Title:Selective Induction of Apoptosis: Promising Therapy in Pancreatic Cancer
Volume: 19
Issue: 12
Author(s): Zuojia Liu, Dan Li, Xiliang Zheng, Erkang Wang and Jin Wang
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Anticancer drug, apoptosis, apoptotic inducer, caspase, chemotherapy, cytotoxity, mitochondria, pancreatic cancer, malignancies, death receptor pathway
Abstract: Pancreatic cancer is one of lethal and poor prognostic malignancies. Due to the absence of effective detecting methods, quite a
number of efforts have been made to improve a survival advantage for treatment in patients with pancreatic cancer. Over the past decade,
single-agent gemcitabine and gemcitabine-containing combinations were considered standard first-line therapies for advanced pancreatic
cancer. Although these routine uses of chemotherapy failed to significantly improve survival benefit for most therapies, these trials provided
insights into the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of pancreatic cancer and therefore opened up new therapeutic
avenues. Apoptotic inducer as a therapeutic concept has been widely proposed and experimentally identified in some works. Some reviews
have revealed that apoptosis-inducing was a promising therapy in cancers with the least side effects and more effectiveness. Apoptosis
is a highly controlled physiological mechanism and proceeds through two major pathways for apoptosis-inducing. Some anticancer
drugs kill cancer cells by inducing apoptosis via death receptor pathway; however, other chemotherapeutic drugs trigger apoptosis via
mitochondrial pathway. In this review, we summarize briefly current chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer, describe the apoptotic mechanisms,
and provide a novel therapeutic strategy by targeting Ras intermediate.
