Department of Gastroenterology, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.
J Dig Dis. 2014 Apr;15(4):159-65. doi: 10.1111/1751-2980.12122.
Differentiation therapy for tumors refers to treating malignant tumors via the induction of cell differentiation. The best characterized clinical application of differentiation therapy is the use of all-trans retinoic acid in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), which markedly improved the outcome of this disease. Unlike the situation with APL, the development of differentiation therapy for solid tumors is far from satisfactory. To date, no differentiation-inducing agents have been demonstrated to exert a curative effect on solid tumors. However, over the past decade progress in understanding the differentiation pathways and the development of differentiation-inducing agents might shed new light on the differentiation therapy for solid tumors.
肿瘤的分化疗法是指通过诱导细胞分化来治疗恶性肿瘤。分化疗法的最佳临床应用实例是全反式维甲酸在治疗急性早幼粒细胞白血病（APL）中的应用，这显著改善了该疾病的预后。与 APL 不同，实体瘤的分化疗法的发展远未令人满意。迄今为止，尚无分化诱导剂被证明对实体瘤具有疗效。然而，在过去的十年中，对分化途径的理解的进展和分化诱导剂的开发可能为实体瘤的分化疗法带来新的曙光。
