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Review
. 2021 Dec 23:9:20503121211067083.
doi: 10.1177/20503121211067083. eCollection 2021.

A recent development of new therapeutic agents and novel drug targets for cancer treatment

Zemene Demelash Kifle  1 , Meklit Tadele  1 , Eyerusalem Alemu  1 , Tadele Gedamu  1 , Akeberegn Gorems Ayele  2
Affiliations
Review

A recent development of new therapeutic agents and novel drug targets for cancer treatment

Zemene Demelash Kifle et al. SAGE Open Med. .

Abstract

Despite recent advances in cancer diagnosis, prevention, detection, as well as management, the disease is expected to be the top cause of death globally. The chemotherapy approach for cancer has become more advanced in its design, yet no medication can cure enough against all types of cancer and its stage. Thus, this review aimed to summarize a recent development of new therapeutic agents and novel drug targets for the treatment of cancer. Several obstacles stand in the way of effective cancer treatment and drug development, including inaccessibility of tumor site by appropriate drug concentration, debilitating untoward effects caused by non-selective tissue distribution of chemotherapeutic agents, and occurrence of drug resistance, which leads to cross-resistance to a variety of drugs. Resistance to treatment with anticancer drugs results from multiple factors and the most common reason for acquiring drug resistance is marking and expelling drugs that prevent cancer cells to be targeted by chemotherapeutic agents. Moreover, insensitivity to drug-induced apoptosis, alteration, and mutation of drug target and interference/change of DNA replication are other main causes of treatment failure.

Keywords: Cancer; development; drug targets; therapeutic agent.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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