Dopamine Receptors in Cancer: Are They Valid Therapeutic Targets?

The dopamine receptors (DRs) family includes 5 members with differences in signal transduction and ligand affinity. Abnormal DRs expression has been correlated multiple tumors with their clinical outcome. Thus, it has been proposed that DRs-targeting drugs—developed for other diseases as schizophrenia or Parkinson’s disease—could be helpful in managing neoplastic diseases. In this review, we discuss the role of DRs and the effects of DRs-targeting in tumor progression and cancer cell biology using multiple high-prevalence neoplasms as examples. The evidence shows that DRs are valid therapeutic targets for certain receptor/disease combinations, but the data are inconclusive or contradictory for others. In either case, further studies are required to define the precise role of DRs in tumor progression and propose better therapeutic strategies for their targeting.