Differentiation therapy is a method to treating advanced

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

s in which

malignant Malignancy () is the tendency of a medical condition to become progressively worse; the term is most familiar as a characterization of cancer. A ''malignant'' tumor contrasts with a non-cancerous benign tumor, ''benign'' tumor in that a malig ...

cells are encouraged to differentiate into more mature forms using pharmacological agents. The basis of the therapy stems from the tendency of malignant tumor cells to assume a less specialized,

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

-like dedifferentiated state.

Leukemia

The approach was motivated by noticing that leukemia cells fail to differentiate and fully mature. By 2001 encouraging clinical results were seen. The first differentiation agent found to be successful was

all-trans-retinoic acid Tretinoin, also known as all-''trans'' retinoic acid (ATRA), is a medication used for the treatment of acne and acute promyelocytic leukemia. For acne, it is applied to the skin as a cream, gel or ointment. For acute promyelocytic leukemia, ...

(ATRA) in the treatment of

acute promyelocytic leukemia Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APML, APL) is a subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a cancer of the white blood cells. In APL, there is an abnormal accumulation of immature granulocytes called promyelocytes. The disease is characterized by ...

(APL).

Other cancers

The process of cancer spreading (

metastasis Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spreading from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, ...

) involves tumour cells undergoing an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) to invade and spread, followed by a mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) at remote sites. Other agents investigated (pre-clinically) to encourage MET include

cholera toxin Cholera toxin (also known as choleragen, CTX, CTx and CT) is a potent enterotoxin produced by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae which causes severe watery diarrhea and dehydration that define cholera infections. The toxin is a member of the heat-l ...

(CTx) and

forskolin Forskolin (coleonol) is a labdane diterpene produced by the plant '' Coleus barbatus'' (blue spur flower). Other names include pashanabhedi, Indian coleus, makandi, HL-362, mao hou qiao rui hua. As with other members of the large diterpene class o ...

(Fsk).

References

Chemotherapy Oncology {{treatment-stub