A significant part of the lectures given at the Collège within the framework of the Chair seek to highlight the links that exist between the pathogenesis of different forms of cancer and different treatment modalities. For example, we presented the links between nuclear receptors and anti-hormone treatments, or the role of P53 in responses to various therapies.
Following on from the lecture on the master genes of cell differentiation, we wanted to present an overview of the induction of cell differentiation as a therapeutic strategy. This strategy has historically been developed in leukemia. It found its consecration in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) with retinoic acid in the 1990s. However, recent studies have called into question the central role of cell differentiation in curing this disease. The arrival of numerous targeted therapies inducing various forms of cell differentiation in other forms of cancer has led to a re-evaluation of the role of cell differentiation in therapeutic response. It became clear that differentiation contributed to the response by reducing - sometimes very significantly - the tumor burden, but that it was not sufficient to induce cure. The lecture reviewed these various elements, in a historical context, and presented the latest advances, in particular those derived from fundamental studies of embryonic cell differentiation. Combined strategies targeting both differentiation and self-renewal, as in LAP, are beginning to emerge in different cell models. These could ultimately lead to new treatment modalities.