Mushrooms and Colorectal Cancer: Unveiling Mechanistic Insights and Therapeutic Innovations

Nature has bestowed us with an abundant reservoir of resources that besides having nutritional value, are prolific mines of bioactive constituents with a plethora of medicinal activities. Mushrooms have been used since centuries in traditional system of medicine for their purported health benefits including anticancer activities. Thorough research, spanning over centuries in Japan, China, Korea, and the USA, has established the unique properties of mushrooms and their extractives in the prevention and treatment of various types cancer. The aim of the review article is to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing literature highlighting the potential relationship between mushrooms and colorectal cancer. Different databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect were searched and a total of 62 articles and two book chapters were reviewed, and data were extracted. Multiple studies have demonstrated that mushrooms exhibit anticancer activities, effectively reducing adverse side effects such as nausea, myelosuppression, anemia, and sleeplessness. Furthermore, they have been shown to mitigate drug resistance following chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Certain species such as Antrodia, Pleurotus, Ganoderma, Lentinula, Hericium, Cantharellus, Clitocybe, Coprinopsis, Trametes, Sparassis, Lactarius, and so on manifest anticancer activity in colon. The article can help improve the scientific understanding of the co-relationship between mushrooms and colorectal cancer. This may help in advancing the research directions and integrating the mushroom-based strategies into current treatment protocols of colorectal cancer.