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Cordover et al. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2020;6:45 Journal of Cancer
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2020.101 Metastasis and Treatment

Review Open Access

Signaling pathways downstream to receptor tyrosine
kinases: targets for cancer treatment

Emma Cordover, Audrey Minden

Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research, Department of Chemical Biology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy,
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
Correspondence to: Dr. Audrey Minden, Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research, Department of Chemical
Biology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 164 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ
08854, USA. E-mail: aminden@pharmacy.rutgers.edu
How to cite this article: Cordover E, Minden A. Signaling pathways downstream to receptor tyrosine kinases: targets for cancer
treatment. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2020;6:45. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2020.101
Received: 9 Sep 2020 First Decision: 26 Oct 2020 Revised: 9 Nov 2020 Accepted: 19 Nov 2020 Published: 30 Nov 2020

Academic Editor: Xuefen Le Bourhis Copy Editor: Cai-Hong Wang Production Editor: Jing Yu

Abstract
Mammalian cells have the ability to respond to a myriad of diverse extracellular stimuli that modulate cell function.
This often involves ligands binding to cell surface receptors and subsequent activation of intracellular signaling
pathways. These pathways can lead to changes in gene expression patterns that in turn regulate cell growth,
differentiation, migration, and function. One important type of cell surface receptor is the receptor tyrosine kinase
(RTK). In response to in response to ligand binding, RTKs dimerize, then trans-phosphorylate each other, leading to
activation of downstream pathways. While the signaling proteins in these pathways are important for normal cell
growth control, when improperly regulated they can lead to uncontrolled growth and sometimes cancer. For this
reason, they are often considered to be good candidates for drug targets for chemotherapeutic drugs. RTKs can
activate multiple different signaling pathways. Some of the signaling proteins in these pathways can have crosstalk
with other RTK activated pathways, and some of them can be activated by multiple mechanisms in addition to
activation by RTKs. While there is a wide array of different signaling proteins and pathways activated by RTKs,
in this review we will discuss components of several key pathways including the MAPK pathway, the Her2/Neu
pathway, mTOR, and Pak kinases. We provide an overview of the roles for these pathways in cell signaling and
discuss how different components of these pathways are being considered as targets for cancer treatment.

Keywords: Receptor tyrosine kinases, signaling pathways, targeted cancer therapeutics, oncogenes, cell signaling

© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
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