Targeting Apoptosis Pathways for the Treatment of Pediatric Cancers

Evasion of apoptosis (programmed cell death) is a hallmark of human cancers. Further, most anticancer therapies that are commonly used in the clinic, e.g. chemo- or radiotherapy, primarily act by inducing cell death pathways including apoptosis in cancer cells. Thus, failure to undergo apoptosis may result in primary or acquired resistance of cancers to current treatment approaches. Understanding the molecular events that regulate apoptosis in response to anticancer therapy and how cancer cells evade apoptotic cell death provides novel opportunities for the development of molecular therapeutics that target cell…