APOPTOSIS, CANCER, AND OVEREXPRESSION OF PROTEINS Nutraceuticals, Apoptosis, and Disease Prevention

Chemoprevention is the use of small molecules, including dietary or herbal chemicals, to prevent diseases, as opposed to chemotherapeutics, where chemicals, mostly synthetic, are used to remove or alleviate the symptom of diseases. The concept of chemoprevention, although prevalent in the East for thousands of years, has not gained scientific recognition in the West until recently. Large-scale clinical studies have demonstrated the efficacy of using tamoxifen, raloxifene, both estrogen receptor antagonists, and fenretinide, a synthetic retinoid, in protecting women from breast cancer.1–3 The report by the Chemoprevention Working Group to the American Association for Cancer Research was a watershed that signaled the acceptance of chemoprevention as a viable alternative means in cancer control.4 Therefore, it is of interest to explore the possibility of using phytochemicals or other dietary chemicals as chemopreventive agents. Further, the study of the biological effects of these phytochemicals at cellular level provides the molecular basis for their anti-disease function and helps to establish the platform for generating more potent chemopreventive and even chemotherapeutic agents.