Inhibiting induction of heat shock proteins as a strategy to enhance cancer therapy

Cancer treatments that incorporate thermal therapy and some systemic therapies induce the production of heat shock or stress proteins. The induced heat shock proteins could lessen the effect of the therapy by inhibiting apoptotic signaling and by acting as molecular chaperones to prevent irreversible cellular damage. Strategies that prevent the induction of heat shock proteins would result in more apoptosis and necrosis, improving the cancer therapy. This paper briefly reviews cancer therapies that induce the stress response, and proposes strategies to reduce the stress response.