www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget/ Oncotarget, 2017, Vol. 8, (No. 58), pp: 99179-99202 Review Phosphodiesterase type 5 and cancers: progress and challenges Ines Barone1, Cinzia Giordano2, Daniela Bonofiglio1, Sebastiano Andò1 and Stefania Catalano1 1Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy 2Centro Sanitario, University of Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy Correspondence to: Ines Barone, email:
[email protected] Stefania Catalano, email:
[email protected] Keywords: phosphodiesterase, cancer, targeted therapy, biomarkers, chemoprevention Received: June 20, 2017 Accepted: September 23, 2017 Published: October 12, 2017 Copyright: Barone et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ABSTRACT Cancers are an extraordinarily heterogeneous collection of diseases with distinct genetic profiles and biological features that directly influence response patterns to various treatment strategies as well as clinical outcomes. Nevertheless, our growing understanding of cancer cell biology and tumor progression is gradually leading towards rational, tailored medical treatments designed to destroy cancer cells by exploiting the unique cellular pathways that distinguish them from normal healthy counterparts. Recently, inhibition of the activity of phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) is emerging as a promising approach to restore normal intracellular cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) signalling, and thereby resulting into the activation of various downstream molecules to inhibit proliferation, motility and invasion of certain cancer cells. In this review, we present an overview of the experimental and clinical evidences highlighting the role of PDE5 in the pathogenesis and prevention of various malignancies.