Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jan 15, 2017; 9(1): 21-29
Published online Jan 15, 2017. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v9.i1.21
Novel therapeutic approaches targeting L-type amino acid transporters for cancer treatment
Keitaro Hayashi, Naohiko Anzai
Keitaro Hayashi, Naohiko Anzai, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Dokkyo Medical University School of Medicine, Shimotsuga, Tochigi 321-0293, Japan
Naohiko Anzai, Department of Pharmacology, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Chuo, Chiba 260-8670, Japan
Author contributions: Hayashi K wrote the manuscript; Anzai N reviewed the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the senior author or other coauthors contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Keitaro Hayashi, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Dokkyo Medical University School of Medicine, 880 Kitakobayashi, Mibu, Shimotsuga, Tochigi 321-0293, Japan. khayashi@dokkyomed.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-282-872128 Fax: +81-282-862915
Received: August 15, 2016
Peer-review started: August 16, 2016
First decision: September 28, 2016
Revised: October 8, 2016
Accepted: November 1, 2016
Article in press: November 2, 2016
Published online: January 15, 2017
Processing time: 149 Days and 23.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The discovery of molecules preferentially expressed in cancer cells is extremely valuable for the development of molecular target drugs in cancer therapy. Amino acid transporters have been receiving a great amount of attention as a candidate of such molecular targets. This review summarizes new initiatives for clinical applications of the basic research relative to L-type amino acid transporters, which are commonly expressed in cancers.