Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Jul 24, 2021; 12(7): 522-543
Published online Jul 24, 2021. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v12.i7.522
Therapeutic potential of thymoquinone in combination therapy against cancer and cancer stem cells
Zaynab Fatfat, Maamoun Fatfat, Hala Gali-Muhtasib
Zaynab Fatfat, Maamoun Fatfat, Hala Gali-Muhtasib, Department of Biology, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon
Hala Gali-Muhtasib, Center for Drug Discovery, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon
Author contributions: Fatfat Z and Fatfat M reviewed the literature and drafted the manuscript; Gali-Muhtasib H initiated the idea and revised the manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts 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: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hala Gali-Muhtasib, PhD, Professor, Department of Biology, and Center for Drug Discovery, American University of Beirut, Bliss Street, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon. amro@aub.edu.lb
Received: February 27, 2021
Peer-review started: February 27, 2021
First decision: March 31, 2021
Revised: April 11, 2021
Accepted: June 18, 2021
Article in press: June 18, 2021
Published online: July 24, 2021
Processing time: 143 Days and 21.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: There has been great interest in integrating thymoquinone (TQ) in combination therapy particularly to target cancer stem cells, which are known to be responsible for resistance to treatment and cancer recurrence. The combination of TQ with standard chemotherapeutics and other natural products has exhibited promising anticancer responses. TQ was also shown to sensitize cancer cells to radiotherapy and help in overcoming major limitations that restrict the potency of chemotherapy, which are chemoresistance and treatment associated toxic effects.