Oxidative stress in female cancers

// Gloria M. Calaf 1, 2 , Ulises Urzua 3 , Lara Termini 4 and Francisco Aguayo 3, 5 1 Instituto de Alta Investigación (IAI), Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile 2 Center for Radiological Research, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA 3 Departamento de Oncología Básico Clínica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile 4 Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo, Centro de Investigação Translacional em Oncologia, Laboratório de Oncologia Experimental, São Paulo, SP, Brazil 5 Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases (ACCDiS), Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile Correspondence to: Gloria M. Calaf, email: gmc24@cumc.columbia.edu Francisco Aguayo, email: faguayo@med.uchile.cl Keywords: oxidative stress; cervical; breast; ovarian cancer; curcumin Received: December 30, 2017      Accepted: April 06, 2018      Published: May 04, 2018 ABSTRACT Breast, cervical and ovarian cancers are highly prevalent in women worldwide. Environmental, hormonal and viral-related factors are especially relevant in the development of these tumors. These factors are strongly related to oxidative stress (OS) through the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The OS is caused by an imbalance in the redox status of the organism and is literally defined as “an imbalance between ROS generation and its detoxification by biological system leading to impairment of damage repair by cell/tissue”. The multistep progression of cancer suggests that OS is involved in cancer initiation, promotion and progression. In this review, we described the role of OS and the interplay with environmental, host and viral factors related to breast, cervical and ovarian cancers initiation, promotion and progression. In addition, the role of the natural antioxidant compound curcumin and other compounds for breast, cervical and ovarian cancers prevention/treatment is discussed.