Advances in targeted therapy mainly based on signal pathways for nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Yuanbo Kang, Weihan He, Jincheng Qiao, Qiuyong Guo, Caiping Ren, Jingyu Hu, Hongjuan Xu, Xingjun Jiang, Lei Wang
2020 Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy  
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignant epithelial carcinoma of the head and neck region which mainly distributes in southern China and Southeast Asia and has a crucial association with the Epstein–Barr virus. Based on epidemiological data, both incidence and mortality of NPC have significantly declined in recent decades grounded on the improvement of living standard and medical level in an endemic region, in particular, with the clinical use of individualized chemotherapy and
more » ... dulated radiotherapy (IMRT) which profoundly contributes to the cure rate of NPC patients. To tackle the challenges including local recurrence and distant metastasis in the current NPC treatment, we discussed the implication of using targeted therapy against critical molecules in various signal pathways, and how they synergize with chemoradiotherapy in the NPC treatment. Combination treatment including targeted therapy and IMRT or concurrent chemoradiotherapy is presumably to be future options, which may reduce radiation or chemotherapy toxicities and open new avenues for the improvement of the expected functional outcome for patients with advanced NPC.
doi:10.1038/s41392-020-00340-2 pmid:33093441 fatcat:6cd443e3ibfdxlmxa7bh6m24i4