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PMID: 22398146 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Review

Hypoxia-inducible factors: mediators of cancer progression and targets for cancer therapy.

Trends in pharmacological sciences ·Vol. 33 ·No. 4 ·2012-04-00 ·Pages 207-14

Semenza GL

Abstract

Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) mediate adaptive physiological responses to hypoxia. In human cancers that are accessible for O(2) electrode measurements, intratumoral hypoxia is common and severe hypoxia is associated with increased risk of mortality. HIF activity in regions of intratumoral hypoxia mediates angiogenesis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, stem-cell maintenance, invasion, metastasis, and resistance to radiation therapy and chemotherapy. A growing number of drugs have been identified that inhibit HIF activity by a variety of molecular mechanisms. Because many of these drugs are already FDA-approved for other indications, clinical trials can (and should) be initiated to test the hypothesis that incorporation of HIF inhibitors into current standard-of-care therapy will increase the survival of cancer patients.

MeSH Terms
Animals Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacology,therapeutic use Cell Hypoxia/physiology Disease Progression Humans Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1/antagonists & inhibitors,metabolism Molecular Targeted Therapy Neoplasms/drug therapy,metabolism
Chemicals
Antineoplastic Agents Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1
Authors & Affiliations
1 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Semenza Gregg L
Vascular Program, Institute for Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. gsemenza@jhmi.edu
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Article Info
Journal
Trends in pharmacological sciences
Abbr.
Trends Pharmacol Sci
ISSN
1873-3735
DOI
10.1016/j.tips.2012.01.005
Email
gsemenza@jhmi.edu
Published
2012-04-00
Epub
2012-00-06
Pages
207-14
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
7906158
PMCID
PMC3437546
Subset
IM
Grants
NCI NIH HHS · U54 CA143868 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1016/j.tips.2012.01.005 PMC Full Text View journal details
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