Therapeutic approaches for targeting receptor tyrosine kinase like orphan receptor-1 in cancer cells

Introduction: There is a high expression of receptor tyrosine kinase like orphan receptor-1 (ROR-1), a tyrosine kinase receptor, in various tumor-cell types. ROR-1 is involved in many key processes in cancer including proliferation, survival and metastasis. Hence, ROR-1 is an attractive and promising therapeutic target. There are many therapeutic approaches that target ROR-1 and these include specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), modified T cells (CART cell), miRNAs and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI).Areas covered: This review examines ROR-1 structure and function, immunotherapeutic strategies including specific chimeric antigen receptor (CARs) T cells and miRNAs and other targeted approaches such as the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors.Expert opinion: Chimeric antibodies, CARs T cells, bi-specific T cell engagers (BiTEs), miRNAs and TKIs are used to target the ROR-1 marker on cancer cell lines. By selecting the most favorable therapeutic approaches regarding ROR-1 in vivo, anti-ROR-1 antibodies or CAR T cells can be also used for diagnosis of ROR-1(+) cancer cells in new technologies such as biosensors. Moreover, ROR-1 targeted combination therapy with other cancer biomarkers could be considered a novel therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment.