This brief review [see attached] is a very crisp and excellent article, summarizing the fundamental causes of and treatments for the process of carcinogenesis. For what it’s worth, one of the coauthors is my scientific child (FJG), and two of the other coauthors are my scientific grandchildren (ADP, JMP).
An explosion of knowledge on the molecular and cellular mechanisms that mediate carcinogenesis has occurred in recent years. Although cancer has existed for more than 300,000 years in the human species, effective cures for most cancers that target molecular and cellular pathways have not yet been achieved. Myriad cellular targets have been examined for preventing, as well as treating, cancers –– including, but not limited to: transcription factors, kinase-mediated cell-signaling pathways, and (more recently) epigenetic targeting of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, and immunomodulation such as chimeric antigen receptor-T cells.
Even as the state of knowledge of cancer mechanisms increases, there is considerable room for improvement in preventing and treating cancers. Understanding how a normal cell is transformed into a cancer cell is quite well understood; however, there is considerable tissue- and cell type-specificity. This has given rise to the field of precision medicine –– as it applies to cancer therapy. Thus, while the development of preventive and treatment regimens has increased, there are certain obstacles that need to be overcome in order to decrease cancer incidence and increase survival rates of cancer patients.
This review summarizes the advances made in cancer biology and how these advances have been used to develop, or in some cases hinder –– preventive and therapeutic strategies for cancer.
DwN
Toxicol Sci Oct 2018; 165: 277–283