Current Evolution in Target Therapies for Blood Cancers

Abstract

Target therapy represents a significant step forward in the treatment of malignant tumors. These therapies typically address to molecular pathways essential for the growth and replication of neoplastic cells. Given their peculiar mode of action, they constitute an overcoming of chemotherapy which, as known, affects both the proliferating cancer cells and normal cells indiscriminately. Thanks to the discovery and synthesis of compounds that interact with specific molecular defects, antineoplastic pharmacology is continually enriched with “cell-selective therapy”. In this way, we move from a cure based on the disease to an increasingly personalized therapy. Important pharmacological targets are represented by: cell receptors, growth factors, transcription factors, signal transducers, cell cycle regulators, apoptosis modulators, angiogenetic factors, immune cells.