Alkane-6,8-diol: Inhibitor of Tumor Promotion in Two-Stage Carcinogenesis in Mouse Skin

Cancer prevention is now most urgently required for public health. It would be particularly useful to develop a method of prevention at the promotion stage of carcinogenesis, as such a method may be applicable even after exposure to tumor-initiating agents, which seem, in many cases, to be unavoidable in human life. Our earlier studies have demonstrated that some extracts from edible plants and crude drugs inhibited 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA)-induced inflammatory ear edema, and some active compounds were separated from the extracts of edible plants and crude drugs. Alkane-6,8-diols were isolated from Carthamus tinctorius (safflower). These compounds inhibited TPA-induced inflammatory ear edema and tumor promotion in mouse skin (K. Yasukawa et al., unpublished results).