Novel chemotherapy using histone deacetylase inhibitors in cervical cancer.

Since epigenetic alterations are believed to be involved in the repression of tumor suppressor genes and promotion of tumorigenesis in cervical cancers, novel compounds endowed with a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitory activity are an attractive therapeutic approach. In this review, we discuss the biologic and therapeutic effects of HDAC inhibitors (HDACIs) in treating cervical cancer. HDACIs were able to mediate inhibition of cell growth, cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and the expression of genes related to the malignant phenotype in a variety of cervical cancer cell lines. Furthermore, HDACIs were able to induce the accumulation of acetylated histones in the chromatin of the p21WAF1 gene in human cervical carcinoma cells. In xenograft models, some HDACIs have demonstrated antitumor activity with only few side effects. Some clinical trials demonstrate that HDACI drugs provide an important class of new mechanism-based therapeutics for cervical cancer. In this review, we discuss the biologic and therapeutic effects of HDACIs in treating cervical cancer, especially focusing on preclinical studies and clinical trials.