Fig. 1

HSPs have been implicated in the hallmarks of cancer and exploited for developing targeted therapeutic strategies. In 2000, Hanahan and Weinberg delineated six hallmarks of cancer, including sustaining proliferative signaling, evading growth suppressors, resisting cell death, enabling replicative immortality, inducing angiogenesis, and activating invasion and metastasis, which are described as the acquired capabilities that allow cancer cells to form malignant tumors (depicted in the figure as the "original hallmarks"). Subsequently, they introduced two emerging hallmarks in 2011 and 2022, respectively, which include reprogramming energy metabolism and evading immune destruction, as well as the acquisition of unlocking phenotypic plasticity and senescence. Among these, the roles of unlocking phenotypic plasticity and senescence in cancer are still under validation and thus not represented here. HSPs have been demonstrated to play a significant role in modulating original and emerging hallmarks