Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 22, 2026

Establishing Dual Resistance to EGFR-TKI and MET-TKI in Lung Adenocarcinoma Cells In Vitro with a 2-step Dose-escalation Procedure
09:38

Establishing Dual Resistance to EGFR-TKI and MET-TKI in Lung Adenocarcinoma Cells In Vitro with a 2-step Dose-escalation Procedure

Published on: August 11, 2017

Growth factor signaling and resistance to cancer chemotherapy

Zunyan Dai1, Ying Huang, Wolfgang Sadée

  • 1Program of Pharmacogenomics, Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine and Public Health, The Ohio State University, 5168 Graves Hall, 333 West 10th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. dai.15@osu.edu

Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry
|September 24, 2004
PubMed

Insights

Cancer cells develop resistance to chemotherapy through multiple mechanisms, often involving growth factor signaling. Pharmacogenomics can guide individualized combination therapies to overcome this resistance.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Pharmacogenomics
  • Cancer Biology

Background:

  • Chemoresistance is a major cause of cancer treatment failure.
  • Deregulated growth factor signaling pathways contribute to cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis resistance.
  • Resistance to targeted therapies like growth factor inhibitors is a significant clinical challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the role of pharmacogenomics in understanding and overcoming chemoresistance.
  • To discuss the complexity of growth factor signaling in treatment failure.
  • To highlight the potential of individualized combination therapies.

Main Methods:

  • Review of literature on chemoresistance mechanisms.
  • Analysis of growth factor signaling pathways in cancer.
  • Exploration of pharmacogenomic approaches for therapy selection.

Main Results:

  • Growth factor signaling complexity fuels chemoresistance.
  • Innate or acquired resistance to targeted agents is common.
  • Pharmacogenomics offers a strategy to address complex resistance.

Conclusions:

  • Individualized therapy combining drugs is promising for overcoming chemoresistance.
  • Monitoring growth factor receptor expression and mutations is key.
  • Pharmacogenomic assessment can guide combination drug selection for personalized cancer treatment.

More Related Videos

Looking for Driver Pathways of Acquired Resistance to Targeted Therapy: Drug Resistant Subclone Generation and Sensitivity Restoring by Gene Knock-down08:59

Looking for Driver Pathways of Acquired Resistance to Targeted Therapy: Drug Resistant Subclone Generation and Sensitivity Restoring by Gene Knock-down

Published on: December 11, 2017

Related Concept Videos

Treatment Resistant Cancers02:56

Treatment Resistant Cancers

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. A cancer cell is genetically unstable and hence can mutate faster. They can also modify their microenvironment and escape immune surveillance. The difficulties in treating cancer are further compounded by the emergence of rapid resistance to anticancer drugs. The most common ways to attain resistance in cancer cells include alteration in drug transport and metabolism, modification of drug target, elevated DNA damage response, or...
mTOR Signaling and Cancer Progression03:03

mTOR Signaling and Cancer Progression

The mammalian target of rapamycin or mTOR protein was discovered in 1994 due to its direct interaction with rapamycin. The protein gets its name from a yeast homolog called TOR. The mTOR protein complex in mammalian cells plays a major role in balancing anabolic processes such as the synthesis of proteins, lipids, and nucleotides and catabolic processes, such as autophagy in response to environmental cues, such as availability of nutrients and growth factors.
The mTOR pathway or the...
mTOR Signaling and Cancer Progression03:03

mTOR Signaling and Cancer Progression

The mammalian target of rapamycin or mTOR protein was discovered in 1994 due to its direct interaction with rapamycin. The protein gets its name from a yeast homolog called TOR. The mTOR protein complex in mammalian cells plays a major role in balancing anabolic processes such as the synthesis of proteins, lipids, and nucleotides and catabolic processes, such as autophagy in response to environmental cues, such as availability of nutrients and growth factors.
The mTOR pathway or the...
Mitogens and the Cell Cycle02:38

Mitogens and the Cell Cycle

Mitogens and their receptors play a crucial role in controlling the progression of the cell cycle. However, the loss of mitogenic control over cell division leads to tumor formation. Therefore, mitogens and mitogen receptors play an important role in cancer research. For instance, the epidermal growth factor (EGF) - a type of mitogen and its transmembrane receptor (EGFR), decides the fate of the cell's proliferation. When EGF binds to EGFR, a member of the ErbB family of tyrosine kinase...
Interactions Between Signaling Pathways01:19

Interactions Between Signaling Pathways

Signaling cascades usually lack linearity. Multiple pathways interact and regulate one another, allowing cells to integrate and respond to diverse environmental stimuli.
Convergence and divergence, and cross-talk between signaling pathways
Two distinct signaling pathways can converge on a single functional unit, which may either be a single protein or a complex of proteins. The response is either functionally distinct or synergistic between the two pathways but different from the response...
Adaptive Mechanisms in Cancer Cells02:53

Adaptive Mechanisms in Cancer Cells

Cancer cells accumulate genetic changes at an abnormally rapid rate due to the defects in the DNA repair mechanisms. From an evolutionary perspective, such genetic instability is advantageous for cancer development. Mutant cell lines accumulate a series of beneficial mutations that contribute to their progression into cancer.
Some of the advantages that cancer cells have on normal cells include - enhanced ability to divide without terminally differentiating, induce new blood vessel formation,...