Applications of Plant Lectins in Detection and Targeted Therapy of Urological Cancers

Urological Cancers pose a serious threat to human health and represent a major challenge to healthcare systems worldwide. Among these, bladder cancer (BC), prostate cancer (PCa), and renal cancer (RC) are the most prevalent. Primary clinical management involves local or radical resection. However, for patients with advanced or inoperable disease, as well as those at high risk of post-surgical recurrence, chemotherapy remains an essential alternative or adjuvant treatment. Nevertheless, the lack of tumor targetability leads to low bioavailability and significant side effects of drugs, limiting the clinical application of chemotherapeutic agents. In recent years, plant lectins have gained significant attention in cancer therapy research owing to their unique tumor-recognition capabilities. Unlike traditional chemotherapeutic agents, they inherently bind specifically to abnormal glycans on urological tumor cells, endowing them with unparalleled targeted therapy advantages and great potential to address traditional chemotherapy's core limitations and improve clinical outcomes. This paper presents a systematic, comprehensive and structured review with integrated critical analysis of the progress in this field. It first describes the clinical treatment methods for common urinary system tumors, including an analysis of the importance and limitations of chemotherapy. It then elaborates on the biological activities and antitumor mechanisms of plant lectins, highlighting on recent advances in the use of native lectins and lectin-modified drug delivery systems (DDS) for treating these malignancies. Finally, based on full collation and overall understanding of the existing literature, the application limitations of plant lectins are summarized, and their prospects are discussed.