Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
1 Department of Medicine, Division of Neurology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
Abstract
Dramatic therapeutic benefits of targeting specific signal transduction pathways in some cancers have pushed rational molecular targeting to the forefront of cutting-edge cancer therapy. The identification and targeting of pathways critical to the phenotype of cancers offers new hope in the treatment of many patients. Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) is a multifunctional cytokine that is frequently expressed in multiple types of malignant brain tumors. TGF-beta exerts a complex set of effects in cancers with an early tumor suppressive effect through growth inhibition but later effects in cancer development that are tumorigenic - including increased tumor cell motility and invasion, induction of angiogenesis, and immune suppression. Early preclinical and clinical studies have shown promise of anti-TGF-beta strategies in the treatment of malignant gliomas suggesting TGF-beta may be a potential new therapeutic target in neuro-oncology.