Title:Phenolic Compounds in Prevention and Treatment of Skin Cancers: A Review
Volume: 28
Issue: 33
Author(s): Francesca Gado, Maria Digiacomo*, Jasmine Esposito Salsano, Marco Macchia and Clementina Manera
Affiliation:
- Department of Pharmacy, University of Pisa, Pisa,Italy
Keywords:
Skin cancer, phenolic compounds, oxidative stress, phytoextract, melanoma, chemoprevention,
non-melanoma skin cancer.
Abstract: Several clinical studies have shown that exposure of skin to solar ultraviolet
(UV) radiation causes adverse effects, such as inflammation, oxidative stress and DNA
damage. As a result, different skin disorders can arise, among which are skin cancer, including
non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) and melanoma (MM). Phenolic compounds
are plant-derived secondary metabolites with a well-known antioxidant activity, able to
counteract the negative effects of UV radiation. In this review, we discuss the effects of
some selected phenols on NMSC and MM, demonstrating that they can be useful in the
prevention and in the treatment of these types of tumors. Moreover, we report the mechanisms
by which these phenols carry out their antitumor action. In vitro and in vivo
studies have highlighted that many phenols are capable of inducing photoprotection,
apoptosis and autophagy. They can also reduce DNA methylation, tumorigenesis, tumor
incidence and proliferation. Moreover, we describe some examples of plant extracts,
whose anticancer activity appears to be better than that of single phenols. A great concordance
of results emerged, despite the differences in experimental methods. Therefore, the
knowledge compiled here could provide the basis for conducting some well-organized
clinical trials to validate the chemopreventive and the therapeutic potential of some
phenolic compounds in patients with NMSC and MM.
