TY - JOUR T1 - The 2016 John J. Abel Award Lecture: Targeting the Mechanical Microenvironment in Cancer JF - Molecular Pharmacology JO - Mol Pharmacol SP - 744 LP - 754 DO - 10.1124/mol.116.106765 VL - 90 IS - 6 AU - Hannah E. Majeski AU - Jing Yang Y1 - 2016/12/01 UR - http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/90/6/744.abstract N2 - Past decades of cancer research have mainly focused on the role of various extracellular and intracellular biochemical signals on cancer progression and metastasis. Recent studies suggest an important role of mechanical forces in regulating cellular behaviors. This review first provides an overview of the mechanobiology research field. Then we specially focus on mechanotransduction pathways in cancer progression and describe in detail the key signaling components of such mechanotransduction pathways and extracellular matrix components that are altered in cancer. Although our understanding of mechanoregulation in cancer is still in its infancy, some agents against key mechanoregulators have been developed and will be discussed to explore the potential of pharmacologically targeting mechanotransduction in cancer. ER -