Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Sep;7(3):339-348.
doi: 10.15171/apb.2017.041. Epub 2017 Sep 25.

The Different Mechanisms of Cancer Drug Resistance: A Brief Review

Behzad Mansoori  1   2 , Ali Mohammadi  1   2 , Sadaf Davudian  1 , Solmaz Shirjang  1 , Behzad Baradaran  1
Affiliations
Review

The Different Mechanisms of Cancer Drug Resistance: A Brief Review

Behzad Mansoori et al. Adv Pharm Bull. 2017 Sep.

Abstract

Anticancer drugs resistance is a complex process that arises from altering in the drug targets. Advances in the DNA microarray, proteomics technology and the development of targeted therapies provide the new strategies to overcome the drug resistance. Although a design of the new chemotherapy agents is growing quickly, effective chemotherapy agent has not been discovered against the advanced stage of cancer (such as invasion and metastasis). The cancer cell resistance against the anticancer agents can be due to many factors such as the individual's genetic differences, especially in tumoral somatic cells. Also, the cancer drug resistance is acquired, the drug resistance can be occurred by different mechanisms, including multi-drug resistance, cell death inhibiting (apoptosis suppression), altering in the drug metabolism, epigenetic and drug targets, enhancing DNA repair and gene amplification. In this review, we outlined the mechanisms of cancer drug resistance and in following, the treatment failures by common chemotherapy agents in the different type of cancers.

Keywords: Cancer; Cell death inhibiting; Drug resistance; Epigenetic; Multi-drug resistance; microRNA.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 2
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. MacConaill LE, Garraway LA. Clinical implications of the cancer genome. J Clin Oncol. 2010;28(35):5219–28. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2009.27.4944. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Goldenberg MM. Trastuzumab, a recombinant DNA-derived humanized monoclonal antibody, a novel agent for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. Clin Ther. 1999;21(2):309–18. doi: 10.1016/S0149-2918(00)88288-0. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Longley DB, Johnston PG. Molecular mechanisms of drug resistance. J Pathol. 2005;205(2):275–92. doi: 10.1002/path.1706. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Goodman LS, Wintrobe MM, Dameshek W, Goodman MJ, Gilman A, McLennan MT. Nitrogen mustard therapy: Use of methyl-bis (beta-chloroethyl) amine hydrochloride and tris (beta-chloroethyl) amine hydrochloride for hodgkin's disease, lymphosarcoma, leukemia and certain allied and miscellaneous disorders. JAMA. 1946;132(3):126–32. doi: 10.1001/jama.1946.02870380008004. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barinaga M. From bench top to bedside. Science. 1997;278(5340):1036–9. - PubMed