Mitochondria as Targets for Phytochemicals in Cancer Prevention and Therapy

This book highlights the importance of phytochemicals and mitochondria in cancer prevention and therapy. Recent scientific discoveries have identified that naturally occurring biologically active compounds (i.e. phytochemicals) target multiple steps of tumorigenesis leading to the inhibition or delay in cancer progression. Mitochondria, organelles within a cell, are a critical target for phytochemicals in regulating the initiation, promotion, and progression of cancer.

The book is divided into three parts to better communicate the important findings related to phytochemicals and mitochondria in cancer research. The first part describes updates on environmental and genetic factors causing cancer initiation and progression, the role of mitochondria function in regulating the process of tumorigenesis, and the role of mitochondria in regulating cell death such as apoptosis, autophagy, and necroptosis. The second part focuses on the elucidation of key target proteins that could be exploited for cancer prevention, an the role of phytochemicals in cancer prevention, updates on basic research related to phytochemicals action critical for cancer prevention, and updates on translational knowledge on cancer prevention by phytochemicals. The third part provides updates on phytochemicals targeting mitochondria for cancer therapy, an overview of action of phytochemicals on cancer stem cells, updates on the role of microRNA in phytochemicals-based therapy of cancer, and updates on phytochemicals-based translation research on therapy for metastatic cancer.

Dr. Dhyan Chandra is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York, USA. He has been a cancer researcher for more than 15 years focusing on how mitochondria-mediated cell death could be targeted for cancer prevention and therapy. He is also interested in understanding how mitochondria dysfunction regulates the process of carcinogenesis. He has served as reviewer for scientific journals and funding agencies, is on the editorial board of several science journals, and has delivered lectures at numerous conferences and academic institutions. He is the recipient of multiple awards including the American Cancer Society Scholar Award, the Howard Temin Award, and the Postdoctoral Fellowship Award.