Vitamin B2: A promising adjuvant in cisplatin based chemoradiotherapy by cellular redox management

Cancer has been a big challenge in the clinical research arena for many years. All the major anticancer drugs are either not effective or induce serious side effects. Cisplatin (CP) is one of the most valued anticancer drugs against various forms of cancer but it exerts many side effects often resulting in withdrawal of clinical usage during long-term chemotherapy. Thus, increasing the efficacy of the drugs and minimizing deleterious side effects is needed. Vitamins like riboflavin (RF) are promising under photodynamic therapy in this aspect because of its potential as an efficient adjuvant confirmed in many cancer cell lines and animal-based studies. It has been found to alleviate CP-induced side effects significantly under photoillumination in mice. As CP exerts most of its toxic effects by oxidative and nitrosative stress; clubbing ribophototherapy with chemotherapy involving CP can shift the redox status favoring better cancer treatment. This strategy can not only increase the average life span of the cancer patients but also improve their quality of life significantly. However, cancer is still considered as a disease of genetic and metabolic disorders; hence, attacking both aspects of the disease can give better results as compared to contemporary treatment modalities. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.