Chapter 9 - Prevention of side effects from chemoradiotherapy and antitumor potential of royal jelly and its components: A systematic review

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most problematic health situations that continue to increase each year. The current therapy usually has a high efficacy when diagnosed at the beginning of the disease. However, in other cases, better drugs are still needed. The search for new molecules involves natural sources, as royal jelly (RJ) and its isolated compounds described in this review. Various essays carried on in breast cancer cells and even in vivo disclose a decrease in the proliferation and inflammation process. Another important issue is the side effects caused by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Most of them still need a better understanding and more tools to prevent or help heal the damage, such as eating difficulties, mucositis, hepatotoxicity, and nephrotoxicity. Those are some of the targets already tested and under the preliminary clinical trials, which reveal a good performance of RJ and some of its compounds that can be explored in drug discovery in the near future.