Quercetin Modulates the Signalling Pathways and Therapeutic Targets in the Pathophysiology of Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Lung cancer is a progressive disease with the highest incidence and mortality rate of other cancer types. Besides, the low efficacy of current treatments used against lung cancer urges the need for novel alternative treatments. Method: Accordingly, quercetin (a flavonoid) has shown a mechanistic-based potential in preventing the progression of lung cancer. So, this study was designed to systematically review quercetin's therapeutic effects on the improvement of lung cancer. For this purpose, PubMed, Scopus and Cochrane library databases were searched based on the keywords lung cancer, lung carcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma and quercetin from 1997 to November 2021. We removed Non-English, repetitive, review and irrelevant articles according to title and abstract in the first step. After that, full-text screening was used to include the final studies. Results: From a total of 4341 results, finally 36 articles were included in the study, which the whole confirmed the therapeutic effects of quercetin on the improvement of lung malignancy. They also proved that quercetin has a synergic effect with chemical drugs used for lung cancer treatment. From the mechanical point of view, quercetin has employed several signaling mediators for lung therapeutic applications. This systematic review summarizes the modulatory effects of quercetin on several dysregulated pathways, including growth/proliferation, viability, migration/invasion, oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis. Conclusion: Prevailing studies show that quercetin interferes with molecular targets and mechanisms underlying lung cancer to prevent the development of such diseases in clinical applications.