Natural Products in Cancer Prevention and Therapy

Cancer continues to be a significant global health concern due to its high mortality rates, resistance to traditional treatments, and unchecked cellular proliferation. Radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and surgery have long been the main procedures to cure cancer. Nevertheless, the drawbacks of these conventional therapies, mostly toxicity, resistance, and tumor heterogeneity, culminate in the pressing need for new, as well as more potent alternatives. Because of their various bioactive chemicals and multi-target mechanisms, natural products, especially those derived from plants, have shown great promise as cancer treatments. Natural phytochemicals regulate oxidative stress, cell cycle, apoptosis, metastasis, angiogenesis, and epigenetic changes and demonstrate strong anticancer effects. Compounds including vincristine, quercetin, and paclitaxel have been verified in clinical studies, demonstrating their promising activities as adjuvants and chemotherapeutics. Even with encouraging outcomes, problems including complicated regulatory pathways, poor bioavailability, and unstable formulations still exist. But developments in pharmacogenomics, AI-driven compound discovery, and nanotechnology are transforming personalized medicine and natural product research. In order to harness nature's pharmacological arsenal for safer and more effective cancer medicines, future strategies should concentrate on integrating omics technologies, improving clinical translation, and building regulatory frameworks.