IKK/Nuclear Factor-kappaB and Oncogenesis: Roles in Tumor-Initiating Cells and in the Tumor Microenvironment

摘要

The IKKuclear factor-kappaB pathway (NF-kB) is critical in proper immune function, cell survival, apoptosis, cellular proliferation, synaptic plasticity, and even memory. While NF-kB is crucial for both innate and adaptive immunity, defective regulation of this master transcriptional regulator is seen in a variety of diseases including autoimmune disease, neurodegenerative disease, and, important to this review, cancer. While NF-kB functions in cancer to promote a number of critical oncogenic functions, here we discuss the importance of the NF-kB signaling pathway in contributing to cancer through promotion of the tumor microenvironment and through maintenance/expansion of tumor-initiating cells, processes that appear to be functionally interrelated.