Plant-Based Natural Products and Cancer: A Challenge to Chart a New Course

Dear Colleagues,

Striking progress is being made in cancer treatment by using orally administered small-molecule inhibitors that target products of genes recognized as drivers for specific types of cancer, an example of precision oncology. In view of these successes, we have recently called on scientists in the fields of cancer chemoprevention and diet, nutrition, and cancer to “reverse engineer” these clinical successes in cancer treatment to advance their fields. In so doing, we re-introduce two concepts from the mid-1970s: 1) targeting the entire process of carcinogenesis for treatment, and 2) suppressing, inhibiting, and reversing any phase of the disease process from the generation of a cancer-initiated stem cell to metastatic cancer with the goal of reducing cancer-specific deaths.  

Chemopreventive Oncopharmacognosy. Arguably, the current use of orally active targeted small-molecule inhibitors is a highly successful example of 21^st century cancer chemoprevention. While the value of using highly specific drugs is clear, it is essential to leverage the science underlying current advances in cancer treatment to develop culturally acceptable natural product formulations that benefit individuals with limited opportunities to access precision pharmaceuticals because they are neither affordable nor accessible in many parts of the world.  

Dietary Oncopharmacognosy. While diet and nutrition are modifiable risk factors for many chronic and infectious diseases, their role in affecting carcinogenesis remains under investigation. The lack of clarity about some diet–cancer relationships reflects the ongoing debate about the relative contribution of genetic factors, environmental exposures, and replicative errors in stem cell division as determinate drivers of cancer risk. In addition, dietary guidance has often been based upon research assuming that the effects of diet and nutrition on carcinogenesis would be uniform across populations and for various tumor types arising in a specific organ, i.e., that one size fits all. We call on scientists in the field to develop precision dietary patterns that leverage the approaches that led to successful small-molecule inhibitors in cancer treatment. We refer to this precision approach as dietary oncopharmacognosy and envision it as the crosswalk between the currently defined fields of precision oncology and precision nutrition.

The goal of this Special Issue is to assemble a collection of papers that are exemplars of the use of natural products as inhibitors that target protein kinases, apoptosis evasion, immune suppression, and angiogenesis induction in a cancer-subtype-specific manner. We refer to this use of natural products as oncopharmagonosy and envision the application of artificial intelligence as a tool that guides the development of cancer chemopreventive formulations and precision dietary patterns that  reduce cancer deaths at specific organ sites. Because considerable effort in cancer chemoprevention and diet, nutrition, and cancer has focused on breast cancer, we expect many exemplars will exist for specific molecular subtypes of this disease process. However, examples at other organ sites will be considered, including hematological malignancies. This Special Issue seeks original research papers and systematic reviews and meta-analyses on these topics.

Prof. Dr. Henry J. Thompson
Dr. Hisham Hussan
Guest Editors

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• precision oncology
• precision nutrition
• bioactive food components
• cancer prevention and control
• diet and nutrition
• dietary oncopharmacognosy
• pharmacology
• natural products
• cancer kinome
• chemoprevention
• natural products
• small-molecule inhibitors