Research Trend and Detailed Insights into the Molecular Mechanisms of Food Bioactive Compounds against Cancer: A Comprehensive Review with Special Emphasis on Probiotics

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Treatment of cancer has long been a challenge. While researchers have been searching for many options for the cure, mother nature has blessed us with natural bioactive components with anticancer potential. Since the 1800s, scientists have been studying the efficacy of the bioactive agents present in our food for the treatment of cancer. This review summarizes the molecular mechanisms responsible for these effects. Moreover, owing to the increased intake of probiotics in daily diets, this review also explains how they can be helpful in cancer prevention and treatment. ABSTRACT: In an attempt to find a potential cure for cancer, scientists have been probing the efficacy of the food we eat and its bioactive components. Over the decades, there has been an exponentially increasing trend of research correlating food and cancer. This review explains the molecular mechanisms by which bioactive food components exhibit anticancer effects in several cancer models. These bioactive compounds are mainly plant based or microbiome based. While plants remain the primary source of these phytochemicals, little is known about probiotics, i.e., microbiome sources, and their relationships with cancer. Thus, the molecular mechanisms underlying the anticancer effect of probiotics are discussed in this review. The principal mode of cell death for most food bioactives is found to be apoptosis. Principal oncogenic signaling axes such as Akt/PI3K, JAK/STAT, and NF-κB seem to be modulated due to these bioactives along with certain novel targets that provide a platform for further oncogenic research. It has been observed that probiotics have an immunomodulatory effect leading to their chemopreventive actions. Various foods exhibit better efficacy as complete extracts than their individual phytochemicals, indicating an orchestrated effect of the food components. Combining bioactive agents with available chemotherapies helps synergize the anticancer action of both to overcome drug resistance. Novel techniques to deliver bioactive agents enhance their therapeutic response. Such combinations and novel approaches are also discussed in this review. Notably, most of the food components that have been studied for cancer have shown their efficacy in vivo. This bolsters the claims of these studies and, thus, provides us with hope of discovering anticancer agents in the food that we eat.