The Emerging Role of Voltage-Gated Ion Channels in Cancer

Preclinical evidence suggests that voltage gradients can act as a kind of top-down master regulator during embryogenesis and orchestrate downstream molecular-genetic pathways during organ regeneration or repair. Moreover, electrical stimulation shifts response to injury towards regeneration instead of healing or scarring. Cancer and embryogenesis not only share common phenotypical features, but also commonly upregulated molecular pathways. Ion channel activity is directly or indirectly linked to the pathogenesis of cancer hallmarks, while experimental and clinical studies suggest that their modulation may exert antitumor effects. A large recent clinical trial served as a proof-of-principle for the benefit of preoperative use of topical sodium channel blockade as a potential anticancer strategy against early human breast cancers. Apart from the obvious importance in perioperative medicine, it calls for the planning of further carefully designed clinical trials to expand on the concept of ion channels as tumor drivers.