Progress in pancreatic cancer therapeutics: The potential to exploit molecular targets

Figure 1 Simplified diagram of oncogenic targets in pancreatic cancer. The binding of ligands (including VEGF, EGF, IGF-1 and HGF) to receptors activates signalling pathways including the PI3K-Akt and the Ras pathways affecting downstream targets such as mTOR and MAPK. VEGF: Vascular endothelial growth factor; EGF: Epidermal growth factor; IGF-1: Insulin growth like factor-1; HGF: Hepatocyte growth factor; PI3K: Phosphatidylinositide 3-kinases; mTOR: Mammalian target of rapamycin; RAS: Rat activated sarcoma; GDP: Guanosine diphosphate; GTP: Guanosine triphosphate; MAP: Mitogen activated kinase; CD: Cytoplasmic domain; PTC1: Patched; SMO: Smooth muscle, GL1.