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Blood, 1 September 2000, Vol. 96, No. 5, pp. 1655-1669
REVIEW ARTICLE
Targeting the Ras signaling pathway: a rational, mechanism-based
treatment for hematologic malignancies?
Christoph W. M. Reuter,
Michael A. Morgan, and
Lothar Bergmann
From the Department of Internal Medicine III
(Hematology and Oncology), University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
A series of alterations in the cellular genome affecting the
expression or function of genes controlling cell growth and
differentiation is considered to be the main cause of cancer. These
mutational events include activation of oncogenes and inactivation of
tumor suppressor genes. The elucidation of human cancer at the
molecular level allows the design of rational, mechanism-based
therapeutic agents that antagonize the specific activity of biochemical
processes that are essential to the malignant phenotype of cancer
cells. Because the frequency of RAS mutations is among the
highest for any gene in human cancers, development of inhibitors of the
Ras-mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway as potential anticancer
agents is a very promising pharmacologic strategy. Inhibitors of Ras
signaling have been shown to revert Ras-dependent transformation and
cause regression of Ras-dependent tumors in animal models. The most promising new class of these potential cancer therapeutics are the
farnesyltransferase inhibitors. The development of these compounds has
been driven by the observation that oncogenic Ras function is dependent
upon posttranslational modification, which enables membrane binding. In
contrast to many conventional chemotherapeutics, farnesyltransferase inhibitors are remarkably specific and have been demonstrated to cause no gross systemic toxicity in animals. Some
orally bioavailable inhibitors are presently being evaluated in phase
II clinical trials. This review presents an overview on some inhibitors
of the Ras signaling pathway, including their specificity and
effectiveness in vivo. Because Ras signaling plays a
crucial role in the pathogenesis of some hematologic malignancies, the
potential therapeutic usefulness of these inhibitors is discussed.

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