Phyto-polyphenols as potential inhibitors of breast cancer metastasis

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women as metastasis is currently the main cause of mortality. Breast cancer cells undergoing metastasis acquire resistance to death signals and increase of cellular motility and invasiveness. Plants are rich in polyphenolic compounds, many of them with known medicinal effects. Various phyto-polyphenols have also been demonstrated to suppress cancer growth. Their mechanism of action is usually pleiotropic as they target multiple signaling pathways regulating key cellular processes such as proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation. Importantly, some phyto-polyphenols show low level of toxicity to untransformed cells, but selective suppressing effects on cancer cells proliferation and differentiation. In this review, we summarize the current information about the mechanism of action of some phyto-polyphenols that have demonstrated anti-carcinogenic activities in vitro and in vivo. Gained knowledge of how these natural polyphenolic compounds work can give us a clue for the development of novel anti-metastatic agents.