SA seaweed may hold cancer cure

A South African pharmacist has found a new group of compounds in seaweed that may hold the key to a cure for breast cancer.

"We've done some really exciting work...it is early stage research and with new compounds you test them a lot before it develops into something," East London pharmacy owner Michael Knott said on Thursday.

"If things go well we may take it to the next stage. The biochemistry department is currently growing the cancer cell lines. We'd then need to find funding...and it has yet to be tested in humans," he told Sapa. The Dispatch Online reported that Knott's research into seaweed has shown anti-cancer activity on breast cancer cells.

He has been invited to present his research and findings to the Seventh European Conference on Marine Natural Products in Sweden in August this year.

"I'm excited about the conference and see it as an opportunity to generate interest in local research."

Knott is studying for his doctorate in marine natural product chemistry at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.

He said his research was a collaboration between him, his supervisor Denzil Beukes and the university's faculty of pharmacy and department of biochemistry.

According to the National Cancer Registry, one in 29 women in South Africa are diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 3000 women die from breast cancer in South Africa each year.