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Review
. 2023 Apr 22;15(9):2412.
doi: 10.3390/cancers15092412.

Polyphenols as Potential Protectors against Radiation-Induced Adverse Effects in Patients with Thoracic Cancer

Èlia Prades-Sagarra  1 , Ala Yaromina  1 , Ludwig J Dubois  1
Affiliations
Review

Polyphenols as Potential Protectors against Radiation-Induced Adverse Effects in Patients with Thoracic Cancer

Èlia Prades-Sagarra et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Radiotherapy is one of the standard treatment approaches used against thoracic cancers, occasionally combined with chemotherapy, immunotherapy and molecular targeted therapy. However, these cancers are often not highly sensitive to standard of care treatments, making the use of high dose radiotherapy necessary, which is linked with high rates of radiation-induced adverse effects in healthy tissues of the thorax. These tissues remain therefore dose-limiting factors in radiation oncology despite recent technological advances in treatment planning and delivery of irradiation. Polyphenols are metabolites found in plants that have been suggested to improve the therapeutic window by sensitizing the tumor to radiotherapy, while simultaneously protecting normal cells from therapy-induced damage by preventing DNA damage, as well as having anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory or immunomodulatory properties. This review focuses on the radioprotective effect of polyphenols and the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects in the normal tissue, especially in the lung, heart and esophagus.

Keywords: normal tissue; polyphenols; radioprotection; radiotherapy-induced adverse effects; thoracic cancers.

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Conflict of interest statement

LJD has, outside of the submitted work, shares in the companies Convert Pharmaceuticals and LivingMed Biotech, he is co-inventor of a non-issue, non-licensed patent on LSRT (N2024889). The other authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Potential molecular mechanisms of polyphenols against radiation-induced adverse effects in the thoracic normal tissue. Created with BioRender.com.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Chemical structure of the discussed polyphenols.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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