All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), a derivative of vitamin A, has been shown to potentiate cancer chemotherapy due to its ability to induce signals for cell differentiation or death, and inhibit cell proliferation. The combination of ATRA with taxoids, kinase inhibitors, natural compounds, retinoids, ER or HER2 inhibitors, chemotherapeutic drugs, proteasome inhibitors and nanoformulations of tretinoin have demonstrated additive or synergistic effects in anti-cancer activities. The mechanisms by which the compounds exert their synergistic effects depend on the tumor and the cell type. However, several experiments demonstrated similar mechanisms such as reduction of PCK, c-myc, E2F and Bcl-2, as well as increase of p21 and TGF-β. When the apoptotic synergistic effect was observed, the predominant effect of ATRA was in differentiation induction. The results indicate that future combinations of ATRA and anti-tumor agents hold promise to enhance and improve anti-carcinogenic therapies.

全反式维甲酸（ATRA）是维生素A的衍生物，由于其具有诱导细胞分化或死亡信号并抑制细胞增殖的能力，因此已显示出增强癌症化疗的作用。ATRA与类紫杉醇，激酶抑制剂，天然化合物，类维生素A，ER或HER2抑制剂，化学治疗药物，蛋白酶体抑制剂和维甲酸的纳米制剂的组合已证明在抗癌活性中具有累加或协同作用。化合物发挥协同作用的机制取决于肿瘤和细胞类型。然而，多次试验证明类似的机制，例如降低PCK的，Ç-myc，E2F和Bcl-2，以及p21和TGF-β升高。当观察到细胞凋亡的协同作用时，ATRA的主要作用是诱导分化。结果表明，ATRA和抗肿瘤药物的未来组合有望增强和改善抗癌治疗。