Critical Review on the Anti-Tumor Activity of Bioactive Compounds from Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms over the Last Five Years

In recent years, the incidence rate of cancer has been on the rise all over the world, and the age of cancer patients has shown a younger trend, which seriously endangers patients’ health. Edible/medicinal mushrooms have not only become a new source of nutritional supplements but have also emerged as a promising adjunct to conventional medicine, either by directly or indirectly killing tumor cells and enhancing immunity, or through their use in conjunction with modern cancer therapies to enhance their efficacy or reduce their side-effects, improving patients’ quality of life. Although the anti-cancer potential of edible and medicinal mushrooms has been widely studied in the past, this review focuses on the most recent literature from the last five years, providing an up-to-date and comprehensive summary of the current findings. In this review, we aim to analyze the anti-cancer effects of edible/medicinal mushrooms, including Schizophyllum commune, Trametes versicolor, Grifola frondosa, Ganoderma lucidum, Lentinula edodes, Laetiporus sulphureus, Boletus edulis, and Phellinus igniarius, as well as their potential anti-cancer mechanisms, providing strong theoretical support for the further development of edible/medicinal mushroom anti-cancer products.