Year: 2025 | Month: November | Volume: 12 | Issue: 11 | Pages: 346-355
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20251138
Functional Foods in Cancer Prevention: Mechanisms, Evidence, and Future Directions
Srushti Kudalkar1, Shagun Arya2, Mugdha Pradhan3
1Pharm. D, Researcher, Thrivetribe Wellness Solutions Private Limited
2M.Sc., Expert Functional Nutritionist, Thrivetribe Wellness Solutions Private Limited
3M. Sc., Expert Functional Nutritionist, Thrivetribe Wellness Solutions Private Limited
Corresponding Author: Srushti Kudalkar
ABSTRACT
Cancer is a serious global health issue, responsible for millions of deaths each year despite breakthroughs in detection and treatment. The growing realization that up to one-third of cancers could be avoided via dietary and lifestyle changes has drawn attention to the importance of nutrition in cancer prevention. Functional foods, which contain bioactive components such as polyphenols, carotenoids, omega-3 fatty acids, glucosinolates, and probiotics, protect beyond simple nutrition. These components regulate oxidative stress, inflammation, carcinogen metabolism, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and epigenetic regulation, influencing several phases of carcinogenesis.
A large number of experimental, epidemiological, and clinical studies show a negative relationship between plant-based, bioactive-rich diet consumption and cancer risk, although the quality of the evidence differs by cancer type and community. Despite promising molecular findings, translation into clinical recommendations is hindered by issues of bioavailability, dosage consistency, interindividual variability, and a paucity of large-scale human trials.
Future research should combine precision nutrition, improved delivery devices, and well-designed longitudinal studies to better understand dose-response correlations and processes in certain malignancies. Functional foods thus represent a potential, multi-targeted, and safe cancer prevention technique that combines nutrition and molecular oncology.
Keywords: Functional foods, Cancer prevention, Bioactive compounds, Phytochemicals, Nutraceuticals, Epigenetics
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