Targeting Integrins in Cancer

Interactions between cancer cells and their surrounding cells are essential to determining tumor fate. Integrins, present on the surface of tumor and stromal cells, including endothelial cells, have a profound impact on the ability of cells to survive, expand, migrate, invade, and metastasize. Moreover, integrins facilitate tumor cell malignancy/stemness and resistance to therapeutic drugs by modulating intracellular signaling pathways through the recruitment and activation of specific kinases and signaling intermediates. Understanding how integrin expression and function are regulated during progression of tumor malignancy will enable the development of new therapeutic approaches to treating tumors and suppressing their metastatic phenotype. In this review, we discuss the role of integrins and their network of partner proteins in cancers. We also discuss major integrin-specific therapeutic advances that have been made over the past few years in targeting tumorigenesis and angiogenesis.