Role of Plant-Derived Flavonoids in Cancer Treatment.

Flavonoids are polyphenolic phytochemicals, which occur naturally in plants and possess both anti-oxidant and pro-oxidant properties. Flavonoids are gaining increasing popularity in the pharmaceutical industry as healthy and cost-effective compounds. Flavonoids show beneficial pharmacological activities in the treatment and prevention of various types of diseases.

Flavonoids sensitize tumor cells to radiation: molecular mechanisms and relevance to cancer radiotherapy.

Radiobiological research continues to focus on finding newer strategies for enhanced killing of tumor cells by ionizing radiation. In recent years, chemotherapeutic drugs have been found to possess the capabilities to sensitize tumor cells without affecting the normal cells. There have been increasing research efforts to identify novel and nontoxic compounds which cause minimal or no harm to normal cells but maximize tumor toxicity response to radiation exposure.