The Role of Gender-specific Cytokine Pathways as Drug Targets and Gender- specific Biomarkers in Personalized Cancer Therapy

The definition of personalized treatments in tumor disease could lead to an improvement of the therapeutic success rate. Therefore, biomarkers are urgently required in order to select the patients that could benefit from adjuvant therapies in the initial phase of the disease and to better define and treat the clinical/therapeutic subgroups in the advanced pathological phases. Disregulation of cytokine physiological network is directly involved in the genesis and progression of tumors. Cytokines are of central importance in the regulation of immune system, but they are rarely released singly: each cytokine is able to induce the production of many other factors leading to a network in which they cooperate with other cell regulators such as hormones and neuropeptides. For these reasons the research must be directed to the evaluation of the interrelationships between the different cytokines and their respective pathways, as well as their contribution to the disease aetiology and progression in order to identify real and effective drug targets and biomarkers. The T CD4+ helper cells (Th) have various subpopulations, among which Th1, Th2, Th3, Th9 and Th17, respectively produce cytokines. It has become clear that disorders within the interactions of the network of these cytokines can produce neoplastic diseases. Furthermore, studies focusing on gender have shown that the homeostasis of the immune system is controlled by pathways of cytokines that are different between sexes and defined for this reason “genderspecifics”. Therefore, this perspective article aims to highlight the significance of these cytokine pathways in order to identify new clinical strategies and personalized therapy in neoplastic diseases.