APOPTOSIS - TARGETED ANTICANCER THERAPY

Apoptosis is the major form of cell suicide. Most conventional anticancer agents induce apoptosis indirectly. Although chemiotherapeutic drugs should selectively kill only tumor cells, normal cells are often susceptible to cytotoxic or cytostatic effects of these agents. This is a reason of potentially harmful side effects including inflammation and damage to the surrounding normal tissue. A new therapeutic approach in cancer treatment is the use of substances that stimulate cytokine production, angiogenesis inhibitors, gene therapies, antisense oligonucleotides and monoclonal antibodies. Many of new agents tested in preclinical study or in I and II phase of clinical trials can induce apoptosis directly. This new approach allows probably to eliminate a lot of problems connecting with non-specific activity of anticancer drugs and their mutagenicity.