Chemopreventive Potential of Phytoestrogens on Hormone-Sensitive Cancer - An Updated Review

Hormone-dependent cancers contribute to the majority of cancer deaths in women. Treatment options for hormonal cancer such as breast, endometrial, prostate, and ovarian cancer aim at inhibiting key signalling pathways and hormones responsible for cell proliferation. Hormonal therapies in the long run cause musculoskeletal disorders, Disease reoccurrence, and drug resistance. There is a need for new alternative therapies to prevent and treat hormonal carcinomas. Phytoestrogens, a naturally occurring polyphenol have potent effects on hormonal cancers due to their estrogenic effects. Evidence suggests that phytoestrogens exert their apoptotic potential by interfering with steroidogenesis, gene expressions, and down-regulation of Protein Tyrosine Kinases, Matrix Metalloproteinases. They also act as topo-poisons. This review explains the key mechanisms of phytoestrogens in inhibiting cell proliferation in hormonal cancers by evidence from recent clinical studies, meta-analyses, and cohort study reports. Phytoestrogens have multi-target potential with both preventive and treatment properties on cancer cell lines. Combination therapies with phytoestrogens are more beneficial in controlling cell progression. Hence further research is required to explore their epigenetic properties on tumour suppressor genes which stay an important target in cancer research.