Fig. 1.

Strategies in TGFβ-targeted therapy. A variety of antagonists against TGFβ have been developed for cancer therapy, which include neutralizing antibodies to eliminate TGFβ ligands (recombinant TβRIII, TGFβ antibody, sTβRII:Fc fusion protein), or to block ligand-receptor binding (TGFβ receptor antibody), as well as small molecule kinase inhibitors against the TGFβ receptors. The challenge for a successful cancer therapy relies on how to precisely aim at the tumor-promoting activity of TGFβ but spare its tumor-suppressing function