Role of Plant derived-medicine for controlling Cancer

This  review paper has highlighted a list of plants containing active phytochemicals with anticancer potential, as well as data supporting their use in cancer therapy, animal models, and their pharmacological properties. Cancer is among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Cancer is a disease characterized by abnormal cell division and proliferation that result from disruption of molecular signals that control these processes. Cancer is the abnormal, uncontrolled division of cells in the body. The cancer cells when malignant, invade various parts of the body through the bloodstream. The spread of cancer from its cells or tissue of origin to another healthy part of tissues or organs is called metastasis. Some of the regular characteristics of cancers are apoptosis, angiogenesis, multiple replication, growth signal production, insensitivity to signals of anti-growth and metastasis.  These features make cancer cells to have continuous growth, long time survival and the potential to invade normal cells. Moreover, if these activities are not blocked, cancer cells will continue to increase, overwhelm and finally kill the patient with cancer. Oncology is the study of cancer. An oncologist is a doctor who treats cancer and provides medical care for a person diagnosed with cancer. An oncologist may also be called a cancer specialist. Today, despite considerable efforts, cancer still remains an aggressive killer worldwide. The success rate of these therapies is diminished by toxicities, drug resistance, recurrence and treatment failure. A significant challenge associated with cancer is that treatment is as much an art as it is a science. Therefore, there is a constant demand to develop new, effective, and affordable anticancer drugs. Several factors, such as environmental factors, habitual activities, genetic factors, etc., are responsible for cancer. Many cancer patients seek alternative and/or complementary treatments because of the high death rate linked with cancer and the adverse side effects of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, surgery, and stem cell therapy. Medicinal plants could also possess effective anticancer compounds that may be used as adjuvants to existing chemotherapy to improve efficacy and/or reduce drug-induced toxicity; such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting to improve patients’ quality of life. Cell death is caused by the whole plant extracts via apoptosis. However, majority of plant extracts have been researched for cancer prevention rather than treatment, resulting in low efficacy and uptake in practice. Prevention is certainly an attractive cancer management strategy. Thus it might be possible to reduce the process of carcinogenesis with regular use of these plants along with a healthy lifestyle.