Agri-Food By-Products in Cancer: New Targets and Strategies

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Bio-sustainability is one of the more attractive challenges of this era. About one-third of the food placed on the market is wasted, bringing economic and environmental implications. This review focuses on the role of natural derivatives from agri-food by-products to encourage the processes of the circular economy. Activities related to the reuse of agricultural processing waste could contribute to the birth of innovative companies and start-ups able to work for environmental sustainability. Agri-food by-products contain bioactive compounds that could be employed in the production of enriched food, cosmetics, and drugs by pharmaceutics companies. Furthermore, this manuscript aims to assess the main targets of these natural derivatives with particular attention on Epidermal growth factor receptor in breast, prostate and colorectal cancers. ABSTRACT: The globalization and the changes in consumer lifestyles are forcing us to face a deep transformation in food demand and in the organization of the entire food production system. In this new era, the food-loss and food-waste security nexus is relevant in the global debate and avoiding unsustainable waste in agri-food systems as well as the supply chain is a big challenge. “Food waste” is useful for the recovery of its valuable components, thus it can assume the connotation of a “food by-product”. Sustainable utilization of agri-food waste by-products provides a great opportunity. Increasing evidence shows that agri-food by-products are a source of different bioactive molecules that lower the inflammatory state and, hence, the aggressiveness of several proliferative diseases. This review aims to summarize the effects of agri-food by-products derivatives, already recognized as promising therapeutics in human diseases, including different cancer types, such as breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer. Here, we examine products modulating or interfering in the signaling mediated by the epidermal growth factor receptor.