Impact of Galectins in Resistance to Anticancer Therapies

NAVARRO, PILAR; MARTÍNEZ-BOSCH, NEUS; BLIDNER, ADA G; RABINOVICH, GABRIEL A

CLINICAL CANCER RESEARCH

AMER ASSOC CANCER RESEARCH

Año: 2020

1078-0432

Galectins are an endogenous family of beta-galactoside-binding proteins that play complexand multifaceted roles at various stages of cancer progression, including modulation oftumor cell proliferation, signaling, adhesion, migration, invasion, epithelial-mesenchymaltransition, angiogenesis and immune escape. Recently, galectins have been implicated asmajor therapeutic determinants that confer sensitivity or resistance to a wide range ofanticancer modalities including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapies,antiangiogenic therapies and immunotherapies. Here, we present an integrated approachto the pleiotropic functions of galectins and discuss their emerging roles with respect tomechanisms of resistance or sensitivity to anticancer therapies. Taken together, thesefindings suggest that targeting galectins and/or their glycosylated ligands may help toovercome resistance and to increase the clinical efficacy of anticancer strategies.