Can Natural Products be Used to Overcome the Limitations of Colorectal Cancer Immunotherapy?

Jiahuan Dong; Yufan Qian; Guangtao Zhang; Lu Lu; Shengan Zhang; Guang Ji; Aiguang Zhao; Hanchen Xu

doi:10.3389/fonc.2022.884423

Can Natural Products be Used to Overcome the Limitations of Colorectal Cancer Immunotherapy?

Front Oncol. 2022 May 4:12:884423. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.884423. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jiahuan Dong^{1

2}, Yufan Qian¹, Guangtao Zhang^{1

2}, Lu Lu¹, Shengan Zhang¹, Guang Ji¹, Aiguang Zhao², Hanchen Xu¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Digestive Diseases, Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Oncology, Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common cancer of the digestive system that endangers human health. Immunotherapy is widely used in the treatment of patients with cancer. Some patients with dMMR/MSI-H CRC benefit from treatments that use immune checkpoint inhibitors, but most CRC patients are not sensitive to immunotherapy. Furthermore, internal resistance and immune escape lead to a reduced immunotherapy response. Therefore, the development of an effective combination therapy to improve the response rate to immunotherapy is a goal of cancer research. Natural products are potential candidates for comprehensive cancer treatments due to their wide range of immunomodulatory effects through multifactorial underlying mechanisms. In this review, we summarize the challenges in the treatment of CRC and assess the immunomodulatory effects of natural products and their active components. Our work suggests that natural products represent potential options for combined CRC immunotherapy.

Keywords: colorectal cancer; immune checkpoint inhibitor; immunomodulation; immunotherapy; natural products.

Publication types

Review