Natural Products for Chemopreventive and Adjunctive Therapy in Oncologic Disease

Abstract

Nutritional supplements or complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) are currently being investigated for their use in preventing, inhibiting, and reversing the progression of cancer. Natural agents and their derivatives such as vitamin A, selenium, green tea, resveratrol, aspirin, and probiotics have potential benefits in chemoprevention. There is also growing evidence for the use of natural products as adjunctive therapy alongside conventional cancer treatments. Nutritional supplements expenditures demonstrated greater growth than pharmaceuticals, with approximately 80% of cancer patients using natural products. Current issues with nutritional supplements use in cancer treatment include insufficient or conflicting evidence, poor quality control, potential interactions with chemotherapy, and potential efficacy in relation to changes in certain biomarkers, but long-term implications remain largely unresolved. Continued research is needed to lend credibility to these potentially valuable naturally driven supplements in the prevention and potentially in the treatment of cancer in conjunction with standard pharmaceuticals.

Notes

^a Abbreviations are as follows: N, nausea; V, vomiting; ECG, electrocardiogram; AST, aspartate aminotransferase; SIADH, syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion; CNS, central nervous system. Side effects listed are not all inclusive. Toxicity may vary by route, dosage, and duration of infusion.

^a Evidence rating: A = strong scientific evidence; B = good scientific evidence; C = unclear or conflicting scientific evidence.