Abstract: Chemoresistance is the main bottleneck which restricts the effect of chemotherapy on cancer cells. Why cancer cells produce chemoresistance and how to solve the problem is the urgent concern for oncologists. Although some mechanisms have been reported， such as the increase of drug effluence， the strengthening of non-specific detoxification process， the enhanced DNA damage repair and apoptosis inhibition， the major factor or dominant mechanism underling chemoresistance remains the main problem. Recent study has shown that the Nrf2-Keap1-ARE signaling pathway may be the key point which links a variety of mechanisms for chemoresistance， and through genetic engineering on this pathway cancer cells may regain chemosensitivity. The composition of Nrf2-Keap1-ARE signaling pathway will be described and the research on the correlation between this pathway and chemoresistance will be reviewed in this paper.

Key words: Transcription factors, Nrf2-Keap1-ARE, Signaling pathway, Drug resistance, Neoplasm