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Apoptosis Induction for Cancer Therapy

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Cancer

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Definition

Apoptosis is a highly coordinated homeostasis mechanism that ensures the timely and safe removal of superfluous, damaged, or dangerously altered cells without causing collateral damage. Imbalances in apoptosis have been implicated in a variety of pathological conditions, including cancer. Tumor cells typically have an elevated threshold for endogenous pro-apoptotic signals, which can lead to a dangerously extended cellular life span and progressively malignant behavior. Conventional cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy and/or ionizing radiation therapy, overcomes apoptosis resistance by inducing extensive and indiscriminate damage in all rapidly dividing cell types, including many normal cell types. Consequently, the therapeutic efficacy of conventional cancer therapeutics is usually limited by their severe side effects. Therefore, cancer researchers have focused on the design of new strategies that more selectively tip the balance of cellular fate of cancer cells toward...

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References

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See Also

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  • (2012) Growth Arrest. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 1607. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_2519

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  • (2012) Homeostasis. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 1723. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_2789

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  • (2012) Malignant Progression. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp 2149-2150. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_3517

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Section Medical Biology, Laboratory for Tumor Immunology, University Medical Center Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Edwin Bremer

  2. Groningen University Institute for Drug Exploration (GUIDE), University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Section Medical Biology, Laboratory for Tumor Immunology, University Medical Center Groningen, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Wijnand Helfrich

Authors
  1. Edwin Bremer
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  2. Wijnand Helfrich
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edwin Bremer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abt. Tumorgenetik, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany

    Manfred Schwab

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Bremer, E., Helfrich, W. (2015). Apoptosis Induction for Cancer Therapy. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_363-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_363-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

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