Cancer seriously impairs human health and survival. Many perturbations, such as increased oxidative stress, pathogen infection and inflammation, promote the accumulation of DNA mutations, and ultimately lead to carcinogenesis. Tea is one of the most highly consumed beverages worldwide and has been linked to improvements in human health. Tea contains many active components, including tea polyphenols, tea polysaccharides, L-theanine, tea pigments, and caffeine amongst other common components. Several studies have identified components in tea that can directly or indirectly reduce carcinogenesis with some being used in a clinical setting. Many previous studies, in vitro and in vivo, have focused on the mechanisms that functional components of tea utilized to protect against cancer. One particular mechanism that has been well described is an improvement in antioxidant capacity seen with tea consumption. However, other mechanisms, including anti-pathogen, anti-inflammation and alterations in cell survival pathways, are also involved. The current review focuses on these anti-cancer mechanisms. This will be beneficial for clinical utilization of tea components in preventing and treating cancer in the future.

中文翻译：

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茶生物活性成分通过抗病原体、抗炎症和细胞存活途径预防致癌作用

癌症严重损害人类健康和生存。许多扰动，例如增加的氧化应激、病原体感染和炎症，都会促进 DNA 突变的积累，并最终导致致癌。茶是全球消费量最大的饮料之一，与改善人类健康有关。茶含有许多活性成分，包括茶多酚、茶多糖、L-茶氨酸、茶色素和咖啡因等常见成分。几项研究已经确定了茶中可以直接或间接减少致癌作用的成分，其中一些成分被用于临床环境。许多先前的体外和体内研究都集中在茶的功能成分用于预防癌症的机制上。一种已被充分描述的特殊机制是通过茶消耗看到的抗氧化能力的提高。然而，还涉及其他机制，包括抗病原体、抗炎和改变细胞存活途径。目前的综述集中在这些抗癌机制上。这将有利于未来茶叶成分在临床防治癌症中的应用。