Affiliation:
1. Kurukshetra University, India
Abstract
Cancer is one of the most deadly diseases caused due to abnormal division of the cells. Researchers are facing major challenge for finding the effective treatment of the cancer. Various methods of cancer treatment are chemotherapy, surgery, stem cell/bone marrow transplant, radiotherapy, hormone therapy, and anticancer drugs. The anticancer drugs may be natural, semi-synthetic, or synthetic in nature. The most widely used anticancer drugs are the phytochemicals isolated from the plants of their semi-synthetic analogues. So the research focuses on the isolation and identification of the bioactive compounds from natural sources as a potent anticancer agent. However, now the trend has been moved from the natural plant-based products to the natural products mimics of molecule that is the part of human response system. So, the present chapter briefly highlights the current status of commercialized phytochemicals used as anticancer drugs along with mechanism of action of some important drugs.