Targeted therapies include small-molecule inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies, have made treatment more tumor-specific and less toxic, and have opened new possibilities for tailoring cancer treatment. Nevertheless, there remain several challenges to targeted therapies, including molecular identification, drug resistance, and exploring reliable biomarkers. Here, we present several selected signaling pathways and molecular targets involved in human cancers including Aurora kinases, PI3K/mTOR signaling, FOXO-FOXM1 axis, and MDM2/MDM4-p53 interaction. Understanding the molecular mechanisms for tumorigenesis and development of drug resistance will provide new insights into drug discovery and design of therapeutic strategies for targeted therapies.
Aurora Kinases ; metabolism ; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm ; Forkhead Box Protein M1 ; Forkhead Box Protein O3 ; Forkhead Transcription Factors ; metabolism ; Humans ; Molecular Targeted Therapy ; Neoplasms ; metabolism ; therapy ; Nuclear Proteins ; metabolism ; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases ; metabolism ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins ; metabolism ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2 ; metabolism ; Signal Transduction ; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases ; metabolism ; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 ; metabolism