Assessment of cellular signaling pathways in cancer: Targeting aberrant kinases and phosphatases for personalized therapy

Cancer is a group of diseases where cell proliferation is uncontrolled leading to formation of tumors which can spread to other parts of the body in a process called metastasis. With a mortality of about ten million deaths each year, cancer is responsible for one in six deaths which makes it one of the leading health problems worldwide. Because of this it is necessary for scientists to research cancer thoroughly to stop this problem as soon as possible. Cellular signaling pathways regulate cell proliferation, depending on the ligand that binds to cells it can lead to cell growth or apoptosis. So if a mutation happens in one of these pathways it can lead to serious problems such as the constant activation of the pathway causing uncontrolled cell growth and thus, cancer. In this review, I will focus on the aberrant kinases and phosphatases describing their pathways with detail and seeing how to target these mutations using combinatorial therapy with signal-transduction inhibitors to try to stop the pathogenesis of cancer. So far, there is no known cure for cancer and only some treatments in phase III are available. Trying to cure cancer is very complex, especially in cancer treatment as each patient may have genetic variations, the molecular profile of the tumor, and other unique biological characteristics, herein, personalized therapy based on different patients situation to increase treatment effectiveness while minimizing side effects. In this review, we intend to elucidate the significance of targeting aberrant kinases and phosphatases in the pathogenesis of cancer.