All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), an active metabolite of vitamin A, plays important roles in cell proliferation, cell differentiation, apoptosis, and embryonic development. The effects of ATRA are mediated by nuclear retinoid receptors as well as non-genomic signal pathway, such as MAPK and PKA. The great success of differentiation therapy with ATRA in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) not only improved the prognosis of APL but also spurred the studies of ATRA in the treatment of other tumors. Since the genetic and physiopathological simplicity of APL is not common in human malignancies, the combination of ATRA with other agents (chemotherapy, epigenetic modifiers, and arsenic trioxide, etc) had been extensively investigated in a variety of tumors. In this review, we will discuss in details about ATRA and its role in cancer treatment.

中文翻译：

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全反式维甲酸在癌症治疗中的成功与挑战

全反式维甲酸（ATRA）是维生素A的活性代谢产物，在细胞增殖，细胞分化，凋亡和胚胎发育中起着重要作用。ATRA的作用由核类视黄醇受体以及非基因组信号途径（例如MAPK和PKA）介导。急性早幼粒细胞白血病（APL）的ATRA分化疗法取得了巨大成功，不仅改善了APL的预后，还推动了ATRA在其他肿瘤治疗中的研究。由于APL的遗传和生理病理学简单性在人类恶性肿瘤中并不常见，因此已在多种肿瘤中广泛研究了ATRA与其他药物（化学疗法，表观遗传修饰剂和三氧化二砷等）的组合。在这篇综述中，我们将详细讨论有关ATRA及其在癌症治疗中的作用。