The mechanism of quercetin anti-breast cancer and nano-modification enhancing the anti-tumor effect of quercetin

Cancer is one of the major public health problems in today's society. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. A large number of studies have proved that phytochemicals have strong anti-cancer effects, quercetin is one of the representatives. Quercetin has high safety and inhibiting effects on the development of various cancers, but its low bioavailability restricts its clinical application. To overcome this shortcoming, the bioavailability of quercetin was improved by chemical modification and composite carrier. In this paper, the recent progress of quercetin in the treatment of breast cancer and its mechanism were reviewed. We also demonstrated the potential of quercetin - based nanomaterials to target breast cancer.