Gerl Robert, Vaux David L
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria 3050, Australia.
Carcinogenesis. 2005 Feb;26(2):263-70. doi: 10.1093/carcin/bgh283. Epub 2004 Sep 16.
Our somatic cells are born by mitosis and almost all will die by apoptosis, a physiological process of cellular suicide. Cancers can occur when this balance is disturbed, either by an increase in cell proliferation or a decrease in cell death. The goal of cancer therapy is to promote the death of cancer cells without causing too much damage to normal cells. Our knowledge of the mechanisms of apoptosis has enhanced our understanding of how some cancers originate and progress. It has also revealed that existing cancer therapies can work in two ways, by induction of apoptosis as well as by direct toxicity. In some cases resistance to apoptosis may explain why cancer therapies fail. Novel treatments designed to exploit our knowledge of apoptotic mechanisms are under development to promote apoptosis of cancer cells and limit concurrent death of normal cells.
我们的体细胞通过有丝分裂产生，几乎所有体细胞都会通过细胞凋亡死亡，细胞凋亡是一种细胞自杀的生理过程。当这种平衡受到干扰时，无论是细胞增殖增加还是细胞死亡减少，都可能发生癌症。癌症治疗的目标是促进癌细胞死亡，同时又不会对正常细胞造成太大损害。我们对细胞凋亡机制的了解增进了我们对某些癌症如何发生和发展的认识。这也表明，现有的癌症治疗方法可以通过两种方式起作用，即诱导细胞凋亡和直接产生毒性。在某些情况下，对细胞凋亡的抗性可能解释了癌症治疗失败的原因。旨在利用我们对凋亡机制的认识而设计的新型治疗方法正在研发中，以促进癌细胞凋亡并限制正常细胞的同时死亡。
