Flavonoids and their association with prevention of cancer

Background: Cancer is a major public health concern in many countries in the world. Diet is one of the most important factors in cancer prevention. There are various foods that have antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. In recent decades, Flavonoids have attracted a lot of attention because of their relationship with cancer. Flavonoids are divided into 6 subclasses containing flavanones, flavones, flavonols, flavan-3-ols, isoflavones and anthocyanidins. The aim of this study is to investigate the results of preclinical and epidemiological articles with the subjects of flavonoids based diets for prevention of cancer. Method: We did a review of intervention and epidemiological investigations associated with the role of flavonoids in prevention of cancer. We search the keywords, cancer, flavonoids, and liver, pancreatic, breast, gastric and lung.Results: According to the epidemiological investigations, flavonoids intake in the diet may have an effective role in the reduction of the risk of lung, breast and pancreas. Though, some studies reported the adverse results and showed its harmful relations. Differences in lifestyle, socio-demographic factors and also agricultural effect on the use of flavonoids among people in Asia, Europe and the United States. Time of exposure and the amount of flavonoids may have an anticancer effect on the response to diets rich in flavonoids. There were limited intervention studies on flavonoids which have proved their effects on cancer prevention.Conclusion: Flavonoids have protective effects against several kinds of cancers containing stomach, liver, breast, colorectal, pancreas and lung cancer. More studies are needed to discuss the properties of metabolites (such as equolot producer) on the risk of cancer. Also, more preclinical investigations are needed to show how flavonoids at physiological doses are affected gene regulation in prevention of cancer.

کلیدواژه ها:

Flavonoids ، Cancer prevention ، Diet ، Epidemiology