Department of Pathology, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, Brazil.
Eur J Cancer Prev. 2013 Sep;22(5):467-72. doi: 10.1097/CEJ.0b013e32835b6a94.
Polyphenols are present in foods and beverages, being related to sensorial qualities such as color, bitterness, and astringency, which are relevant in products such as wine, tea, and grape juice. These compounds occur naturally in forms varying from simple phenolic acids to complex polymerized tannins. Oral cancer is the most common head and neck cancer, and it often has a poor prognosis owing to local tumor invasion and frequent lymph node metastasis. Nowadays, chemoprevention is considered as a promising approach for controlling cancer as a result of specific natural products or synthetic agents able to suppress, reverse, or even prevent premalignancy before transformation into invasive cancer. The use of polyphenols as a chemopreventive agent is a suitable tool for modulation of the oral carcinogenesis process. The aim of this article is to present data generated from the use of polyphenols as a chemopreventive agent in oral carcinogenesis using in-vivo and in-vitro test systems. These results have shown that polyphenols are able to exert some chemopreventive action as a result of inducing cellular death, apoptosis, inhibition of tumor growth, and antioxidative properties. Therefore, this area warrants further investigation as a new approach that would apply not only to polyphenols but also to other phytochemicals used as promising therapeutic agents against oral human diseases, especially cancer.
多酚存在于食物和饮料中，与感官质量有关，如颜色、苦味和涩味，这些质量在葡萄酒、茶和葡萄汁等产品中很重要。这些化合物以从简单的酚酸到复杂聚合单宁的形式自然存在。口腔癌是最常见的头颈部癌症，由于局部肿瘤侵袭和频繁的淋巴结转移，其预后往往较差。如今，由于某些天然产物或合成剂能够抑制、逆转甚至预防癌前病变转化为浸润性癌症，化学预防被认为是控制癌症的一种有前途的方法。多酚作为化学预防剂的使用是调节口腔癌变过程的合适工具。本文的目的是介绍使用多酚作为化学预防剂在体内和体外试验系统中对口腔癌变的研究数据。这些结果表明，多酚能够通过诱导细胞死亡、细胞凋亡、抑制肿瘤生长和抗氧化特性来发挥一些化学预防作用。因此，这一领域需要进一步研究，作为一种新的方法，不仅适用于多酚，也适用于其他作为治疗口腔人类疾病（特别是癌症）有前途的治疗剂的植物化学物质。
