Oxidative Stress Adverse Effects in Histological Changes Induced by Anticancer Drugs: A Review Article

Abstract

The imbalance in oxidant burden is defined as oxidative stress (OS), which is the most significant event in the body involved in cancer development and progression. Cancer cells are characterized by high levels of OS and higher oxidant levels. That makes a physician use a double medication strategy to regulate redox status, like pro-oxidant medication and antioxidant supplements. In fact, pro-oxidant drugs have high anti-cancer activities regarding great oxidant levels within cancer cells, while antioxidant medication for redox homeostasis was a failure in some clinical trials. In cancer cells, the redox vulnerability targeted by pro-oxidants ability to produce high-level reactive oxygen species (ROS) is essential for an anti-cancer strategy. Nevertheless, numerous harmful impacts happened by the random targets of uncontrolled therapy stimulate OS in the normal tissues, and the capacity of drug-tolerant of several cancer cells greatly restricted their more implements. The effect of ROS in tissues is revealed by protein oxidation, lipids peroxidation, and DNA mutation; all these changes contribute to histological changes. In the present review, some representative oxidative anti-cancer medications and adverse effects were explained.