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Year:
2009
| Volume: 17
| Issue: 3-4
| Pages: 61-64
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Review Article |
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TRANSFORMING GROWTH FACTOR-b: BIOLOGY AND APPLICATION TO CANCER THERAPY
Vesna Ivanovic |
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DOI:
10.2298/AOO0904061I |
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Abstract: |
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Transforming growth factor-b (TGF-b), an extensively investigated cytokine, plays a very important role in promoting the spread of cancers in the body, and can play a direct role in facilitating metastasis. Consequently, TGF-b is currently explored as a prognostic candidate biomarker of tumor invasiveness and metastasis. Therefore, in clinical scenarios involving increased TGF-b activity, attempts to decrease or abrogate TGF-b signaling could be used as a therapy for advanced or metastatic disease. It follows that TGF-b signaling offers an attractive target for cancer therapy. Several anti-TGF-b approaches, such as TGF-b antibodies, antisense oligonucleotides and small molecules inhibitors of TGF-b type 1 receptor kinase, have shown great promise in the preclinical studies. These studies, coupled with progressing clinical trials indicate that inhibition of TGF-b signaling may be indeed a viable option to cancer therapy. This review summarizes the TGF-b biology, screening cancer patients for anti-TGF-b therapy, and several strategies targeted against TGF-b signaling for cancer therapy. The next several years promise to improve our understanding of approaching cancer therapy by further evaluation of TGF-b signaling inhibitors for clinical efficacy. The complexity of TGF-b biology guarantees that many surprises lie ahead. |
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Key words:
Transforming Growth Factor beta; Signal Transduction; Neoplasms |
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