Regulated cell death (RCD), also well-known as programmed cell death (PCD), refers to the form of cell death that can be regulated by a variety of biomacromolecules, which is distinctive from accidental cell death (ACD). Accumulating evidence has revealed that RCD subroutines are the key features of tumorigenesis, which may ultimately lead to the establishment of different potential therapeutic strategies. Hitherto, targeting the subroutines of RCD with pharmacological small-molecule compounds has been emerging as a promising therapeutic avenue, which has rapidly progressed in many types of human cancers. Thus, in this review, we focus on summarizing not only the key apoptotic and autophagy-dependent cell death signaling pathways, but the crucial pathways of other RCD subroutines, including necroptosis, pyroptosis, ferroptosis, parthanatos, entosis, NETosis and lysosome-dependent cell death (LCD) in cancer. Moreover, we further discuss the current situation of several small-molecule compounds targeting the different RCD subroutines to improve cancer treatment, such as single-target, dual or multiple-target small-molecule compounds, drug combinations, and some new emerging therapeutic strategies that would together shed new light on future directions to attack cancer cell vulnerabilities with small-molecule drugs targeting RCD for therapeutic purposes.

调节性细胞死亡（Regulated cell death，RCD），又称程序性细胞死亡（programmed cell death，PCD），是指能受多种生物大分子调控的细胞死亡形式，与意外细胞死亡（accidental cell death，ACD）不同。越来越多的证据表明，RCD 子程序是肿瘤发生的关键特征，最终可能导致建立不同的潜在治疗策略。迄今为止，以药理学小分子化合物靶向 RCD 的子程序已成为一种有前途的治疗途径，并在多种类型的人类癌症中取得了迅速进展。因此，在这篇综述中，我们不仅重点总结了关键的细胞凋亡和自噬依赖性细胞死亡信号通路，还重点总结了其他 RCD 子程序的关键通路，包括坏死性凋亡、细胞焦亡、铁死亡、parthanatos、癌症中的嵌顿、NETosis 和溶酶体依赖性细胞死亡 (LCD)。此外，我们进一步讨论了几种针对不同RCD子程序以改善癌症治疗的小分子化合物的现状，例如单靶点，双靶点或多靶点小分子化合物，药物组合以及一些新出现的治疗策略将共同阐明未来的方向，即使用针对 RCD 的小分子药物来攻击癌细胞的脆弱性以达到治疗目的。