Involvement of calcium signaling in different types of cell death in cancer

Programmed cell death is a basic feature of chemotherapeutic (and also radiotherapeutic) intervention. Induction of cell death in tumor cells aims to kill preferentially the tumor cells, with minimal impact on the normal cells. Although apoptosis is the most obvious type of cell death induced by chemotherapeutics, several other types can also be activated, especially in conditions, where cells are resistant to apoptosis induction. Calcium signaling was shown to play an indisputable role in the activation of different types of cell death. Local increase of the calcium in time and precise place of this increase is secured by calcium transport systems. In this review, we summarized the involvement of some calcium transport systems in apoptosis, autophagy, necroptosis, ferroptosis, and mitophagy during cancer development and treatment.