Anticancer and multidrug-resistance reversing potential of traditional medicinal plants and their bioactive compounds in leukemia cell lines

Multidrug resistance remains a serious clinical problem in the successful therapy of malignant diseases. It occurs in cultured tumor cell lines, as well as in human cancers. Therefore, it is critical to develop novel anticancer drugs with multidrug-resistance modulating potential to increase the survival rate of leukemia patients. Plant-derived natural products have been used for the treatment of various diseases for thousands of years. This review summarizes the anticancer and multidrug-resistance reversing properties of the extracts and bioactive compounds from traditional medicinal plants in different leukemia cell lines. Further mechanistic studies will pave the road to establish the anticancer potential of plant-derived natural compounds.