Genetic interactions in translational research on cancer

Figure 2 Growth factor activated pathways and their crosstalks. Growth factors, such as epidermal growth factor (EGF), vascular endothelial grow factor (VEGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), insulin-like growth factor (IGF) and platelet derived growth factors (PDGF), interact with their receptors and activate the common downstream pathways, such as PI3K/AKT, RAS/RAF/MAPK and SRC/JAK/STAT pathways. Moreover, there are crosstalks among those pathways in regulating transcription factors and apoptotic/survival proteins. Inhibiting a single target or blocking a single pathway is often not sufficient to induce apoptosis in cancer cells.