Cancer is a polygenic disease caused by mutations or epigenetic changes in the hereditary blueprint of a normal cell and, due to the aging population and numerous environmental factors, represents a health challenge of global proportions. Cancer patients can be treated with surgery, radiation or systemic treatment with cytostatics (i.e., chemotherapy), hormonal drugs and targeted drugs. The potential toxicity and lack of selectivity of these drugs has led to increasing research into alternative treatments. Plant-derived chemicals, or phytochemicals, stand out as having great potential in cancer treatment due to their multiple mechanisms of action, variety of chemical structures, availability in nature and relatively low toxicity. They have different targets in the organism; they can affect apoptotic pathways, genetic and epigenetic mutations, deoxyribonucleic acid damage, production of reactive oxygen species, autophagy, cancer cell invasion and metastasis, modulation of cell signalling, etc. Many phytochemicals are being studied pharmacologically for their chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic potential. However, in vitro experiments and animal studies have also shown antiproliferative, proapoptotic, antimetastatic and antiangiogenic effects of numerous phytochemicals. The aim of this thesis is to review the scientific literature on phytochemicals used for the treatment or supportive care of cancer and to identify possible molecular mechanisms of anticancer action of different phytochemicals on cancer cells.
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