Tissue-selective therapy of cancer

Abstract

Instead of exploiting the differences between normal and cancer cells, seemingly unrelated anticancer modalities (from immunotherapy to hormones) exploit (a) the differences between various normal tissues and (b) tissue-specific similarities of normal and cancer cells. Although these therapies are successfully used for years to treat leukaemia and cancer, their unifying principles have never been explicitly formulated: namely, they are aimed at differentiated cells and normal tissues and target both normal and cancer cells in a tissue-specific manner. Whereas tiny differences between cancer and normal cells have yet to be successfully exploited for selective anticancer therapy, numerous tissue-specific differences (e.g. differences between melanocytes, prostate, thyroid and breast cells) provide a means to attack selectively that exact tissue that produced cancer. Despite inherent limitations, such as fostering resistance and dedifferentiation, tissue-selective therapy have enormous potentials to control cancer. © 2003 Cancer Research UK.