  Signaling pathways serve to communicate information about extracellular
conditions into the cell, to both the nucleus and cytoplasmic processes to
control cell responses. Genetic mutations in signaling network components are
frequently associated with cancer and can result in cells acquiring an ability
to divide and grow uncontrollably. Because signaling pathways play such a
significant role in cancer initiation and advancement, their constituent
proteins are attractive therapeutic targets. In this review, we discuss how
signaling pathway modeling can assist with identifying effective drugs for
treating diseases, such as cancer. An achievement that would facilitate the use
of such models is their ability to identify controlling biochemical parameters
in signaling pathways, such as molecular abundances and chemical reaction
rates, because this would help determine effective points of attack by
therapeutics.
