Over the last three decades,
neoplasms have become the largest cause of human mortality due to both high
tumor incidence and mortality.
Chemotherapy is one of the main
therapies employed to treat
neoplasms. Although classical genotoxic drugs, such as
cyclophosphamide,
5-FU,
cisplatin and
doxorubicin have been applied in clinical settings and have achieved very good treatment efficacy, many
cancer patients died of
tumor metastasis,
drug toxicity or drug resistance due to
tumor heterogeneity. Targeted molecular treatments based on the genes, receptors, and
kinases expressed by a
tumor make individualized treatment possible.
Protein kinases catalyze the phosphorylation of
proteins and are involved in multiple cellular processes. In many
cancers, mutation or abnormal expression of
protein kinases is correlated with
tumorigenesis,
metastasis and resistance to
chemotherapy.
Tumor-related
protein kinases have become important molecular targets and
biomarkers. The use of
protein kinases as
tumor biomarkers primarily focuses on
tyrosine and
serine/threonine kinases. Many
tumor drugs targeting
protein kinases, such as
monoclonal antibody and
tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), are widely utilized in clinic. Additional drugs aimed at combating drug resistance and
metastasis should be developed targeting
protein kinases. In this review, we summarize several important
protein kinases involved in
cancer and analyze why these
kinases can be used as
biomarkers or targets for
cancer diagnosis and/or treatment. Furthermore, numerous drugs targeting
protein kinases as well as their development and activity are discussed.