Integrin α6 targeted cancer imaging and therapy

Integrins represent ideal targets for molecular imaging and targeted therapy of cancer and their role in cancer has been reviewed extensively elsewhere. Except for αVβ3 and αVβ5, the remaining integrins were not systematically considered and tested as potential therapeutic targets. In recent years, the studies on integrin α6 as a cancer imaging and therapeutic target are increasing, due to their highly expressed in several cancers, and their expression has been associated with poor survival. Integrin α6 appears to be a particularly attractive target for cancer imaging and therapy, and therefore we have developed a wide array of integrin α6-target molecular probes for molecular imaging and targeted therapy of different cancers. Despite the studies on integrin α6 as a cancer imaging and therapeutic target increasing in recent years, most of them were derived from preclinical mouse models, revealing that much more can be done in the future. The development of integrin α6 drugs may now be at an important point, with opportunities to learn from previous research, to explore new approaches. In this review, we will briefly introduce integrin α6 and highlighted the recent advances in integrin α6 targeted imaging and therapeutics in cancer.