Apoptosis Signaling Pathways in Anticancer Therapy

One of the most important advances in cancer research in recent years is the recognition that killing of tumor cells by anticancer therapies commonly used in the treatment of cancer, e.g. chemotherapy, γ-irradiation, immunotherapy or suicide gene therapy, is predominantly mediated by triggering cell death pathways including apoptosis in cancer cells. Thus, failure to undergo apoptosis may result in treatment resistance of cancers. Understanding the molecular events that regulate apoptosis in response to anticancer therapy and how cancer cells evade apoptotic cell death, provides novel perspectives for a more rational approach to develop molecular targeted therapies for combating cancer.