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Major Physiological Signaling Pathways in the Regulation of Cell Proliferation and Survival

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Book cover Mechanisms of Drug Resistance in Cancer Therapy

Part of the book series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology ((HEP,volume 249))

Abstract

Multiple signaling pathways regulate cell proliferation and survival and are therefore important for maintaining homeostasis of development. The balance between cell growth and death is achieved through orchestrated signal transduction pathways mediated by complex functional interactions between signaling axes, among which, PI3K/Akt and Ras/MAPK as well as JAK/STAT play a dominant role in promoting cell proliferation, differentiation, and survival. In clinical cancer therapies, drug resistance is the major challenge that occurs in almost all targeted therapeutic strategies. Recent advances in research have suggested that the intrinsic pro-survival signaling crosstalk is the driving force in acquired resistance to a targeted therapy, which may be abolished by interfering with the cross-reacting network.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant 381570056.

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Correspondence to Huifang Tang .

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Tang, H., Xue, G. (2017). Major Physiological Signaling Pathways in the Regulation of Cell Proliferation and Survival. In: Mandalà, M., Romano, E. (eds) Mechanisms of Drug Resistance in Cancer Therapy. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 249. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/164_2017_4

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