Abstract

OVERVIEW ON CANCER: ROLE OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN ITS TREATMENT

Abhishek Chouhan*, Ankit Karma, Naveen Artani and Dipak Parihar

ABSTRACT

Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. If the spread is not controlled, it can result in death. Cancer is caused by external factors, such as tobacco, infectious organisms and an unhealthy diet and internal factors, such as inherited genetic mutations, hormones and immune conditions. These factors may act together or in sequence to cause cancer. Ten or more years often pass between exposure to external factors and detectable cancer. Treatments include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immune therapy and targeted therapy (drugs that specifically interfere with cancer cell growth).[1] Cancer is one of the most common leading causes of mortality worldwide. Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of cells resulting in lack of differentiation and ability to invade local tissues and metastasis which are proliferate individually throughout the body. During metastasis, cancer cells enter the blood stream and are carried to distant parts of the body where they form other similar growths. Synthetic drugs are available for the treatment of cancer but they are not free from adverse effects. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are major clinical treatment used for the control of early stages of tumor but these methods has serious side effects. Nature has provides human a variety of useful sources mainly plants for discovery and development of drugs against dreadful diseases. Traditional herb as an effective system of treatment of cancer and many diseases. Drugs from medicinal plants are found to be comparatively less toxic and side effects.[2]

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