Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Introduction About 30-40% of cancer diseases are linked to imbalanced diet and other correlated factors. 1 Epidemiological reports give a direct relation between the intake of vegetables and fruits and lower mortality rate from cancer, heart and other degenerative diseases. 2-5 Medicinal plants are a major source for the controlling and treatment of diseases. 6-9 Herbal medicine provides a very feasible alternative to western medicine against cancer. 10-12 Soybean is an important oilseed crop of family Leguminosae and mainly grown for edible seeds. It is the most economical source of protein and edible oil for human food. 13 On the basis of dry weight of mature raw seeds, it normally contains about 35 to 40% protein, 20% lipids, 9% dietary fber, and around 8.5% of moisture. 14 However, its composition varies with type of varieties, location and planting conditions. It is used for the production of the majority of the products such as roasted soybean, boiled soybean, soymilk, soy cheese, Tofu, and many more. 15 Soybean is a rich source of important secondary metabolites. Soybean and its products can play an essential role for the treatment of many diseases. Several researchers proved its anticancer activities against diferent types of cancer. Here we discussed up-to- date literature from the last fve years on the important phytochemicals isolated from diferent types of soybean genotypes and highlighted the use of soybean extracts and its products for treatments of diferent types of cancer. Diferent researchers proved its anticancer activities against diferent cancer types. For example, El-Keiy et al. 16 reported that saponin present in soybean has potent anti-proliferation activity in in-vitro Coca mouse colon cancer cells. The apoptosis-inducing efect leads to activation of caspase-9 enzyme and loss of plasma membrane asymmetry. They concluded that soy saponin may have a proliferation inhibitory efect against human colon cancer. The wild soybean contains anti laryngeal cancer activities. In a study by Kusumoningrum & Dwira, 17 the ethanol extract of wild beans have alkaloids, favonoids, tannins, triterpenoids, saponins, and glycosides that showed moderate cytotoxicity activity against Hep-2 laryngeal cancer cells. In addition, the ethanol extract of wild beans was found to be less toxic than cisplatin. Similarly, Amaani & Dwira 18 studied that ethanol extract of black soybean processes important secondary metabolites (favonoids, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, triterpenoids, and glycosides) that show moderate anticancer activities against A549 lung cancer cells. Wada et al. 19 studied a signifcant lower risk of bladder cancer among men who had higher intakes of total soy and isofavones. In a recent study by Hao et al. 20 , the transgenic soybean plants expressing lunasin peptide showed anti-infammatory and anti- cancer activities more than wild transgenic plants. They described that transgenic soybean having lunasin in their genome could be used as a food source by the cancer patient. The important products (steamed soybean, soymilk and tofu) of three Thai soybean cultivars (Chiang Mai 6 (CM6), Chiang Mai 60 (CM60) and Chiang Mai 84-2 (CM 84-2) are full of phytochemicals and showed low anticancer activities. 21 Khosravi & Razavi 22 described that fermented soybean and black soybean products possess maximum polyphenolic compounds that show anticancer activities. Other studies also showed that during fermentation, the glycoside isofavones is converted to an active form of aglycone, which can be adsorbed faster in our body. Wang et al. 23 reported that Soybean should be used as a food to control breast cancer diseases. Their uses inhibit the development of breast cancer by downregulating the level of Histone demethylase JMJD5 (an important epigenetic molecule). According to Shirabe et al. 24 fermented soy foods may be associated with decreased risk of nonlocalized breast cancer. In contrast with these fndings, Jargin 25 investigated that the phytoestrogens and its active metabolite such as equol can remain in food/meat and infuence the hormonal balance of the consumers. In animals, the phytoestrogens may afect fertility, sexual development, and behavior. J Cancer Prev Curr Res. 2022;13(1):22‒23. 22 ©2022 Jan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Anticancer properties of soybean: an updated review Volume 13 Issue 1 - 2022 Sohail Ahmad Jan, 1 Zabta Khan Shinwari, 2 Muhammad Faizan, 1 Sumayya Ijaz 1 1 Department of Bioinformatics and Biosciences, Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 2 Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Paksitan Correspondence: Sohail Ahmad Jan, Department of Bioinformatics and Biosciences, Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan, Email Received: February 10, 2022 | Published: February 24, 2022 Abstract Soybean is one of the important nutrition rich crops having maximum anticancer activities. The uses of daily Soy products are the subject of increasing scientifc interest due to their many health benefts. The detailed analysis of the research studies revealed the anticancer properties of diferent soybean genotypes. The secondary metabolites of wild, transgenic and black soybean genotypes and their products have been reported by diferent researchers that showed maximum inhibitory activities against breast cancer, laryngeal cancer, colon cancer, etc. The fermented soy foods were also found useful against cancer. The present review focuses on latest up-to-date literature from last fve years, on the anticancer activities of diferent types of soybean and its important products. In addition, the anticancer potentials of its important metabolites against various types of cancer have been discussed. However, further studies should be performed to check association between dose concentrations with reference to type of cancer and to check its possible side efects. Keywords: anticancer activity, secondary metabolites, soybean, soy products Journal of Cancer Prevention & Current Research Short Communication Open Access