Disfunction of the Apoptotic Pathway in Cancer Cells

Abstract

Apoptosis is an important physiological process for maintaining homeostasis, remodeling and eliminating abnormal cells in normal tissues. Development of human cancer is a multistage process involving various genetic alternations and cellular abnormalities. Cellular changes should lead to activation of the apoptotic pathway and induction of cell death, which prevents tumor growth and progression. However, during tumorigenesis, some tumor cells develop apoptosis-resistant mechanisms that allow the cancer cells to avoid apoptotic cell death, resulting in the initiation and progression of human cancers. Defects in the apoptotic signaling pathway have been detected in many cancer cells and cancer tissues. A deregulated apoptotic signal pathway confers a high survivability and resistance of the tumor cells to therapeutic reagents. Understanding the alterations in apoptotic signaling in human cancer cells should provide important information for the development of novel cancer therapies directly targeting the apoptotic signal pathway in cancer cells.