University of Hawaii Cancer Center researcher James Turkson discovered in 2014 that ingredients in Hawaii island poha berries might inhibit the growth of bad cells in brain tumors and breast and pancreatic cancers.

The finding is one of a dozen breakthroughs that UH officials hope will be part of a financial rebound for the ailing Cancer Center, whose future is in limbo as it struggles to prove its relevance to lawmakers and secure long-term state funding.

Discoveries like these could lead to patents, licensing agreements or spinoff companies that could potentially generate new revenue to lift the troubled center out of its financial hole.

“Some of the best drugs that are currently being used clinically came from or were inspired by natural products,” said the Ghanaian-born scientist, whose mother died of uterine cancer. “It is a priority to the Cancer Center to look at natural products because of their inherent value and due to where we are geographically located. Hawaii and the Pacific islands have one of the richest resources of natural products. We have ramped up screening to potentially find a cure for the people of Hawaii and mankind.”

Researchers have collected more than 4,800 samples from natural resources across the islands, including plants, marine life, fungi and other organisms that are being tested for their cancer-killing properties. They include compounds from the poha berry, a shrub originally found in Brazil but now grown in the islands.

The center also is studying ironweed on the Big Island and sea sponges off the coast of Kauai for their cancer-fighting compounds, in addition to locally grown noni fruit, for prostate cancer, and at least another half-dozen natural products.

“We’re especially interested because really there isn’t any effective therapeutics (for) a very fatal disease,” he said. “The expectation is that the natural chemical compounds are less toxic compared to chemotherapy. That’s one of the advantages of natural therapies. A lot of times, a plant or sea creature is edible and degradable, so the body can destroy them, unlike synthesized chemicals such as chemotherapy, which destroys the body.”

While some of the plants might not be native to the islands, their compounds are different from the same plants found elsewhere. Therefore, no other cancer center in the United States has access to the same microorganisms found in Hawaii, Turkson said.

“These islands have their unique ecological environment that allows the growth of certain organisms, plants, microorganisms and different sea creatures,” he said. “You could find the same plants maybe in Asia. However, because of their differences in geographical location, it is possible that the chemical composition of the plant would have variations in them. They may not even have that organism.”

The center’s research library, which took about two years to assemble from deep-sea dives, fungus extractions and soil collections across the islands, is gaining national attention. UH recently signed an agreement with the University of Iowa and is in talks with a cancer center in Philadelphia to use the samples for research on the mainland. Any discoveries would be jointly owned by UH.

“Natural products make us very unique here. It’s not unheard of to think that natural products can be cancer therapy,” said Charles Rosser, professor and director of the UH Cancer Center’s clinical trials office. “Barks of trees are very famous chemotherapy agents, so it’s not far fetched to say algae or something unique to Hawaii’s rainforest couldn’t help treat some of the cancers.”