Flavonoids are important ingredients in many anti-tumor prescriptions in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM).With the deeper investigation of Chinese herbs' anti-tumor function

and anti-tumor drug development turning from cytotoxic regents towards cell specific signaling targets

flavonoids have gained more and more attentions in drug developing fields because of their high anti-tumor activity and low-toxicity characteristics. This paper reviewed the molecular targets of natural flavonoids that were studied in recent years in the fields of cell proliferation

agiogenesis

invasion and metastasis

apoptosis

DNA and chromosome regulations

as well as multi-drug resistance production. This will help in searching anti-tumor lead compounds among natural flavonoids

and provide reference for screening and structural modification of multi-targeting anti-tumor drugs as well as the polypharmacology research. In addition

the latest achievements and technologies in modern molecular biology were used to reveal the molecular mechanism of TCM anti-tumor and prescription basis

providing a revolution way for TCM modernization. Some suggestions of anti-tumor research on natural flavonoids in the future were also given in the present review.