ABSTRACT
Cancer accounted for 10 million deaths in 2020. Nearly 19.3 million new cancer cases were diagnosed during 2020. Cost and side effects of conventional treatment for cancer lead to a search for novel bioactive metabolites from phytochemicals with fewer side effects. Seaweed is a rich source of unexplored novel bioactive metabolites with various medicinal applications. Primary and secondary metabolites from seaweeds have shown effective anticancer activity against different types of cancer cell lines. Metabolites extracted from seaweeds exhibited anticancer properties by inducing apoptosis, antiangiogenic and antimetastatic properties. Bioactive metabolites from seaweeds exhibited cytotoxic activity on the cancer cells by lowering the anti-apoptotic markers, mesenchymal markers, and matrix metalloproteinases activity and by enhancing the epithelial markers, tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinase and proapoptotic markers. Seaweed metabolites were used in combination with anticancer drugs to enhance the cytotoxicity of anticancer drugs and to reduce the side effects caused by anticancer drugs. The synergistic effect of seaweed metabolites and anticancer drugs against different cancer cell lines are discussed in this chapter. In addition, the anticancer activity of seaweed extract and nanoparticles synthesized using seaweed extract will be reviewed.
