Worldwide, colorectal cancer(CRC) is one of the most common malignant tumors, leading to immense social and economic burdens. Currently, the main treatments for CRC include surgery, chemotherapy,radiotherapy and immun...Worldwide, colorectal cancer(CRC) is one of the most common malignant tumors, leading to immense social and economic burdens. Currently, the main treatments for CRC include surgery, chemotherapy,radiotherapy and immunotherapy. Despite advances in the diagnosis and treatment of CRC, the prognosis for CRC patients remains poor. Furthermore, the occurrence of side effects and toxicities severely limits the clinical use of these therapies. Therefore, alternative medications with high efficacy but few side effects are needed. An increasing number of modern pharmacological studies and clinical trials have supported the effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicines(CHMs) for the prevention and treatment of CRC.CHMs may be able to effectively reduce the risk of CRC, alleviate the adverse reactions caused by chemotherapy, and prolong the survival time of patients with advanced CRC. Studies of molecular mechanisms have provided deeper insight into the roles of molecules from CHMs in treating CRC. This paper summarizes the current understanding of the use of CHMs for the prevention and treatment of CRC, the main molecular mechanisms involved in these processes, the role of CHMs in modulating chemotherapyinduced adverse reactions, and CHM's potential role in epigenetic regulation of CRC. The current study provides beneficial information on the use of CHMs for the prevention and treatment of CRC in the clinic,and suggests novel directions for new drug discovery against CRC.展开更多
基金supported by the grants of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81703803 and 81720108033)Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province(No. 2017A030310464),which paid for planning and collection of literature+1 种基金by the Project of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine (No. QNYC20190103)Guangdong Key Laboratory for Translational Cancer Research of Chinese Medicine (No.2018B030322011),which paid for writing and submitting the article for publication。
文摘Worldwide, colorectal cancer(CRC) is one of the most common malignant tumors, leading to immense social and economic burdens. Currently, the main treatments for CRC include surgery, chemotherapy,radiotherapy and immunotherapy. Despite advances in the diagnosis and treatment of CRC, the prognosis for CRC patients remains poor. Furthermore, the occurrence of side effects and toxicities severely limits the clinical use of these therapies. Therefore, alternative medications with high efficacy but few side effects are needed. An increasing number of modern pharmacological studies and clinical trials have supported the effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicines(CHMs) for the prevention and treatment of CRC.CHMs may be able to effectively reduce the risk of CRC, alleviate the adverse reactions caused by chemotherapy, and prolong the survival time of patients with advanced CRC. Studies of molecular mechanisms have provided deeper insight into the roles of molecules from CHMs in treating CRC. This paper summarizes the current understanding of the use of CHMs for the prevention and treatment of CRC, the main molecular mechanisms involved in these processes, the role of CHMs in modulating chemotherapyinduced adverse reactions, and CHM's potential role in epigenetic regulation of CRC. The current study provides beneficial information on the use of CHMs for the prevention and treatment of CRC in the clinic,and suggests novel directions for new drug discovery against CRC.