Novel Investigations of Flavonoids as Chemopreventive Agents for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

We would like to highlight the application of natural products to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We will focus on the natural products known as flavonoids, which target this disease at different stages of hepatocarcinogenesis. In spite of the use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in treating HCC, patients with HCC still face poor prognosis because of the nature of multidrug resistance and toxicity derived from chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Flavonoids can be found in many vegetables, fruits, and herbal medicines that exert their different anticancer effects via different intracellular signaling pathways and serve as antioxidants. In this review, we will discuss seven common flavonoids that exert different biological effects against HCC via different pathways.

Figure 1

Chemical structures of flavonoids that target HCC: EGCG (a), galangin (b), quercetin (c), baicalein (d), oroxylin A (e), genistein (f), and silibinin (g). EGCG: (−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate; HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma.

Figure 2

QUORUM algorithm of review of the flavonoids and hepatocellular carcinoma publications and abstracts.

Figure 3

The different stages of HCC and the major targets modulated by various flavonoids. HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma; EGCG: (−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate.