title: Targeted treatments for cervical cancer: a review.
abstract: Cervical cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in women worldwide and the development of new diagnosis, prognostic, and treatment strategies merits special attention. Although surgery and chemoradiotherapy can cure 80%-95% of women with early stage cancer, the recurrent and metastatic disease remains a major cause of cancer death. Many efforts have been made to design new drugs and develop gene therapies to treat cervical cancer. In recent decades, research on treatment strategies has proposed several options, including the role of HPV E6 and E7 oncogenes, which are retained and expressed in most cervical cancers and whose respective oncoproteins are critical to the induction and maintenance of the malignant phenotype. Other efforts have been focused on antitumor immunotherapy strategies. It is known that during the development of cervical cancer, a cascade of abnormal events is induced, including disruption of cellular cycle control, perturbation of antitumor immune response, alteration of gene expression, and deregulation of microRNA expression. Thus, in this review article we discuss potential targets for the treatment of cervical cancer associated with HPV infection, with special attention to immunotherapy approaches, clinical trials, siRNA molecules, and their implications as gene therapy strategies against cervical cancer development.
authors.affiliation: Direction of Chronic Infections and Cancer, Research Center in Infection Diseases, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México.
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Peralta-Zaragoza
authors.forename: Víctor Hugo
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: Bermúdez-Morales
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pérez-Plasencia
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Salazar-León
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gómez-Cerón
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Madrid-Marina
keywords: HPV E6 and E7 oncogenes; cervical cancer; clinical trials; gene therapy; siRNAs