Therapeutic and pharmacological potential of Tanshinones against lung cancer: A systematic review

Lung cancer is the most prevalent of all cancers, causing the highest number of cancer-related deaths in men and the second-highest number in women worldwide. Recent advancements in cancer treatment have witnessed a paradigm shift of therapeutic approaches towards natural products. Several in vitro and in vivo studies have revealed the effective therapeutic potential of Tanshinones against various forms of cancer, including lung carcinomas. Therefore, a systematic assessment of the potential therapeutic efficacy of Tanshinones against lung cancer will provide important insights for their possible clinical application. This review was designed to study the therapeutic and pharmacological potential of Tanshinones against lung cancer in a systematic manner. This systematic review was conducted following the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statements. An extensive systematic search for literature on Tanshinones against lung cancer was performed in PubMed and Google Scholar databases using specific keywords. All the relevant articles published between January 2010 and April 2021 were considered. Out of the total 9,170 articles screened, 29 articles were selected for the present study based on the eligibility criteria. Among the included articles, 19 studies were conducted in vitro on lung cancer cell lines, 2 studies were performed in vivo on mice models, and 8 studies were conducted both in vitro and in vivo. The findings of the studies indicate that Tanshinones exhibit therapeutic potential against lung cancer by triggering various cellular processes such as oxidative stress, apoptosis, and cell cycle arrest and decreased mitochondrial potential, leading to cancer cell death or diminishing cell proliferation. The systematic review suggests the promising therapeutic potential of Tanshinones against lung carcinogenesis. However, the studies conducted so far were on lung cancer cell lines and mice models only. Therefore, to validate the translational potential of Tanshinones in clinical settings, more studies including human clinical trials with a large sample size are warranted.