Title:Resveratrol as an Adjuvant for Normal Tissues Protection and Tumor Sensitization
Volume: 20
Issue: 2
Author(s): Keywan Mortezaee, Masoud Najafi*, Bagher Farhood*, Amirhossein Ahmadi*, Dheyauldeen Shabeeb and Ahmed E. Musa
Affiliation:
- Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Department, School of Paramedical Sciences, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah,Iran
- Department of Medical Physics and Radiology, Faculty of Paramedical Sciences, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan,Iran
- Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari 48175-861,Iran
Keywords:
Resveratrol, neoplasm, radiation, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, tumor microenvironment, molecular targeted therapy.
Abstract: Cancer is one of the most complicated diseases in present-day medical science. Yearly,
several studies suggest various strategies for preventing carcinogenesis. Furthermore, experiments
for the treatment of cancer with low side effects are ongoing. Chemotherapy, targeted therapy, radiotherapy
and immunotherapy are the most common non-invasive strategies for cancer treatment. One
of the most challenging issues encountered with these modalities is low effectiveness, as well as
normal tissue toxicity for chemo-radiation therapy. The use of some agents as adjuvants has been
suggested to improve tumor responses and also alleviate normal tissue toxicity. Resveratrol, a natural
flavonoid, has attracted a lot of attention for the management of both tumor and normal tissue responses
to various modalities of cancer therapy. As an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent, in
vitro and in vivo studies show that it is able to mitigate chemo-radiation toxicity in normal tissues.
However, clinical studies to confirm the usage of resveratrol as a chemo-radioprotector are lacking.
In addition, it can sensitize various types of cancer cells to both chemotherapy drugs and radiation.
In recent years, some clinical studies suggested that resveratrol may have an effect on inducing cancer
cell killing. Yet, clinical translation of resveratrol has not yielded desirable results for the combination
of resveratrol with radiotherapy, targeted therapy or immunotherapy. In this paper, we review
the potential role of resveratrol for preserving normal tissues and sensitization of cancer cells in
combination with different cancer treatment modalities.