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Actual Preventive Drugs and Food Factors on Cancer

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A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2022) | Viewed by 20605

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Michihiro Mutoh

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Guest Editor

Department of Molecular-Targeting Prevention, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kawaramachi-Hirokoji, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan
Interests: cancer chemoprevention; animal model; translational research
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Satoru Takahashi

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Co-Guest Editor

Department of Experimental Pathology and Tumor Biology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, 1-Kawasumi, Mizuho-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya, 467-8601, Japan
Interests: pathology; prostate cancer; cancer prevention

Prof. Dr. Tetsuji Takayama

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Co-Guest Editor

Department of Gastroenterology and Oncology, Tokushima University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 3-18-15 Kuramoto-cho, Tokushima, 770-8503, Japan
Interests: gastroenterology; clinical trial; molecular biology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The number of people suffering from cancer is increasing year by year; however, improvement of treatment and prevention methods is still needed. Given that the number of cancer survivors has also increased dramatically, it is predicted that the number of individuals at high-risk for cancer, i.e., targets for cancer prevention, will increase in the future.

The cancer preventive medicine era will be reached after the genomic medicine era. In addition to the development of cancer-molecule-targeted drugs, molecules that could act as effective targets for cancer prevention have been specifically selected and their mechanisms of action have been analyzed. Target molecules for use in cancer chemoprevention include adiponectin, angiotensin II receptor, carbonic anhydrase, cyclooxygenase, HMG-CoA reductase, inducible nitric oxide synthase, NADPH oxidase, lipoprotein lipase, and plasminogen activator-1. However, the question remain as to how many of these cancer chemopreventive agents and foods can be used as actual clinical medicines?

This Special Issue entitled "Preventive drugs and food factors for treating cancer" will include the latest research on cancer chemopreventive agents and functional foods including drug epidemiology, clinical research, basic research, and big data science. We welcome submissions from specialists on diseases that could act as risk factors for cancer as well as from cancer specialists.

Prof. Dr. Michihiro Mutoh
Prof. Dr. Satoru Takahashi
Prof. Dr. Tetsuji Takayama
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

cancer prevention
chemopreventive agents
functional foods

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 1399 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Aspirin and Primary Cancer Risk Reduction in Ischemic Cardiac or Cerebrovascular Disease Survivors: A Nationwide Population-Based Propensity-Matched Cohort Study

by Yen-Hsiang Liao, Ren-Jun Hsu, Tzu-Hwei Wang, Chen-Ta Wu, Sheng-Yao Huang, Chung-Y. Hsu, Wen-Lin Hsu and Dai-Wei Liu

Cancers 2023, 15(1), 97; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cancers15010097 - 23 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1752

Abstract

Ischemic cardiac or cerebrovascular disease (ICCD) survivors represent a subpopulation with a high cancer risk. Antiplatelet medications, such as aspirin, remain a fundamental therapy for the secondary prevention of ischemic attack in these patients. We conducted a population-based cohort study to investigate the association of long-term low-dose aspirin use with the risk of primary cancer in ICCD survivors. Patients aged ≥20 years with newly diagnosed ICCD (n = 98,519) between January 2000 and December 2013 were identified from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The aspirin user and nonuser groups (each n = 24,030) were propensity-matched (1:1) for age, sex, comorbidities, prior medications, ICCD diagnosis year, and year of index dates. The incidence rate of primary cancer was significantly lower in the user group (6.49/1000 person-years) than in the nonuser group (14.04/1000 person-years). Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that aspirin use was an independent factor associated with a reduced risk of primary cancer (aHR (95% confidence interval) = 0.42 (0.38–0.45)) after adjustment. Kaplan–Meier curve analysis revealed that the cumulative incidence rate of primary cancer was significantly lower (p < 0.0001) in the user group than in the nonuser group over the 14-year follow-up period. Subgroup analyses demonstrated that this anticancer effect increased with duration of treatment and with similar estimates in women and men. In addition, aspirin use was associated with a reduced risk for seven out of the ten most common cancers in Taiwan. These findings suggest the anticancer effect of aspirin in ICCD survivors and provide information for assessing the benefit-to-risk profile of aspirin as an antiplatelet medication in these patients. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Actual Preventive Drugs and Food Factors on Cancer)

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14 pages, 2419 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effect of Dietary Methyl-Donor Intake and Other Lifestyle Factors on Cancer Patients in Hungary

by Eva Kiss, Anett Hajdu, Gertrud Forika, Magdolna Dank, Tibor Krenacs and Zsuzsanna Nemeth

Cancers 2022, 14(18), 4432; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cancers14184432 - 13 Sep 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1586

Abstract

Background: Nutrition is essential to life and can have an indisputable influence on health and prevention of disease development including cancer. Methyl-donors are macronutrients that are important in achieving a healthy balance of metabolic processes. Their deficiency can lead to several symptoms and diseases—even to severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. We aimed to explore the potential protective effect of methyl-donor intake in breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancer by patient follow up. Methods: A food frequency questionnaire and a diet diary were used to evaluate methyl-donor intake and blood samples were taken to evaluate Il-6 and IL-8 cytokine levels as well as MTHFR (C677T) polymorphism in breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancer patients. Results: We found that levels around the recommended daily intake of B6 and B9 were effective in supporting the overall survival of breast and colorectal, and a relatively higher level of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, patients. The total intake of methyl-donors significantly and negatively correlated with smoking in pancreatic cancer, while folate as well as betaine intake significantly and positively correlated with IL-8 in colorectal cancer patients. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the appropriate intake of methyl-donor can be an adjunct of conventional oncotherapy to improve quality of life. Whether methyl-donor intake supports cancer prevention and patient survival needs further confirmation in large patient cohorts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Actual Preventive Drugs and Food Factors on Cancer)

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14 pages, 3484 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Chemopreventive Effects of Concomitant or Individual Use of Statins, Aspirin, Metformin, and Angiotensin Drugs: A Study Using Claims Data of 23 Million Individuals

by Ching-Huan Wang, Chih-Wei Huang, Phung Anh Nguyen, Ming-Chin Lin, Chih-Yang Yeh, Md. Mohaimenul Islam, Annisa Ristya Rahmanti and Hsuan-Chia Yang

Cancers 2022, 14(5), 1211; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cancers14051211 - 25 Feb 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2316

Abstract

Despite previous studies on statins, aspirin, metformin, and angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs)/angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), little has been studied about all their possible combinations for chemoprevention against cancers. This study aimed to comprehensively analyze the composite chemopreventive effects of all the combinations. In this case-control study, health records were retrieved from claims databases of Taiwan’s Health and Welfare Data Science Center. Eligible cases were matched at a 1:4 ratio with controls for age and sex. Both cases and controls were categorized into 16 exposure groups based on medication use. A total of 601,733 cancer cases were identified. Cancer risks (denoted by adjusted odds ratio; 99% confidence interval) were found to be significantly decreased: overall risk of all cancers in statin-alone (0.864; 0.843, 0.886), aspirin-alone (0.949; 0.939, 0.958), and ACEIs/ARBs (0.982; 0.978, 0.985) users; prostate (0.924; 0.889, 0.962) and female breast (0.967; 0.936, 1.000) cancers in metformin-alone users; gastrointestinal, lung, and liver cancers in aspirin and/or ACEIs/ARBs users; and liver cancer (0.433; 0.398, 0.471) in statin users. In conclusion, the results found no synergistic effect of multiple use of these agents on cancer prevention. Use of two (statins and aspirin, statins and metformin, statins and ACEIs/ARBs, and aspirin and ACEIS/ARBs) showed chemopreventive effects in some combinations, while the use of four, in general, did not. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Actual Preventive Drugs and Food Factors on Cancer)

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23 pages, 3365 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Computational Approaches for Cancer-Fighting: From Gene Expression to Functional Foods

by Francesco Monticolo and Maria Luisa Chiusano

Cancers 2021, 13(16), 4207; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cancers13164207 - 21 Aug 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2602

Abstract

It is today widely accepted that a healthy diet is very useful to prevent the risk for cancer or its deleterious effects. Nutrigenomics studies are therefore taking place with the aim to test the effects of nutrients at molecular level and contribute to the search for anti-cancer treatments. These efforts are expanding the precious source of information necessary for the selection of natural compounds useful for the design of novel drugs or functional foods. Here we present a computational study to select new candidate compounds that could play a role in cancer prevention and care. Starting from a dataset of genes that are co-expressed in programmed cell death experiments, we investigated on nutrigenomics treatments inducing apoptosis, and searched for compounds that determine the same expression pattern. Subsequently, we selected cancer types where the genes showed an opposite expression pattern and we confirmed that the apoptotic/nutrigenomics expression trend had a significant positive survival in cancer-affected patients. Furthermore, we considered the functional interactors of the genes as defined by public protein-protein interaction data, and inferred on their involvement in cancers and/or in programmed cell death. We identified 7 genes and, from available nutrigenomics experiments, 6 compounds effective on their expression. These 6 compounds were exploited to identify, by ligand-based virtual screening, additional molecules with similar structure. We checked for ADME criteria and selected 23 natural compounds representing suitable candidates for further testing their efficacy in apoptosis induction. Due to their presence in natural resources, novel drugs and/or the design of functional foods are conceivable from the presented results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Actual Preventive Drugs and Food Factors on Cancer)

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23 pages, 5948 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Suppressive Effect and Molecular Mechanism of Houttuynia cordata Thunb. Extract against Prostate Carcinogenesis and Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer

by Subhawat Subhawa, Aya Naiki-Ito, Hiroyuki Kato, Taku Naiki, Masayuki Komura, Aya Nagano-Matsuo, Ranchana Yeewa, Shingo Inaguma, Teera Chewonarin, Ratana Banjerdpongchai and Satoru Takahashi

Cancers 2021, 13(14), 3403; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cancers13143403 - 07 Jul 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4456

Abstract

Houttuynia cordata Thunb. (HCT) is a well-known Asian medicinal plant with biological activities used in the treatment of many diseases including cancer. This study investigated the effects of HCT extract and its ethyl acetate fraction (EA) on prostate carcinogenesis and castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). HCT and EA induced apoptosis in androgen-sensitive prostate cancer cells (LNCaP) and CRPC cells (PCai1) through activation of caspases, down-regulation of androgen receptor, and inactivation of AKT/ERK/MAPK signaling. Rutin was found to be a major component in HCT (44.00 ± 5.61 mg/g) and EA (81.34 ± 5.21 mg/g) in a previous study. Rutin had similar effects to HCT/EA on LNCaP cells and was considered to be one of the active compounds. Moreover, HCT/EA inhibited cell migration and epithelial-mesenchymal transition phenotypes via STAT3/Snail/Twist pathways in LNCaP cells. The consumption of 1% HCT-mixed diet significantly decreased the incidence of adenocarcinoma in the lateral prostate lobe of the Transgenic rat for adenocarcinoma of prostate model. Similarly, tumor growth of PCai1 xenografts was significantly suppressed by 1% HCT treatment. HCT also induced caspase-dependent apoptosis via AKT inactivation in both in vivo models. Together, the results of in vitro and in vivo studies indicate that HCT has inhibitory effects against prostate carcinogenesis and CRPC. This plant therefore should receive more attention as a source for the future development of non-toxic chemopreventive agents against various cancers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Actual Preventive Drugs and Food Factors on Cancer)

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17 pages, 4291 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Rabdosianone I, a Bitter Diterpene from an Oriental Herb, Suppresses Thymidylate Synthase Expression by Directly Binding to ANT2 and PHB2

by Motoki Watanabe, Yasumasa Yamada, Yoichi Kurumida, Tomoshi Kameda, Mamiko Sukeno, Mahiro Iizuka-Ohashi, Yoshihiro Sowa, Yosuke Iizumi, Hideki Takakura, Shingo Miyamoto, Toshiyuki Sakai and Michihiro Mutoh

Cancers 2021, 13(5), 982; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cancers13050982 - 26 Feb 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3382

Abstract

Natural products have numerous bioactivities and are expected to be a resource for potent drugs. However, their direct targets in cells often remain unclear. We found that rabdosianone I, which is a bitter diterpene from an oriental herb for longevity, Isodon japonicus Hara, markedly inhibited the growth of human colorectal cancer cells by downregulating the expression of thymidylate synthase (TS). Next, using rabdosianone I-immobilized nano-magnetic beads, we identified two mitochondrial inner membrane proteins, adenine nucleotide translocase 2 (ANT2) and prohibitin 2 (PHB2), as direct targets of rabdosianone I. Consistent with the action of rabdosianone I, the depletion of ANT2 or PHB2 reduced TS expression in a different manner. The knockdown of ANT2 or PHB2 promoted proteasomal degradation of TS protein, whereas that of not ANT2 but PHB2 reduced TS mRNA levels. Thus, our study reveals the ANT2- and PHB2-mediated pleiotropic regulation of TS expression and demonstrates the possibility of rabdosianone I as a lead compound of TS suppressor. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Actual Preventive Drugs and Food Factors on Cancer)

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12 pages, 1584 KiB

Open AccessSystematic Review

Association between Vitamin D Supplementation and Cancer Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

by Renjie Zhang, Yu Zhang, Zheran Liu, Yiyan Pei, Ping Xu, Weelic Chong, Yang Hai, Ling He, Yan He, Jiayi Yu, Jingjing Wang, Fang Fang and Xingchen Peng

Cancers 2022, 14(15), 3717; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cancers14153717 - 30 Jul 2022

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 3588

Abstract

Background: Vitamin D deficiency is related to increased cancer risk and deaths. However, whether vitamin D supplementation reduces cancer mortality remains unclear, and several randomized controlled trials yield inconsistent results. Methods: Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched from their inception until 28 June 2022, for randomized controlled trials investigating vitamin D supplementation. Pooled relative risks (RRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated. Trials with vitamin D supplementation combined with calcium supplementation versus placebo alone and recruiting participants with cancer at baseline were excluded in the present study. Results: This study included 12 trials with a total of 72,669 participants. Vitamin D supplementation did not reduce overall cancer mortality (RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.80–1.16). However, vitamin D supplementation was associated with a reduction in lung cancer mortality (RR 0.63, 95% CI 0.45–0.90). Conclusions: Vitamin D supplementation could not reduce cancer mortality in this highly purified meta-analysis. Further RCTs that evaluate the association between vitamin D supplementation and total cancer mortality are still needed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Actual Preventive Drugs and Food Factors on Cancer)

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