Potential Therapeutic Effects of Phytochemicals and Medicinal Herbs for Cancer Prevention and Treatment

Abstract

Cancer has a major impact on society across the world. It is one of the major causes of death, with approximately 1.7 million new cases expected to be diagnosed in the United States and 600,000 people will die from the disease. Worldwide statistics in 2012 reported over 14 million new cases and 8.2 million cancer-related deaths. New cases are expected to rise by about 70% over the next 20 years. The current standard of care, surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation has not proved to be highly effective and comes with significant side effects and costs. Although conventional cancer therapy can target certain cancer cells and sometimes prevent relapse of the illness, complementary and alternative therapies are required due to disadvantages of the current therapies such as low effectiveness, adverse effects, or availability. Moreover, a number of studies have found adjunctive therapeutic approaches to improve outcomes for cancer patients. One potential complementary method with conventional cancer drugs involves the use of medicinal herbs and phytochemicals. The possible therapeutic benefits include, but are not limited to antiproliferative, apoptotic, anti-metastatic, and anti-angiogenic effects, of which have been demonstrated in in vitro experiments and some clinical trials; more clinical trials need to be done. This review summarizes some plant sources exhibiting anti-cancer and chemoprevention activity. An overview of how phytochemicals and medicinal herbs permit the prevention and ultimate removal of cancer cells with minimal trauma to the host will be presented.

Phytocompounds Targeting Metabolic Reprogramming in Cancer: An Assessment of Role, Mechanisms, Pathways, and Therapeutic Relevance

“…In fact, phytocompounds have been reported to enhance the anticancer activity of conventional drugs and show synergistic effects with conventional drugs . Due to the variety of reported biological and pharmacological properties including antimetabolic, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, selective toxicity for cancer cells, oral route of administration, ease of availability, and their preferred acceptance by patients, plant-based compounds are considered a strong contender for therapeutic intervention . Although phytocompounds are shown to be generally safe and beneficial, toxic effects of these compounds are also reported.…”

Comprehensive Assessment of the Antioxidant and Anticancer Potential of Selected Ethnobotanical Plants

“…Recently, plant-based products have gained global interest from researchers looking to discover drugs of plant-based origins for use against cancer; a literature survey further summarised the anticancer activity of these phytochemical-rich plants, demonstrating their cytotoxic effect against different cancer cell lines [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Apart from the anticancer activity displayed by plants of medicinal importance, by modulating the signalling cascades correlated with cell cycle regulation and apoptosis, it has also been found that these plants display potent anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and chemotherapeutic effects [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Interestingly these phytochemicals exhibit more cytotoxic effects on cancer cells than on normal cells [6,19] due to their pro-oxidant or antioxidant role depending on their exposure dose and vicinity [6].…”

Phytochemical and chromatographic characterization of Mimosa diplotricha Wright ex. Sauvalle ethanolic leaf extract and assessment of antioxidant potential and anti-proliferative effect on colorectal cancer (HCT-116) cell lines

“…have clinically proven to be bene icial in cancer therapy (Elvin-Lewis, 2001;Li, 2015). As per FDA (Food and Drug Administration) 60-75% phytochemicals and isolated active compounds are approved as valid chemo preventive agents (Jacobs, 2018). Phytochemicals currently practiced as anticancer chemo drugs include; taxol, vinblastine, vincristine, camptothecin derivatives, topotecan, etoposide and irinotecan.…”