Chemoprevention in gastrointestinal physiology and disease. Targeting the progression of cancer with natural products: a focus on gastrointestinal cancer

Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2016 May 1;310(9):G629-44. doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.00201.2015. Epub 2016 Feb 18.

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed remarkable progress in the utilization of natural products for the prevention and treatment of human cancer. Many agents now in the pipeline for clinical trial testing have evolved from our understanding of how human nutritional patterns account for widespread differences in cancer risk. In this review, we have focused on many of these promising agents arguing that they may provide a new strategy for cancer control: natural products once thought to be only preventive in their mode of action now are being explored for efficacy in tandem with cancer therapeutics. Natural products may reduce off-target toxicity of therapeutics while making cancers more amenable to therapy. On the horizon is the use of certain natural products, in their own right, as mitigants of late-stage cancer, a new frontier for small-molecule natural product drug discovery.

Keywords: chemoprevention; gastrointestinal cancer; late-stage cancer; natural products; phytoprevention.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents / administration & dosage
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Antineoplastic Agents / therapeutic use
  • Biological Products / administration & dosage
  • Biological Products / pharmacology*
  • Biological Products / therapeutic use
  • Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Signal Transduction / drug effects
  • Small Molecule Libraries / chemistry
  • Small Molecule Libraries / pharmacology

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Biological Products
  • Small Molecule Libraries