Apoptosis by dietary factors: the suicide solution for delaying cancer growth

Apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death, plays a fundamental role in the maintenance of tissues and organ systems by providing a controlled cell deletion to balanced cell proliferation. The last decade has witnessed an exponential increase in the number of studies investigating how different components of the diet interact at the molecular and cellular level to determine the fate of a cell. It is now apparent that many dietary chemopreventive agents with promise for human consumption can also preferentially inhibit the growth of tumor cells by targeting one or more signaling intermediates leading to induction of apoptosis. In this brief review, we summarize the available evidence for dietary chemopreventive substances as inducers of apoptosis in cancer cells. These emerging data suggest that some of these dietary agents especially those which humans could be persuaded to consume may be utilized in the prevention and management of cancer.