Abstract
Cancer represents one of the most pernicious public health problems with a high mortality rate among patients worldwide. Chemotherapy is one of the major therapeutic approaches for the treatment of various malignancies. Platinum-based drugs (cisplatin, oxaliplatin, carboplatin, etc.) are highly effective chemotherapeutic drugs used for the treatment of several types of malignancies, but their application and dosage are limited by their toxic effects on various systems, including neurotoxicity. Simultaneously, researchers have tried to improve the survival rate and quality of life of cancer patients and decrease the toxicity of platinum-containing drugs by combining them with non-chemotherapy-based drugs, dietary supplements and/or antioxidants. Additionally, recent studies have shown that the root cause for the many side effects of platinum chemotherapeutics involves the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in naive cells. Therefore, suppression of ROS generation and their inactivation with antioxidants represents an appropriate approach for platinum drug-induced toxicities. The aim of this paper is to present an updated review of the protective effects of different antioxidant agents (vitamins, dietary antioxidants and supplements, medicaments, medicinal plants and their bioactive compounds) against the neurotoxicity induced by platinum-based chemotherapeutics. This review highlights the high potential of plant antioxidants as adjuvant strategies in chemotherapy with platinum drugs.
Highlights
A “honeymoon” with platinum-based compounds in chemotherapy that officially started by pronouncing cisplatin as “the drug of the century” more than 50 years ago has gradually been overshadowed by very serious therapeutic limitations of those drugs
Platinum-based drugs are highly effective chemotherapeutic drugs used for the treatment of several types of malignancies, but their application and dosage are limited by their toxic effects on various systems, including neurotoxicity
Long-term survival analysis of platinum-based compounds-induced hepatotoxicity showed that liver damage was more pronounced following cisplatin administration when compared to carboplatin [21], while drug-induced hepatotoxicity manifestations accompanying oxaliplatin therapy were predominantly restricted to hepatic vascular injury [22]
Summary
A “honeymoon” with platinum-based compounds in chemotherapy that officially started by pronouncing cisplatin as “the drug of the century” more than 50 years ago has gradually been overshadowed by very serious therapeutic limitations of those drugs. Besides the inherited resistance to treatment with any of the currently approved platinum agents, each of them has a number of clinically confirmed side-effects, ranging from minor to dose-limiting. The fact that almost half of all the patients who receive anticancer chemotherapy are treated with a platinum drug [1] gives a good insight into broad-spectrum platinum-based chemotherapeutics adverse effects
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