Foreword

I feel privileged to write a foreword for this book that addresses the potential of natural product-derived nutraceuticals in the prevention and treatment of cancer and examines the techniques and methods employed for detecting their mechanism of action at the molecular and cellular level. Considering that cancer incidence and associated mortality and morbidity are increasing worldwide, accompanied by spiraling treatment and healthcare costs, strategies for the prevention of the disease are becoming very important. Many approaches have been implemented to reduce the incidence of this dreadful disease, but the use of natural chemopreventive agents remains, in my opinion, a promising and cost-effective strategy. Furthermore, natural product-derived chemopreventive agents are expected to be free of undesirable toxicities. Non-invasive methods for cancer detection, screening, diagnosis, treatment and metastasis are also of paramount importance in cancer chemoprevention. These methods are also addressed in this book titled “Functional Foods for Health Maintenance: Understanding their Role in Cancer Prevention” edited by Dr. Saroj Arora, Dr. Tajinder Kaur, Dr. Rajendra Mehta, Dr. Balbir Singh and Dr. Sandeep Kaur.

The book covers a broad range of topics contributed by experts in their field. Among them, it includes comprehensive overviews of nutraceuticals, phytochemicals, the application of nano-technology in cancer chemoprevention, and the techniques used for monitoring treatment outcomes. The book presents several studies that comprehensively demonstrate that nutraceuticals have anti-cancer properties. Understanding the mechanism of action of these natural chemopreventive agents is essential for the selection of the most promising combinations for maximum efficacy. Generally, chemopreventive agents modulate or disrupt the molecular mechanisms driving the process of carcinogenesis, including (a) preventing or reducing DNA damage introduced by reactive oxygen species in normal cells, (b) blocking cellular signal pathways involved in cell cycle progression and proliferation in cancer cells, and (c) promoting apoptosis in cancer cells.

I congratulate the editors for compiling this publication that provides the reader with the most recent advances in cancer chemoprevention and explains the use of nutraceuticals and functional foods in health maintenance. I expect that scientists interested in cancer treatment and prevention within the fields of cancer biology, biochemistry, pharmaceutical sciences and biotechnology will find this book very useful.