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Review
. 2025 May;33(5):2477-2492.
doi: 10.1007/s10787-025-01751-9. Epub 2025 Apr 22.

Multifaceted roles of melatonin in oncology: an insight into its therapeutic potential in cancer management

Hossein Maghsoudi #  1   2 , Farhad Sheikhnia #  1   2 , Nooshin Hajmalek  3 , Fatemeh Dadash Gholipour  3   4 , Shahriar Alipour  1   2 , Mansour Ghorbanpour  5 , Sara Farzanegan  6 , Seyed Mostafa Mir  7 , Mohammad Yousef Memar  8
Affiliations
Review

Multifaceted roles of melatonin in oncology: an insight into its therapeutic potential in cancer management

Hossein Maghsoudi et al. Inflammopharmacology. 2025 May.

Abstract

Cancer remains the leading cause of death worldwide. The treatment of cancer has become increasing complex. Current treatment options for cancer include surgical resection, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, nanomedicine, and immunotherapy. Recent experimental and clinical studies have provided substantial evidence supporting the potential use of melatonin as a preventive and therapeutic agent in oncology. Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxy-tryptamine), a pleiotropic and multitasking molecule, is secreted from the pineal gland during the night under normal light-dark conditions. Beyond its role in circadian regulation, melatonin exhibits antioxidant, anti-aging, immunomodulatory, and anti-cancer properties. Melatonin exerts significant apoptotic, angiogenic, oncostatic, and anti-proliferative effects on a variety of cancer cells. This review discusses the influence of melatonin on cancer cells through mechanisms involving cell cycle regulation, stimulation of apoptosis, autophagy induction, epigenetic modification, and transcriptional regulation.

Keywords: Cancer management; Melatonin; Oncology; Therapeutic potential.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interest: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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