Dual Targeting Autoimmunity and Cancer: From Biology to Medicine

Cancer is known to be often associated with autoimmunity/inflammation epidemically and pathologically. Although comprehensive mechanisms behind the link of these 2 medical conditions are yet to be elucidated, cumulated biological evidence has pointed to an array of molecular pathways that are shared in the pathogenesis of cancer and autoimmunity. Herein, this article presents the representative druggable cellular proteins that substantially contribute to the development of the 2 medical conditions, in particular highlighting the recently approved medications that target these molecular pathways to corroborate the link between autoimmunity and cancer from the therapeutic perspective. It will ideally help to minimize a knowledge gap, not only regarding mechanistic information across these biomedical fields but also for clinicians and pharmaceutical innovation to deal with the challenges of preventing or managing patients with concomitant cancer and autoimmunity taking advantage of an optimally efficient medication.