Apoptosis and cancer chemotherapy

The explosion of interest in apoptosis amongst cancer biologists has been u nderpinned by the hope that a mechanistic understanding of cell death will inform our understanding of tumour drug resistance. A framework for drug-in duced apoptosis can now be described in which a balance exists between intr insic and extrinsic survival signals and drug-induced death signals. Pro- a nd anti-apoptotic signals impact upon pro-apoptotic members of the Bcl-2 fa mily of proteins, which ultimately control the cellular fate. This framewor k suggests multiple points at which therapeutic interventions could be made to overcome drug resistance and, in addition, generates novel molecular ta rgets for the induction of apoptosis in cancer cells.