Targeting Developmental Pathways: The Achilles Heel of Cancer?

Developmental pathways (e.g., Notch, Hippo, Hedgehog, Wnt, and TGF- β/BMP/FGF) are networks of genes that act co-ordinately to establish the body plan, and disruptions of genes in one pathway can have effects in related pathways and may result in serious dysmorphogenesis or cancer. Interestingly, all developmental pathways are highly conserved cell signalling syste ms present in almost all multicellular organisms. In addition, they have a crucial role in cell proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation, and finally in organ development. Of note, almost all of these pathways promote oncogenesis through synergistic associations with the Hippo signalling pathway, a nd several lines of evidence have also indicated that these pathways (e.g., Wnt/β-catenin) may be implicated in checkpoint inhibi...

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