduled surgery.
Another group of ten patients with tumors of similar severity did not receive the nutraceuticals and served as controls.
During surgery, brain tissue samples were collected from all participants. These samples were then examined in detail through microscopy, immunostaining, immunofluorescence, and transcriptome analysis.
The results show that the nutraceutical tablet had a profound effect on the tumors.
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 tumors – but were virtually absent from the tissue from the treated tumors.
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 tumors, 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.”
Reference: “Attenuation of malignant phenotype of glioblastoma following a short course of the pro-oxidant combination of Resveratrol and Copper” by Chaitra Bandiwadekar
30 September 2025, BJC Reports.
DOI: 10.1038/s44276-025-00177-8
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44276-025-00177-8
