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Too early to say, “no targeting of mitosis!”

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 8, page 444 (2011)Cite this article

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I recently read the article by Komlodi-Pasztor et al. (Mitosis is not a key target of microtubule agents in patient tumors. Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 8, 244–250)1 and have serious concerns about the rationales that led to their conclusions.

Komlodi-Pazstor et al.1 state that many mitotic inhibitors have been unsuccessful in clinical trials in patients with cancer, and conclude that targeting the mitotic process is not useful. While current drugs predominantly target microtubule proteins, targeting other proteins involved in mitosis is in its infancy. Inhibitors of only three (all kinases) of more than 100 mitotic proteins2 have been assessed and discussed in the Review article.

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References

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  1. Department of Pediatrics, Center for Childhood Cancer, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, 700 Children's Drive, Columbus, 43205, OH, USA

    Katsumi Kitagawa

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  1. Katsumi Kitagawa
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Kitagawa, K. Too early to say, “no targeting of mitosis!”. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 8, 444 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2010.228-c1

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