Table 1.

Some of the phytochemicals used against cancer, the methodology, and the final outcomes.

Phytochemical	Cancer	Interventions	Effect	References
Allium sativum	Colorectal, liver, and pancreatic cancer patients Colorectal ademas	500 mg of aged garlic extract (GE) in 4 capsules for 12 weeks 2.4 mL GE in 3 capsules twice a day for 1 year	Natural killer (NK) cells increased in number and activity. Reduced size and number of colon adenomas.	[40] [41]
Camptothecin (Ct)	Patients with refractory cancer Primary/metastatic lung cancer patients	Ct: 3 weeks drug-1-week rest; Nitro-Ct: 5 day drug- 2 days rest 6.7–26.6 µg/kg of Ct in the form of aerosolized liposomes were given 5 days a week for 6 weeks, followed by a gap of 2 weeks.	Both the compounds showed tumor regression in patients with breast cancer, prostate cancer, and melanomas. 3 lung patients stabilized upon dosage.	[42] [43]
Curcumin	Urinary bladder cancer, uterine cervical neoplasm, and intestinal metaplasia Advanced pancreatic cancer	500 mg/day, orally, for 3 months Dosage was 8 g/day for one month	Improvement in 1 out of every 2 patients with bladder cancer and 1 out of 6 patients with intestinal Metaplasia, and 1 out of 4 patients with uterine cervical neoplasm. Study was conducted on 21 patients, of whom 1 had stable disease for >18 months and 1 had tumor reversion.	[44] [45]
Green tea	Patients with high-grade prostate intraepithelial neoplasia Patients with adenocarcinoma of the prostate Esophageal cancer Patients with colon, rectum and pancreas cancer	Green tea catechins (600 mg) were given daily, orally, for one year Tea consumption as a daily routine Usual green tea consumption Non-regular tea consumption	Improved quality of life Risk declination of prostate cancer with increased consumption of green tea. Reduced risk of Esophageal cancer. Inverse relation was associated with cancer and green tea consumption.	[46] [47] [48] [49]
Panax ginseng	Patients with cancer of uterine, ovary, rectum, stomach, etc	3000 mg/day of the heat-processed ginseng for 12 weeks	Improvement of mental and physical functioning, and hence improved quality of life.	[50]
Isoflavones	Prostate cancer	(60 mg) daily for 12 months	Reducing prostate cancer incidence for patients aged 65 or more.	[51]
Synthetic genistein	Prostate cancer	54 patients with localized prostate cancer. (30 mg) daily for 3–6 weeks	Decreasing level of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA).	[52]
Soy isoflavone	Prostate cancer	86 patients with localized prostate cancer. (80 mg total isoflavones, 51 mg aglucon units) daily for 6 weeks	No significant change in serum hormone levels, total cholesterol, or PSA.	[53]
Flavonoid mixture	Colorectal cancer	(20 mg apigenin and 20 mg EGCG) for 3–4 years. 87 patients with resected colorectal cancer or polypectomy	Reducing the recurrence rate of colon neoplasia in patients with resected colon cancer.	[54]
Isoflavones and curcumin	Prostate cancer	Isoflavones (40 mg) and curcumin (100 mg) daily for 6 months	decreasing level of serum PSA.	[55]