A review of the anticancer properties of bee products and their molecular mechanisms: An overview on lung cancer

Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in the world, and it represents a significant percentage of all diagnosed cancers. Despite better clinical outcomes associated with current drugs, lung cancer has a worse survival rate than any of the other commonly occurring malignancies. Evidence suggests that natural products offer promising potential for improving the current treatment approaches and/or developing novel treatment strategies. Bee products such as honey, propolis, and venom have been reported to exert anti-cancer effects on a variety of human cancer cell lines, thereby paving the way for a wide range of treatment possibilities. The current review focuses on the cytotoxic effects of bee bioactive compounds on all types of cancer, and the molecular pathways by which they might reduce tumor cell growth or trigger apoptosis of cancer cells, with particular reference to lung cancer. This strategy could potentially improve the efficacy of current remedies, reduce the doses of chemotherapy drugs, and decrease adverse effects of chemotherapy drugs. Furthermore, in vitro studies on anti-cancer properties of bee products are carefully reviewed. The results reveal that bee products have the potential to become effective treatment agents against many forms of cancer in the future.