Different tumors have different aberrations in signaling and growth stimulation pathways that drive cancer growth. An understanding of these processes is key to the development of new anticancer agents and to identifying optimal treatment strategies and patient populations suitable for specific therapies. It is becoming clear that certain chemotherapeutic drugs such as docetaxel are not simply inhibitors of mitosis and may interact with these tumorigenic mechanisms at a number of levels. This review describes docetaxel's mechanism of action, and provides a basis for understanding how its antitumor activity can integrate with that of different novel agents. Against this background, key docetaxel-novel agent combinations that are currently under clinical investigation are reviewed. How these strategies can be targeted towards specific patient populations (e.g., HER-2 overexpressing metastatic breast cancer patients) to provide optimal therapy is highlighted.

中文翻译：

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多西紫杉醇的作用方式-与新型抗癌药联合使用的基础。

不同的肿瘤在驱动癌症生长的信号传导和生长刺激途径中具有不同的畸变。对这些过程的了解是开发新的抗癌药以及确定适合特定疗法的最佳治疗策略和患者人群的关键。越来越明显的是，某些化学治疗药物（例如多西他赛）不仅是有丝分裂的抑制剂，而且可能在许多水平上与这些致瘤机制相互作用。这篇综述描述了多西紫杉醇的作用机制，并为理解其抗肿瘤活性如何与不同的新型药物结合提供了基础。在这种背景下，目前正在临床研究中的关键多西他赛-诺维新药组合得到了审查。