Rojas A, González I, Morales MA. Natural products and cancer: The urgent need to bridge the gap between preclinical and clinical research. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2025; 17(4): 100484 [DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i4.100484]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Armando Rojas, PhD, Full Professor, Senior Researcher, Biomedical Research Laboratories, Faculty of Medicine, Catholic University of Maule, 3605 San Miguel Ave, Talca 34600000, Chile. arojasr@ucm.cl
Research Domain of This Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Apr 15, 2025; 17(4): 100484 Published online Apr 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i4.100484
Natural products and cancer: The urgent need to bridge the gap between preclinical and clinical research
Armando Rojas, Ileana González, Miguel Angel Morales
Armando Rojas, Ileana González, Biomedical Research Laboratories, Faculty of Medicine, Catholic University of Maule, Talca 34600000, Chile
Miguel Angel Morales, Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology Program, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of Chile, Santiago 8320000, Chile
Author contributions: Rojas A, González I, and Morales MA, contributed to discussion and design of the manuscript, writing, and editing the manuscript, and review of literature; Rojas A, designed the overall concept and outline of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Armando Rojas, PhD, Full Professor, Senior Researcher, Biomedical Research Laboratories, Faculty of Medicine, Catholic University of Maule, 3605 San Miguel Ave, Talca 34600000, Chile. arojasr@ucm.cl
Received: August 17, 2024 Revised: January 20, 2025 Accepted: January 27, 2025 Published online: April 15, 2025 Processing time: 219 Days and 19.4 Hours
Abstract
Any new report on the anticancer properties of natural products always awakens new satisfaction and hope about the role of the international scientific community in its continuous contributions to human health, particularly when those reports contribute to both the understanding and therapeutics of cancer. For many decades, natural products have been pivotal in drug discovery programs because they offer a diverse array of anticancer therapeutic possibilities. Recently, two manuscripts published in the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology added new data to the already extensive body of anticancer preclinical evidence for resveratrol and senegenin, two compounds widely present in herbal preparations used in traditional Chinese medicine. The first one, with comprehensive and recognized anticancer properties, and the second one, shows a compelling body of evidence supporting its neuroprotective effects, but with emerging anticancer activities. Natural products have become key elements in the expanding and dynamic field of anticancer drug discovery. However, urgent and collective efforts are still needed to bridge the gap between preclinical and clinical research and thus bring new anticancer therapeutic breakthroughs.
Core Tip: Natural products have been extensively investigated for their anticancer potential for many decades, and some are milestones in the history of anticancer drug discovery. However, despite the compelling data achieved by preclinical studies, the challenges to validate the clinical use remain ahead.
