Abstract
Impaired molecular regulation of active (programmed) cell death is one of the most important hallmark of cancer. Apoptosis is the best characterized biochemical and morphological form of cell death, although other forms also exist. Positive regulators of apoptosis are often lost or inactivated, while inhibitor proteins of apoptosis are often upregulated in cancer. Individual variabilities in these molecular strategies contribute to the differences in sensitivity to current anti-cancer therapies and also provide new existing molecular targets for future therapeutic approaches.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abend M (2003) Reasons to reconsider the significance of apoptosis for cancer therapy. J Radiat Biol 79:927–941.
Annis MG, Yethon JA, Leber B, Andrews DW (2004) There is more to life and death than mitochondria: BCL-2 proteins at the endoplasmic reticulum. Biochem Biophys Acta 1644:115–123.
Ansell SM, Arendt BK, Grote DM, Jelinek DF, Novak AJ, Wellik LE et al. (2004) Inhibition of survivin expression suppresses the growth of aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Leukemia 18:616–623.
Breckenridge DG, Germain M, Mathai JP, Nguyen M, Shore GC (2003) Regulation of apoptosis by endoplasmic reticulum pathways. Oncogene 22:8608–8618.
Bröker LE, Kruyt FAE, Giaccone G (2005) Cell death independent of caspases: a review. Clin Cancer Res 11:3155–3162.
Brown JM, Attardi LD (2005) The role of apoptosis in cancer development and treatment response. Nature Rev Cancer 5:231–237.
Cappuzzo F, Magrini E, Ceresoli GL, Bartolini S, Rossi E, Ludovini V et al. (2004) AKT phosphorylation and gefitinib efficacy in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 96:1133–1141.
Carvalho A, Carmena M, Sambade C, Earnshaw WC, Wheatley SP (2003) Survivin is required for stable checkpoint activation on taxol-treated HeLa cells. J Cell Sci 116:2987–2998.
Castedo M, Perfettini JL, Roumier T, Andreau K, Medema R, Kroemer G (2004) Cell death by mitotic catastrophe: a molecular definition. Oncogene 23:2825–2837.
Chanan-Khan A (2005) BCL-2 antisense therapy in B-cell malignancies. Blood Rev 19:213–221.
Chi KN, Murray RN, Gleave ME (2003) A phase II study of oblimersen sodium (G3139) and docetaxel (D) in patients with metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Proc Am Soc Clin Oncol 22:393.
Cusack JC (2003) Rationale for the treatment of solid tumors with proteasome inhibitor bortezomib. Cancer Treat Rev 29(Suppl 1):21–31.
Danial NN, Korsmeyer SJ (2004) Cell death: critical control points. Cell 116:205–219.
Degterev A, Boyce M, Yuan J (2003) A decade of caspases. Oncogene 22:8543–8567.
Dolcet X, Llobet D, Pallares J, Matias-Guiu X (2005) NF-kB in development and progression of human cancer. Virchows Arch 446:475–482.
Gleave ME, Monia BP (2005) Antisense therapy for cancer. Nature Rev Cancer 5:468–479.
Gudkov AV, Komarova EA (2003) The role of p53 in determining sensitivity to radiotherapy. Nature Rev Cancer 3:117–129.
Guicciardi ME, Leist M, Gores GJ (2004) Lysosomes in cell death. Oncogene 23:2881–2890.
Hengartner MO (2000) The biochemistry of apoptosis. Nature 407:770–776.
Joseph B, Marchetti P, Formstecher P, Kroemer G, Lewensohn R, Zhivotovsky B (2002) Mitochondrial dysfunction is an essential step for killing of non-small cell lung carcinomas resistant to conventional treatment. Oncogene 21:65–77.
Leist M, Jaattela M (2001) Four deaths and a funeral: from caspases to alternative mechanisms. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 2:589–598.
Leverkus M, Sprick MR, Wachter T, Mangling T, Baumann B, Serfling E et al. (2003) Proteasome inhibition results in TRAIL sensitization of primary keratinocytes by removing the resistance-mediating block of effector caspase maturation. Mol Cell Biol 23:777–790.
Lin A, Karin M (2003) NF-kappaB in cancer: a marked target. Semin Cancer Biol 13:107–114.
Longley DB, Johnston PG (2005) Molecular mechanisms of drug resistance. J Pathol 205:275–292.
Moon C, Oh Y, Roth JA (2003) Current status of gene therapy for lung cancer and head and neck cancer. Clin Cancer Res 9:5055–5067.
Nakamura M, Tsuji N, Asanuma K, Kobayashi D, Yagihashi A, Hirata K et al. (2004) Survivin as a predictor of cis- diammine dichloroplatinum sensitivity in gastric cancer patients. Cancer Sci 95:44–51.
Nguyen DM, Chen GA, Reddy R, Tsai W, Schrump WD, Cole G Jr et al. (2004) Potentiation of paclitaxel cytotoxicity in lung and esophageal cancer cells by pharmacologic inhibition of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B (AKT)-mediated signaling pathway. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 127:365–375.
Nicholson KM, Anderson NG (2002) The protein kinase B/AKT signalling pathway in human malignancy. Cell Signal 14:381–395.
Okada H, Mak TW (2004) Pathways of apoptotic and non-apoptotic death in tumour cells. Nature Rev Cancer 4:592–603.
Petak I, Tillman DM, Houghton JA (2001) p53-dependence of FAS induction and acute apoptosis in response to 5-fluorouracil-leucovorin in human colon carcinoma cell lines. Clin Cancer Res 6:4432–4441.
Qu X, Yu J, Bhagat G, Furuya N, Hibshoosh H, Troxel A et al. (2003) Promotion of tumorigenesis by heterozygous disruption of the beclin 1 autophagy gene. J Clin Invest 112:1809–1820.
Quinn JE, Kennedy RD, Mullan PB, Gilmore PM, Carty M, Johnston PG, et al. (2003) BRCA1 functions as a differential modulator of chemotherapy-induced apoptosis. Cancer Res 63:6221–6228.
Rai KR, Moore JO (2004) Phase 3 randomized trial of fludarabine/cyclophosphamide chemotherapy with or without oblimersen sodium (BCL-2 antisense; genasense; G3139) for patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic lukemia (CLL). Blood 104:100a.
Schuler M, Green DR (2001) Mechanisms of p53-dependent apoptosis. Biochem Soc Trans 29:14517–14522.
Schwartzberg LS, Petak I, Stewart C, Turner PK, Ashley J, Tillman DM et al. (2002) Modulation of the FAS signaling pathway by IFN-gamma in therapy of colon cancer: phase I trial and correlative studies of IFN-gamma, 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin. Clin Cancer Res 8:2488–2498.
Sjostrom J, Blomquist C, von Boguslawski K, Bengtsson NO, Mjaaland I, Malmstrom P et al. (2002) The predictive value of BCL-2, BAX, BCL-xL, bag-1, FAS and FASL for chemotherapy response in advanced breast cancer. Clin Cancer Res 8:811–816.
Sperandio S, Poksay K, de Belle I, Lafuente MJ, Liu B, Nasir J et al. (2004) Paraptosis: mediation by MAP kinases and inhibition by AIP-1/Alix. Cell Death Differ 11:1066–1075.
Wajant H, Gerspach J, Pfizenmaier K (2005) Tumor therapeutics by design: targeting and activation of death receptors. Cytokine Growth Factor Rev 16:55–76.
Wang Y, Li X, Wang L, Ding P, Zhang Y, Han W et al. (2004) An alternative form of paraptosis-like cell death, triggered by TAJ/TROY and enhanced by PDC5 overexpression. J Cell Sci 117:1525–1532.
Yu H, Jove R (2004) The STATs of cancer–new molecular targets come of age. Nature Rev Cancer 4:97–105.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kopper, L., Peták, I. (2008). Apoptosis and cancer. In: Kaiser, H.E., Nasir, A. (eds) Selected Aspects of Cancer Progression: Metastasis, Apoptosis and Immune Response. Cancer Growth and Progression, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6729-7_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6729-7_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6728-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6729-7
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)