Pancreatic Cancer: A Brief Representation
Pancreatic cancer (PC) is the fourth leading cause of malignancy-associated mortality with <5% 5-years survival. Clinical strategies for the management of this cancer have recently been developed; however, the mortality rate is still mostly unaltered (Siegel et al., 2018). This high rate of mortality is attributed to the aggressive nature of this cancer as well as a lack of efficient therapy methods (Tempero et al., 2017). The high metastatic ability of PC cells, and also, their uncontrolled growth have led to some difficulties in the effective treatment of this life-threatening disorder.
Although chemotherapy and surgery are the most common methods in cancer therapy, growing evidence demonstrates that the aforementioned strategies are only effective in a few numbers of patients. Consequently, radiotherapy is also used to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy. However, it seems that combination chemotherapy with other anti-tumor agents would be the best strategy for cancer treatment. This is due to the fact that cancer cells are able to acquire resistance toward both radiotherapy and chemotherapy; accordingly, combination chemotherapy facilitates the disruption molecular pathways involved in cancer resistance. Subsequently, the effectiveness of chemotherapy is ameliorated and its clinical trial findings would be more satisfactory. Finding a suitable anti-tumor agent in combination with chemotherapy is of importance in poly-chemotherapy. High anti-tumor activity, multi-targeting, and minimal toxicity are some of the most important properties of an ideal anti-tumor agent (Lee et al., 2019b,c, 2020; Tan and Norhaizan, 2019; Banik et al., 2020; Patra et al., 2020).
To date, a wide variety of strategies were employed in suppressing chemoresistance, and malignant behavior of PC cells. Among them, plant derived-natural products are of importance in PC due to their excellent anti-tumor activity, and capability of enhancing sensitivity in PC cells into chemotherapy (Cheng et al., 2018; Yan et al., 2018). In light of this, much attention was directed toward using plant derived-natural compounds as potential anti-tumor agents for use in combination chemotherapy, and for suppressing malignant behavior and the proliferation of cancer cells (Abotaleb et al., 2020; Liskova et al., 2020; Varghese et al., 2020). In respect to the fact that a variety of molecular pathways are involved in the progression and proliferation of PC cells such as Wnt (Xu et al., 2020), Nrf 2 (Krajka-Kuzniak et al., 2020), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) (Yin et al., 2020), and microRNAs (miRs) (Wang et al., 2020) its effective therapy relies on using anti-tumor compounds with the capability of the induction of onco-suppressor pathways, and the inhibition of oncogene ones. Notably, naturally occurring compounds are capable of modulating molecular pathways and mechanisms. It seems that Akt is an oncogene pathway involved in the proliferation and viability of PC cells. The administration of curcumin, as a naturally occurring nutraceutical compounds, remarkably reduces Akt expression by suppressing its upstream modulator epidermal growth factor (EGF), leading to a decrease in growth and malignant behavior of the PC cells (Li et al., 2019). The curcumin analogs have demonstrated more inhibitory effects on the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells due to their enhanced bioavailability (Nagaraju et al., 2019). Besides, phytochemicals are able to interfere with metastasis and the invasion of PC cells by suppressing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) (Hoca et al., 2019). It is worth mentioning that plant derived-natural compounds are beneficial in enhancing the sensitivity of PC in chemotherapy (Zhou et al., 2019). These studies are in line with the potentiality of herbal-based products in PC therapy. Herein, we aim to explore the anti-tumor activity of apigenin, as a natural compound, on different cancers with a special focus on PC.
Although chemotherapy and surgery are the most common methods in cancer therapy, growing evidence demonstrates that the aforementioned strategies are only effective in a few numbers of patients. Consequently, radiotherapy is also used to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy. However, it seems that combination chemotherapy with other anti-tumor agents would be the best strategy for cancer treatment. This is due to the fact that cancer cells are able to acquire resistance toward both radiotherapy and chemotherapy; accordingly, combination chemotherapy facilitates the disruption molecular pathways involved in cancer resistance. Subsequently, the effectiveness of chemotherapy is ameliorated and its clinical trial findings would be more satisfactory. Finding a suitable anti-tumor agent in combination with chemotherapy is of importance in poly-chemotherapy. High anti-tumor activity, multi-targeting, and minimal toxicity are some of the most important properties of an ideal anti-tumor agent (Lee et al., 2019b,c, 2020; Tan and Norhaizan, 2019; Banik et al., 2020; Patra et al., 2020).
To date, a wide variety of strategies were employed in suppressing chemoresistance, and malignant behavior of PC cells. Among them, plant derived-natural products are of importance in PC due to their excellent anti-tumor activity, and capability of enhancing sensitivity in PC cells into chemotherapy (Cheng et al., 2018; Yan et al., 2018). In light of this, much attention was directed toward using plant derived-natural compounds as potential anti-tumor agents for use in combination chemotherapy, and for suppressing malignant behavior and the proliferation of cancer cells (Abotaleb et al., 2020; Liskova et al., 2020; Varghese et al., 2020). In respect to the fact that a variety of molecular pathways are involved in the progression and proliferation of PC cells such as Wnt (Xu et al., 2020), Nrf 2 (Krajka-Kuzniak et al., 2020), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) (Yin et al., 2020), and microRNAs (miRs) (Wang et al., 2020) its effective therapy relies on using anti-tumor compounds with the capability of the induction of onco-suppressor pathways, and the inhibition of oncogene ones. Notably, naturally occurring compounds are capable of modulating molecular pathways and mechanisms. It seems that Akt is an oncogene pathway involved in the proliferation and viability of PC cells. The administration of curcumin, as a naturally occurring nutraceutical compounds, remarkably reduces Akt expression by suppressing its upstream modulator epidermal growth factor (EGF), leading to a decrease in growth and malignant behavior of the PC cells (Li et al., 2019). The curcumin analogs have demonstrated more inhibitory effects on the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells due to their enhanced bioavailability (Nagaraju et al., 2019). Besides, phytochemicals are able to interfere with metastasis and the invasion of PC cells by suppressing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) (Hoca et al., 2019). It is worth mentioning that plant derived-natural compounds are beneficial in enhancing the sensitivity of PC in chemotherapy (Zhou et al., 2019). These studies are in line with the potentiality of herbal-based products in PC therapy. Herein, we aim to explore the anti-tumor activity of apigenin, as a natural compound, on different cancers with a special focus on PC.
