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Exploiting apoptosis pathways for the treatment of pediatric cancers
Author(s) -
Fulda Simone
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
pediatric blood and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.116
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1545-5017
pISSN - 1545-5009
DOI - 10.1002/pbc.21922
Subject(s) - medicine , apoptosis , cancer , blood cancer , cancer research , programmed cell death , radiation therapy , pediatric cancer , bioinformatics , immunology , biology , genetics
Resistance to apoptosis (programmed cell death) is a characteristic feature of human cancers including childhood malignancies. Further, evasion of apoptosis is a frequent cause of treatment resistance, since most anti‐cancer therapies, for example chemo‐ or radiotherapy act primarily by inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. Over the last two decades, the dissection of apoptosis pathways in pediatric tumors has resulted in the identification of many key molecules that may serve as molecular targets for drug discovery. Accordingly, components of the apoptotic cascade are currently exploited for the development of rationally designed molecular targeted therapies. This approach is expected to open new and more effective approaches for the treatment of childhood cancers. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2009;53:533–536. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.