Synergistic interactions between anticancer chemotherapeutics and phenolic compounds and anticancer synergy between polyphenols.

Chemoprevention has recently gained a new dimension due to the possibility of studying the mechanisms of action of chemopreventive agents at the molecular level. Many compounds have been proved to inhibit early stages of carcinogenesis in experimental models. These compounds include both recognized drugs (such as tamoxifen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and natural constituents of edible and therapeutic plants, particularly polyphenols. Phenolics are characterized by high structural diversity and, consequently, a very broad spectrum of biological activities. They are increasingly looked upon as a valuable alternative or a support for synthetic drugs, as evidenced by a growing number of clinical trials regarding the use of phenolic compounds and polyphenol-rich extracts in chemoprevention and therapy. In the present work, we discuss the effectiveness of natural polyphenols as cancer preventive and therapeutic agents resulting from their synergy with synthetic or semisynthetic anticancer drugs as well as with other phenolic compounds of plant origin.