Molecular targets of phytochemicals for cancer prevention

Dietary phytochemicals, which are thought to be safe for use as cancer prevention agents, have emerged as modulators of key cellular signalling pathways. The task now is to understand how these chemicals perturb these pathways by modelling their interactions with their target proteins. Although successful for a limited number of tumour types, the efficacy of cancer therapies, especially for late-stage disease, remains poor overall. Many have argued that this could be avoided by focusing on cancer prevention, which has now entered the arena of targeted therapies. During the process of identifying preventive agents, dietary phytochemicals, which are thought to be safe for human use, have emerged as modulators of key cellular signalling pathways. The task now is to understand how these chemicals perturb these pathways by modelling their interactions with their target proteins.