The promise and challenge toward the clinical application of maspin in cancer

Since the identification of the human maspin gene, a decade of extensive research revealed the promise of maspin both as a valuable molecular marker for the diagnosis and prognosis of many types of cancers, and as a tumor suppressor at the level of tumor growth, invasion, angiogenesis, metastasis, and tumor sensitivity to drug-induced apoptosis. This review is intended to summarize the consensus of these findings, and provide an overview of the current challenges toward the clinical application of maspin. Specifically, this review discusses several likely molecular mechanisms underlying (1) the differential regulation of maspin expression, and (2) the biological activities of maspin in tumor progression.