title: Differentiation-inducing therapy for solid tumors.
abstract: Treating malignant tumor through the induction of cell differentiation has been an attractive concept, but clinical development of differentiation-inducing agents to treat malignant tumor, especially for solid tumors has been limited to date. Nerve growth factor, all trans retinoic acid, dimethyl sulfoxide, active form vitamin D(3), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptorgamma, 12-0-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate, hexamethylene-bis-acetamide, transforming growth factor-beta, butyric acid, cAMP, and vesnarinone are known to have a differentiation-inducing capability on solid tumors in vitro and/or in vivo. Moreover some of the differentiation-inducing agents have been used for treating patients with solid tumor, but the therapeutic effect of the differentiation-inducing agents on solid tumor is not strong when compared with that of conventional chemotherapeutic agents. However, because most of the differentiation-inducing agents can potentiate the effect of conventional chemotherapy or radiation therapy, combination of differentiation-inducing therapy with conventional chemotherapy or radiation therapy might be used as a second- or third-line therapy in patients with advanced cancer. Furthermore, analysis of the molecular mechanisms of the tumor differentiation therapy might provide selective and targeted molecules for novel cancer therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical and Molecular Pathology, Dokkyo University School of Medicine, 880 Kita-kobayashi, Mibu, Shimo-Tsuga, Tochigi 321-0293, Japan. h-kawama@dokkyomed.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kawamata
authors.forename: Masatsugu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tachibana
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujimori
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Imai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology*; D047495:PPAR gamma / Q000494:pharmacology; D011719:Pyrazines; D011804:Quinolines / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D047495:PPAR gamma; D011719:Pyrazines; D011804:Quinolines; C041667:vesnarinone