Many researchers have worked extensively in past 3 decades in developing better chemotherapeutic agents to cure cancer. Several combination chemotherapy regimens were developed to improve cure rate in cancer. Intrinsic and acquired resistance poses challenges in developing effective and safe chemotherapeutic agents. It is evident that the expression of genes that regulate apoptotic cell death plays an important role in determining the sensitivity of tumor cells to chemotherapy. Proteins of EGFR family and Bcl-2 family are key regulators of apoptosis. Some members of this family, notably Her-2, Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL are overexpressed in cancer cells, which have been associated with chemoresistance. This pioneered new approach in cancer treatment i.e. chemo-signal therapy. This approach is now being tested in clinical research. Several chemosignal modulators are being developed and many of them have shown promising results in clinical studies.
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