A natural compound isolated from onions could someday help fight ovarian cancer, a new study finds.

Epithelial ovarian cancer, which is the most common form of the disease, has a five-year survival rate of approximately 50 percent.

Although the disease has a relatively low lifetime risk that is less than one percent, but that can increase up to 40 percent in women with a family history of it.

Most patients – 80 percent - experience a relapse after their initial treatment with chemotherapy, therefore a more effective means of fighting the disease is needed.

A Japanese research team has discovered that onionin A (ONA), a natural compound from onions, contains several anti-ovarian cancer properties.

The team’s lab experiments found that ONA inhibits the growth of a type of microphages, or cells, that occur within the body during inflammation and usually proliferate with this type of cancer.

Furthermore, the team found that ONA inhibited the pro-tumor functions of myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC), which are closely associated with the suppression of the anti-tumor immune response of host lymphocytes.

ONA was also found to enhance the effects of anti-cancer drugs by strengthening their anti-proliferation capabilities, and that it also resulted in longer lifespans and inhibited ovarian cancer tumor development.

Most notably, ONA has the potential to enhance existing anti-cancer drugs while also having little to no toxic effects on normal cells, so the team hopes that further researcher could result in a type of supplement that could be used to enhance ovarian cancer treatment, they say of their study, which appears in Scientific Reports.