Triple negative breast cancer is one of the most aggressive types of breast cancer, and it currently has no effective targeted treatment. But scientists have found hope in an unlikely place, the purple sweet potato!
What they discovered:
(1) A natural compound from purple sweet potato, called prodelphinidin (PD), can slow down and kill TNBC cells.
(2) Works in a dose- and time-dependent way (the more given, the stronger the effect).
(3) PD makes the cancer cells self-destruct (apoptosis) by shutting off “survival” signals and turning on “death” signals.
(4) Causes stress inside cancer cells and builds up harmful molecules (ROS) that damage them.
(5) Blocking the cell death process reduced PD’s effects, proving this is how it works.
In simple terms: The purple sweet potato may contain natural compounds that help fight one of the toughest breast cancers, offering hope for future plant-based therapies.
Source: Zhang, J., Chen, Z., Wang, S. et al. Prodelphinidin from purple sweet potato induces apoptosis in human triple-negative breast cancer cells via ROS-mediated ER stress activation. Med Oncol 42, 92 (2025).