Currently, breast cancer is the most common cause of mortality caused by neoplasia in women worldwide. The unmet challenges of conventional cancer therapy are chemoresistance and lack of selectivity, which can lead to serious side effects in patients; therefore, new treatments based on natural compounds that serve as adjuvants in breast cancer therapy are urgently needed. Tocopherols are naturally occurring antioxidant compounds that have shown antitumor activity against several types of cancer, including breast cancer. This review summarizes the antitumoral activity of tocopherols, such as the antiproliferative, apoptotic, anti-invasive, and antioxidant effects of tocopherols, through different molecular mechanisms. According to the studies described, α-T, δ-T and γ-T are the most studied in breast tumor cells; however, α-T and γ-T show a more critical antitumor activity and significant potential as a complements to chemotherapeutic drugs against breast cancer, enhancing toxicity against tumor cells and preventing cytotoxicity in nontumor cells. However, the possible relationship between tocopherol intake, related to concentration, and the promotion of cancer in particular cases should not be ruled out, so additional studies are required to determine the correct dose to obtain the desired antitumor effect. Moreover, nanomicelles of D-α-tocopherol have promising potential as pharmaceutical excipients for drug delivery to improve the cytotoxicity and selectivity of first-line chemotherapeutics against breast cancer.

目前，乳腺癌是全世界女性肿瘤引起的最常见死亡原因。传统癌症治疗尚未解决的挑战是化疗耐药性和缺乏选择性，这可能导致患者出现严重的副作用；因此，迫切需要基于天然化合物的新疗法作为乳腺癌治疗的佐剂。生育酚是天然存在的抗氧化剂化合物，对包括乳腺癌在内的多种癌症具有抗肿瘤活性。本综述总结了生育酚通过不同分子机制的抗肿瘤活性，例如生育酚的抗增殖、细胞凋亡、抗侵袭和抗氧化作用。根据所述研究，α-T、δ-T 和 γ-T 在乳腺肿瘤细胞中研究最多；然而，α-T 和 γ-T 显示出更关键的抗肿瘤活性，并且作为乳腺癌化疗药物的补充具有显着潜力，可增强对肿瘤细胞的毒性并防止非肿瘤细胞的细胞毒性。然而，不应排除与浓度相关的生育酚摄入量与特定情况下促进癌症之间可能存在的关系，因此需要进行额外的研究来确定正确的剂量以获得所需的抗肿瘤效果。此外，D-α-生育酚纳米胶束作为药物递送药物赋形剂具有广阔的潜力，可提高一线乳腺癌化疗药物的细胞毒性和选择性。