Abstract
Cervical cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy worldwide and development of new therapeutic strategies and anticancer agents is an urgent priority. Plants have remained an important source in the search for novel cytotoxic compounds and several polyphenolic flavonoids possess antitumor properties. In this review article, data about potential anticarcinogenic activity of common natural flavonoids on various human cervical cancer cell lines are compiled and analyzed showing perspectives for the use of these secondary metabolites in the treatment of cervical carcinoma as well as in the development of novel chemotherapeutic drugs. Such anticancer effects of flavonoids seem to differentially depend on the cellular type and origin of cervical carcinoma creating possibilities for specific targeting in the future. Besides the cytotoxic activity per se, several flavonoids can also contribute to the increase in efficacy of conventional therapies rendering tumor cells more sensitive to standard chemotherapeutics and irradiation. Although the current knowledge is still rather scarce and further studies are certainly needed, it is clear that natural flavonoids may have a great potential to benefit cervical cancer patients.
Highlights
Cervical cancer is the term for malignant neoplasm arising from cells originating from the cervix uteri (Liu et al, 2012; Jin et al, 2014)
Whereas both the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer have decreased in developed countries, more than 80% of the new cases occur in the developing countries being diagnosed mostly in the advanced stages and impacting the lives of women during their years of the highest productivity (Singh et al, 2010; Zou et al, 2010; Tudoran et al, 2012; Zhang et al, 2012; Kitdamrongtham et al, 2013; Zhu et al, 2013)
The major etiological factor in the formation of cervical cancer is the infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) and more than 99% of cervical tumors contain one or more of the oncogenic HPV genotypes (Lee et al, 2011; Di Domenico et al, 2012; Kim et al, 2012; Alshatwi et al, 2013; Kim MS et al, 2013; Zhu et al, 2013; Garcia et al, 2014; Ham et al, 2014)
Summary
Cervical cancer is the term for malignant neoplasm arising from cells originating from the cervix uteri (Liu et al, 2012; Jin et al, 2014). The current vaccines are restricted only to the applications for two oncogenic strains (16 and 18) leaving nearly a third of the high-risk HPV types without a primary prevention strategy These vaccines offer no benefit for the already infected people and because of the high cost they are rather inaccessible to the populations in developing countries where the incidence of cervical cancer is highest (Yuan CH, 2012; Wang et al, 2013; Zhu et al, 2013; Garcia et al, 2014). The development of more effective, highly selective and less toxic anticancer agents as well as novel therapeutic intervention strategies are needed to improve the treatment success and reduce the cervical cancer morbidity and mortality rate
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