title: Mitogenesis and the search for new targets for anticancer drug design.
abstract: An exciting new approach to the treatment of cancer is the development of therapeutic strategies which target growth factors and the signal transduction pathways elicited by them. The rationale for targeting the processes which regulate cell proliferation rests on the contention that the malignant phenotype is maintained as a result of alterations in the biochemistry of growth control. The challenge is to design novel anticancer agents which exploit qualitative or quantitative differences in the biochemical elements controlling tumour cell growth and thereby achieve tumour selectivity. A wide variety of drugs are currently under development and include agents which block growth factor-receptor interaction, or which inhibit the action or formation of second messengers such as protein kinase C or phospholipase C. Although in its infancy, the use of inhibitors of growth factor action as antineoplastic agents has already proven effective against some tumours.
authors.affiliation: MRC Clinical Oncology and Radiotherapeutics Unit, Medical Research Council Centre, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Reeve
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000187:drug effects*; D015195:Drug Design; D008938:Mitosis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents