There is general acceptance that treatment of cancer using surgery with or without radiotherapy remains the first treatment modality for most cancer protocols. Radiotherapy is used quite successfully for many forms of cancer while chemotherapy has become an integral part of a multi-disciplinary treatment of cancers and has served also as a palliative measure in cases of advanced cancer (Smith et al. 2002).

Despite advances in the early detection of tumors and in the use of surgery, radiation and chemical therapies for disease management, the worldwide mortality from human cancer remains unacceptably high and has increased in the last few years. In the United States from 1930 through 2004, a trend of increasing cancer deaths is shown among both men and women. Although advances in the early detection of tumors and in the use of chemotherapy and surgery for disease management have helped to enhance the overall survival of afflicted; patients, major improvements in treatments for most human cancers are urgently needed.

The control and therapy of cancer may benefit from introduction of new treatments derived from natural products. Many pharmaceutical products approved for human disease treatment are derived from natural sources. The discovery of efficacious compounds for cancer management will benefit from new understanding of the molecular and cellular pathways that regulate tumor proliferation and progression (Pietras and Weinberg 2005).