Targeting in Pediatric and Adult Cancers.

The deregulation of the family of oncogenes, including , and occurs in many types of cancers, and is frequently associated with a poor prognosis. The majority of functional studies have focused on due to its broad expression profile in human cancers. The existence of highly conserved functional domains between and suggests that participates in similar activities. encodes a basic helix-loop-helix-leucine zipper (bHLH-LZ) transcription factor (TF) whose central oncogenic role in many human cancers makes it a highly desirable therapeutic target. Historically, as a TF, MYC has been regarded as "undruggable". Thus, recent efforts focus on investigating methods to indirectly target MYC to achieve anti-tumor effects. This review will primarily summarize the recent progress in understanding the function of . It will explore efforts at targeting , including strategies aimed at suppression of transcription, destabilization of MYCN protein, inhibition of transcriptional activity, repression of MYCN targets and utilization of overexpression dependent synthetic lethality.