Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, and Cancer ─ Dietary Approaches for Cancer Prevention

Increasing scientific evidence suggests that the majority of diseases including cancer are driven by oxidative stress and inflammation, attributed to environmental factors. These factors either drive genetic mutations or epigenetically modify expression of key regulatory genes. These changes can occur as early as gestational fetal development, and major questions remain as to how dietary/nutritional phytochemical factors biochemically interact with such genetic and epigenetic events. With chapters written by international experts, Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, and Cancer: Dietary Approaches for Cancer Prevention examines the latest developments on the effects of various dietary phytochemicals.

Divided into nine sections, the book begins with the basic mechanisms of inflammation/oxidative stress-driven cancer, including an overview of the topic and how to prevent carcinogenesis, the role of obesity in inflammation and cancer, and antioxidant properties of some common dietary phytochemicals. Subsequent sections cover cellular signal transduction, molecular targets, and biomarkers of dietary cancer-preventive phytochemicals, as well as their potential challenges with in vivo absorption and pharmacokinetics.

The chapters also examine the cancer-preventive properties of various classes of phytochemicals, including vitamins A, D, and E; omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids; flavanoids and polyphenols; garlic organosulfur compounds and cruciferous glucosinolates; and selenium, traditional Chinese herbal medicines, and alpha lipoic acid. The final section of the book explores the latest developments on the interactions of dietary phytochemicals through epigenetics and the management of chronic inflammation with nutritional phytochemicals.

Ah-Ng "Tony" Kong, Ph.D., is a distinguished professor (PII), Glaxo Endowed Chair Professor of Pharmaceutics, and director of the Graduate Program in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He is also the director for the Center for Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics at Rutgers University. Dr. Kong has published more than 200 original research papers, review articles, and book chapters. He has chaired and given presentations in many national and international symposia and conferences and is currently serving on the board of 15 international journals. His research areas are in dietary phytochemicals (signaling and gene expression, nutrigenomics, cancer chemoprevention); animal tumor models of the prostate, colon, and skin; epigenetics/epigenomics; oxidative/redox/inflammatory stress response; Nrf2-mediated nuclear transactivation and signaling; and pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of phytochemicals.