The anti-cancer drug paclitaxel (Taxol) alters microtubule assembly and activates pro-
apoptotic signaling pathways. Previously, we and others found that paclitaxel activates
endogenous JNK in tumor cells, and the activation of JNK contributes to tumor cell
apoptosis. Here we find that paclitaxel activates the prosurvival MEK/ERK pathway, which
conversely may compromise the efficacy of paclitaxel. Hence, a combination treatment of
paclitaxel and MEK inhibitors was pursued to determine whether this treatment could lead to …