Chemotherapy and Dietary Phytochemical Agents

Table 1

Examples of effects of dietary phytochemical agents on chemotherapy.

Compound	Dietary source	Chemotherapy drug	Effect	Biological system	Reference
Influence on treatment efficacy
Ginsenosides		Cisplatin	Enhancement of drug-induced antiproliferative effect	Human breast carcinoma MCF-7 cells	[63, 64]
	Ginseng	5-Fluorouracil	Increase in antiproliferative effect	Human colorectal cancer HCT-116 cells	[63, 65]
Curcumin	Turmeric	Vinorelbine	Enhancement of chemotherapeutic efficacy	Human squamous cell lung carcinoma H520 cells	[66, 67]
Catechins/theanine	Green tea	Doxorubicin	Enhancement of antitumour activity	Ehrlich ascites carcinoma and M5076 ovarian sarcoma tumour-bearing mice	[9, 68–70]
Quercetin			Increase in reduction of tumour growth	Mice bearing human tumour xenografts	[71]
		Cisplatin	Potentiation of cytotoxic effect	Human ovarian and endometrial cancer cell lines	[71]
	Many foods such as onions, apples, berries, and tea	Doxorubicin	Potentiation of growth-inhibitory activity	Doxorubicin-resistant human breast tumour MCF-7 cells	[68, 71, 72]
		Busulfan	Synergistic antiproliferative activity	Human leukaemia K562 cells	[71, 73]
Genistein		Cisplatin	Increased cytotoxic effect	Cisplatin-sensitive and cisplatin-resistant human 2008 ovarian carcinoma cells	[9, 71]
			Attenuation of inhibitory effect of tamoxifen on tumour cell growth	Oestrogen-dependent human breast cancer MCF-7 cells	[9, 74]
	Soy foods	Tamoxifen	Attenuation of tamoxifen effect on reducing of tumour burden	Female Sprague-Dawley rats with induced mammary tumours	[75]
			Synergistic growth inhibition	Oestrogen receptor-negative human breast carcinoma MDA-MB-435 cells	[9, 76]
Daidzein	Soy foods	Tamoxifen	Improvement of drug activity to reduce tumour burden	Female Sprague-Dawley rats with induced mammary tumours	[9, 75]
Tangeretin	Tangerine and other citrus peels	Tamoxifen	Complete blocking of growth inhibitory effect of tamoxifen	Female nude mice inoculated with human MCF-7/6 mammary adenocarcinoma cells	[9, 68, 77]
Influence on side effects of chemotherapy
Ginsenosides		Cyclophosphamide	Protection against drug-induced genotoxicity and apoptosis in bone marrow cells and peripheral lymphocytes	Mouse peripheral lymphocytes and bone marrow cells	[78, 79]
	Ginseng	Cisplatin	Attenuation of drug-induced nausea and vomiting	Rat model	[63, 80]
Quercetin	Many foods such as onions, apples, berries, and tea	Cisplatin	Protection of normal renal tubular cells from drug toxicity	Pig kidney tubular epithelial LLC-PK1 cells	[71, 81]
Influence on drug resistance
Ginsenosides	Ginseng	Paclitaxel	Chemosensitisation	Multidrug-resistant breast cancer cells	[63, 82]
Catechins/theanine		Doxorubicin	Inhibition of drug efflux from tumour cells	Drug-resistant M5076 ovarian sarcoma tumour-bearing mice	[9, 68, 70]
	Green tea	Daunorubicin	Increase in drug accumulation in tumour cells	Multidrug-resistant P-gp overexpressing human epidermal carcinoma KB-C2 cells	[20, 83]
		Irinotecan, SN-38	Inhibiting drug transport into biliary elimination and prolonging half-lives in plasma	Male Sprague-Dawley rats	[20, 84]
Quercetin		Vincristine	Increase in drug uptake in tumour cells	Doxorubicin-resistant human myelogenous leukaemia K562 cells	[20, 85]
		Tamoxifen	Enhancement of drug bioavailability decreasing the efflux by MDR transporters	Female Sprague-Dawley rats	[20, 86]
		Paclitaxel	Enhancement of drug bioavailability	Male Sprague-Dawley rats	[20, 87]
	Many foods such as onions, apples, berries, and tea	Doxorubicin	Potentiation of antitumour effect reducing P-gp expression	Multidrug-resistant human breast cancer MCF-7 cells	[9, 20, 72]
		Topotecan	Chemosensitisation	Mouse fibrosarcoma WEHI-S cells	[71, 88]
		Gemcitabine	Chemosensitisation	Mouse fibrosarcoma WEHI-S cells	[71, 88]
Genistein	Soy foods	Paclitaxel	Enhancement in systemic exposure of drug	Male Sprague-Dawley rats	[20, 89]