Signalling Molecules as Targets in Cancer Therapy

This book presents state-of-the-art information on the molecules of cell signalling pathways that represent actual or future targets for cancer therapy. By giving an update of the most promising approaches in this rapidly evolving field, the book contributes to the translation of the recent advances in the knowledge of intracellular signalling into the generation of innovative biomolecules as specific tools to target the most promising tumour-specific candidates. The book begins logically with the molecules first encountered along the signalling pathways, the membrane receptors for growth factors (Part I). Next, Part II presents several examples of intracellular molecular targets that are situated one step beyond in the pathways, while Part III addresses the difficult task of tuning the delicate balance between cell death and survival. In Part IV, the reader is taken into the practical problems raised by the therapy of specific cancers (glioma, childhood leukaemia), and into an original strategy from the field of nuclear medicine with the potential to generate innovative molecular-targeted cancer therapies.