About this Research Topic
Considering the side effects and relapse due to drug resistance of traditional hormone therapy for HRC, the use of natural phytochemicals abundant in plant foods has attracted great concern. Flavonoids are the largest class of plant-specific secondary metabolites (over 5000 different compounds) and are widely present in common fruits, vegetables, tea, soybeans, grains, and their processed foods. Lines of evidence have suggested flavonoids as a chemoprophylaxis agent to prevent tumorigenesis, with multiple functions in the different physiological and pathological processes of cancer, such as anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, epigenetic regulation and modulation of the gut microbiota, et al. Furthermore, flavonoids seem to possess both hormone-like and anti-hormone effects ascribed to their structural similarity to the natural estrogen estradiol and other steroid hormones or antagonists, which are known to modulate multiple cancer-related molecular targets. Thus, these multifaceted values of flavonoids deserve to be explored in the prevention and treatment of HRC, which maybe provide guidance for diet guidelines to a certain extent in the future.
The current research topic aims to comprehensively explore the diverse impacts of total/subclass of/individual flavonoids on HRC preventing and controlling, address the underlying mechanism of flavonoids as potential therapeutic or preventive molecular targets, and further promote the development of natural flavonoids drugs in clinical research.
We welcome researchers and clinicians to submit original research or reviews to specific topics of interest including, but not limited to:
• Observational studies/interventional studies/systematic reviews on multifaceted effects of flavonoids on HRC;
• Functional studies providing mechanistic insight into flavonoids metabolism with HRC;
• In vitro and in vivo studies of metabolic activities of flavonoids;
• Clinical studies evaluating synergistic effects between flavonoids and standardized therapies for HRC.
Keywords: flavonoids, hormone-related cancers, cancer epidemiology, cancer prevention and treatment, molecular targets
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.