Biochemical pharmacology
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Biochemical pharmacology · Oct 2005
ReviewNon-COX-2 targets and cancer: expanding the molecular target repertoire of chemoprevention.
Chemoprevention represents a highly promising approach for the control of cancer. That nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) prevent colon and other cancers has led to novel approaches to cancer prevention. ⋯ Here we review several pathways of the eicosanoid cascade that are relevant to cancer; summarize the evidence regarding the role of COX-2 as a target for cancer prevention; and discuss several of the molecular targets that may mediate the chemopreventive effect of NSAIDs. The clinically modest results obtained to date with COX-2 specific inhibitors used in cancer prevention; the multiple COX-2-independent targets of both NSAIDs and COX-2 inhibitors; and the limitations of some COX-2 inhibitors indicate that exploiting these (non-COX-2) molecular targets will likely yield effective new approaches for cancer chemoprevention.