Table 2.

The Biological Function of Isoflurane in Cancer

Anesthetics	The Role of Anesthetics in Oncogenesis	Downstream Gene Regulated by Anesthetics	Function	References
Isoflurane	Promotes oncogenesis	Upregulates HIF pathway	Promotes prostate cancer and RCC cells proliferation, migration and chemoresistance	[42,44]
		Activates Akt-mTOR pathway	Promotes NSCLC cells proliferation, migration and invasion	[48]
		Upregulates Caveolin-1	Induces colon cancer cell apoptosis	[45]
		Upregulates MMP-2 and MMP-9, VEGF and angiopoietin-1	Promotes ovarian cancer cells migration and angiogenesis	[47]
	Suppress oncogenesis	Downregulates NF-κB	Inhibits liver cancer cells migration and invasion	[39]

Abbreviations: HIF, hypoxia-inducible factor; RCC, renal cell carcinoma; Akt, protein kinase B; mTOR, mammalian target of rapamycin; NSCLC, non-small cell lung cancer; MMP, matrix metalloproteinase; NF-κB, nuclear factor-kappaB.