Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid tumor in childhood. Despite intense multimodal therapy and many improvements through basic scientific and clinical research, the successful response of advanced-stage patients to chemotherapy remains poor. Autophagy is a cytoprotective mechanism that may help advanced cancer cells survive stressful conditions such as chemotherapy. Here we review our recent findings describing HDAC10 as a promoter of autophagy-mediated survival in neuroblastoma cells and identifying this HDAC isozyme as a druggable regulator of advanced-stage tumor cell survival. These results propose a new and promising way to considerably improve treatment response in the neuroblastoma patient subgroup with the poorest outcome.
Keywords: HDAC-inhibitor; HDAC10; drug resistance; lysosome; macroautophagy; neuroblastoma.