Phytochemical Modulation of Ion Channels in Oncologic Symptomatology and Treatment.

Simple Summary: Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. The costs involved in cancer diagnosis and treatment are extraordinary. Important steps that can be taken that would reduce costs include earlier cancer diagnosis for which significant headway is being made through biomarker identification in bodily fluids and imaging. Other important steps will be to identify treatment approaches that do not 'break the bank' and affect a patient's wellbeing. Herein, we aim to highlight the potential of phytochemicals as a cost-effective approach to aid in the treatment of cancer. We focus on phytochemicals that target ion channels, as molecules that mediate critical communication of a cell with its environment. Ultimately, we posit that phytochemicals targeting ion channels can be employed to aid cancer treatment. Modern chemotherapies offer a broad approach to cancer treatment but eliminate both cancer and non-cancer cells indiscriminately and, thus, are associated with a host of side effects. Advances in precision oncology have brought about new targeted therapeutics, albeit mostly limited to a subset of patients with an actionable mutation. They too come with side effects and, ultimately, 'self-resistance' to the treatment. There is recent interest in the modulation of ion channels, transmembrane proteins that regulate the flow of electrically charged molecules in and out of cells, as an approach to aid treatment of cancer. Phytochemicals have been shown to act on ion channels with high specificity regardless of the tumor's genetic profile. This paper explores the use of phytochemicals in cancer symptom management and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]