Melatonin: A journey from bovine pineal gland to a promising oncostatic agent

Abstract

Now a day's cancer is one of the second leading health issue across the globe. Low- and middle-income countries are more prone to cancer and approximately 70% of demises occur in these countries. Melatonin, being a natural signaling molecule is ubiquitously found in almost all the living creatures from organisms to plants. During the past few decades, several studies have inflamed the attention of melatonin as a potent candidate to combat myriad of cancers because of its anti-cancer attribute. Melatonin exhibits the oncostatic property hence, halts the growth of different tumors during different stages of their progression. In a nutshell, this chapter epitomes the therapeutic potential of melatonin against cancer and serves as a concrete platform for researchers to pillar the basic and clinical studies on melatonin for future research directions. © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.