Autotaxin (ATX) is a catalytic protein which possesses lysophospholipase D activity and thus involved in cellular membrane lipid metabolism and remodeling Primarily ATX was thought as a culprit protein for cancer which potently stimulates cancer cell proliferation and tumor cell motility augments the tumorigenicity and induces angiogenic responses The product of ATX catalyzed reaction lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a potent mitogen which facilitates cell proliferation and migration neurite retraction platelet aggregation smooth muscle contraction actin stress formation and cytokine and chemokine secretion In addition to LPA formation later ATX has been found to catalyze the formation of cyclic phosphatidic acid (cPA) which have antitumor role by antimitogenic regulation of cell cycle inhibition of cancer invasion and metastasis Furthermore the very attractive information to the scientists is that the LPA/cPA formation can be altered at different physiological conditions Thus the dual role of ATX with the scope of product manipulation has made ATX a novel target for cancer treatment (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved