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Cancer Prevention Research... Jun 2011A common perception is that cancer risk reduction is passive, such as not smoking. However, advances in the understanding of cancer biology and in cancer treatment...
A common perception is that cancer risk reduction is passive, such as not smoking. However, advances in the understanding of cancer biology and in cancer treatment modalities suggest that it is now timely to consider anew cancer risk reduction by active, including pharmacologic, approaches. Risk avoidance approaches are certainly important, but other approaches are important as well, as exemplified by the irony that most new lung cancers occur in former smokers, or current avoiders. Cancer interception is the active way of combating cancer and carcinogenesis at earlier and earlier stages. A great challenge is to educate people that the development of cancers, like heart disease, typically takes years and accordingly can potentially be intercepted with risk-reducing agents in the same way that advanced cancers can be treated with drugs or that cardiovascular disease can be intercepted with antihypertensive and other risk-reducing drugs. The cancer biology behind cancer interception is increasingly solid. For example, hedgehog pathway studies of mutations in the patched homolog 1 (PTCH1) gene, which constitutively activates Smoothened (SMO), led to development of an oral SMO inhibitor active in advanced basal cell carcinoma and which, in very high-risk Gorlin syndrome patients (germ line PTCH1 mutation), is nearly completely clinically effective in intercepting basal cell neoplasia. Also, the oral immunomodulator lenalidomide, first found to be active in advanced, relapsed multiple myeloma, was highly effective in intercepting the precursor stage, high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma from progressing. These are but two exciting, recent examples of the many advances in cancer research that have created an optimal time to discover and implement cancer interception. The multifaceted roles of telomere maintenance in both fueling advanced cancers and, at early stages, keeping them at bay, also highlight how the growing knowledge of cancer biology opens avenues for cancer interception. Emerging molecular techniques, including next-generation sequencing platforms, that account for a large part of the remarkable recent advances in cancer biology are now being applied to interception of premalignancy. Keeping the medical community and public at large informed about possibilities for actively intercepting cancer will be important for gaining acceptance of this increasingly powerful approach to lessening the cancer burden.
Topics: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents; Humans; Neoplasms
PubMed: 21636545
DOI: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-11-0195 -
Medical Oncology (Northwood, London,... Jun 2023Microbes have an immense metabolic capability and can adapt to a wide variety of environments; as a result, they share complicated relationships with cancer. The goal of... (Review)
Review
Microbes have an immense metabolic capability and can adapt to a wide variety of environments; as a result, they share complicated relationships with cancer. The goal of microbial-based cancer therapy is to treat patients with cancers that are not easily treatable, by using tumor-specific infectious microorganisms. Nevertheless, a number of difficulties have been encountered as a result of the harmful effects of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and alternative cancer therapies, such as the toxicity to non-cancerous cells, the inability of medicines to penetrate deep tumor tissue, and the ongoing problem of rising drug resistance in tumor cells. Due to these difficulties, there is now a larger need for designing alternative strategies that are more effective and selective when targeting tumor cells. The fight against cancer has advanced significantly owing to cancer immunotherapy. The researchers have greatly benefited from their understanding of tumor-invading immune cells as well as the immune responses that are specifically targeted against cancer. Application of bacterial and viral cancer therapeutics offers promising potential to be employed as cancer treatments among immunotherapies. As a novel therapeutic strategy, microbial targeting of tumors has been created to address the persisting hurdles of cancer treatment. This review outlines the mechanisms by which both bacteria and viruses target and inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells. Their ongoing clinical trials and possible modifications that can be made in the future have also been addressed in the following sections. These microbial-based cancer medicines have the ability to suppress cancer that builds up and multiplies in the tumor microenvironment and triggers antitumor immune responses, in contrast to other cancer medications.
Topics: Humans; Neoplasms; Immunotherapy; Tumor Microenvironment
PubMed: 37330997
DOI: 10.1007/s12032-023-02074-x -
Lancet (London, England) Mar 2004Pancreatic cancer remains a major unsolved health problem, with conventional cancer treatments having little impact on disease course. Almost all patients who have... (Review)
Review
Pancreatic cancer remains a major unsolved health problem, with conventional cancer treatments having little impact on disease course. Almost all patients who have pancreatic cancer develop metastases and die. The main risk factors are smoking, age, and some genetic disorders, although the primary causes are poorly understood. Advances in molecular biology have, however, greatly improved understanding of the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer. Many patients have mutations of the K-ras oncogene, and various tumour-suppressor genes are also inactivated. Growth factors also play an important part. However, disease prognosis is extremely poor. Around 15-20% of patients have resectable disease, but only around 20% of these survive to 5 years. For locally advanced, unresectable, and metastatic disease, treatment is palliative, although fluorouracil chemoradiation for locally advanced and gemcitabine chemotherapy for metastatic disease can provide palliative benefits. Despite pancreatic cancer's resistance to currently available treatments, new methods are being investigated. Preoperative chemoradiation is being advocated, with seemingly sound reasoning, and a wider role for gemcitabine is being explored. However, new therapeutic strategies based on the molecular biology of pancreatic cancer seem to hold the greatest promise.
Topics: Antineoplastic Agents; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols; Deoxycytidine; Drug Therapy, Combination; Humans; Male; Pancreatic Neoplasms; Risk Factors; Gemcitabine
PubMed: 15051286
DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(04)15841-8 -
Current Oncology Reports Feb 2024Treatment of rectal cancer patients of advanced age should be modulated by life expectancy and tolerance. Due to the rapid advance of this field, we aim to conduct an... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Treatment of rectal cancer patients of advanced age should be modulated by life expectancy and tolerance. Due to the rapid advance of this field, we aim to conduct an updated review of this topic.
RECENT FINDINGS
The field of elderly rectal cancer has advanced a lot. This review covers all the treatment aspects of elderly rectal cancer, including the prognostic factor, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and palliative treatment. We also provide the future aspect of the management of elderly rectal cancer. The advancement of prognostic factor research, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and palliative treatment has made the care of elderly rectal cancer patients better. The future of these fields should focus on the definition of the elderly and the application of particle therapy.
Topics: Humans; Aged; Rectal Neoplasms; Combined Modality Therapy; Treatment Outcome
PubMed: 38270849
DOI: 10.1007/s11912-024-01495-9 -
Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing Jun 2010Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, and although the prognosis is good for patients with early-stage, localized disease, it is relatively poor for... (Review)
Review
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, and although the prognosis is good for patients with early-stage, localized disease, it is relatively poor for patients with metastatic breast cancer. Treatment options become progressively limited with advancing lines of therapy, primarily because of the development of tumor drug resistance. Nurses have a crucial role in managing patients with breast cancer; therefore, awareness of the clinical efficacy and side-effect profiles of traditional and newer treatment options is of great importance. The taxanes (docetaxel and paclitaxel) are well known for their efficacy in patients with breast cancer. The epothilones, a newer class of microtubule-targeting agents, also are proving beneficial. The most clinically advanced epothilone, ixabepilone, has been approved for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic disease. Although taxanes and epothilones are similar mechanistically, the epothilones have unique structural, binding, and preclinical properties in terms of microtubule stabilization. Importantly, ixabepilone retains clinical efficacy in patients with metastatic breast cancer who show resistance to taxanes and anthracyclines.
Topics: Antineoplastic Agents; Breast Neoplasms; Female; Humans; Neoplasm Metastasis
PubMed: 20529793
DOI: 10.1188/10.CJON.313-323 -
Anticancer Research Jun 2019Recent knowledge implicates a differential expression of the insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) mRNA splice variants (i.e., IGF-IEa, IGF-IEb and IGF-IEc) in cancerous...
BACKGROUND/AIM
Recent knowledge implicates a differential expression of the insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) mRNA splice variants (i.e., IGF-IEa, IGF-IEb and IGF-IEc) in cancerous tissues, implying possible specific roles of the encoded IGF-I protein isoforms in cancer biology. In particular, there is growing evidence that the IGF-IEc isoform may play a distinct biological role in various types of cancers. The present study investigated whether IGF-IEc expression is associated with a particular type of thyroid cancer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue specimens of different types of thyroid cancers from 92 patients were assessed for IGF-IEc expression by immunohistochemistry. In addition, thyroid cancer biopsies of different TNM staging histological types were evaluated for mRNA expression of the IGF-IEc transcript by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
RESULTS
From the total number of 92 samples, 2 were anaplastic, 10 medullary, 4 hyperplasias of C-cells, 11 follicular, 5 hurtle cell carcinomas, 2 poorly differentiated, 5 nodular hyperplasias, 1 lymphoma and 52 were papillary thyroid cancers. The age of cancer diagnosis or tumor size did not significantly affect the IGF-IEc expression. Among all types of cancers, IGF-IEc was expressed in papillary differentiated thyroid cancer. Its expression/localization was mainly cytoplasmic and significantly associated with TNM staging and the presence of muscular and capsule cancerous invasion (p<0.05). Similarly, a differential profile was revealed regarding the mRNA expression of the IGF-IEc transcript, that exhibited a higher expression in aggressive compared to the non-aggressive papillary cancers.
CONCLUSION
IGF-IEc isoform expression in thyroid cancer is positively associated with more advanced stages of papillary thyroid cancer.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Alternative Splicing; Cytoplasm; Female; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Humans; Insulin-Like Growth Factor I; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Staging; Retrospective Studies; Thyroid Cancer, Papillary; Thyroid Neoplasms; Tumor Burden; Up-Regulation; Young Adult
PubMed: 31177118
DOI: 10.21873/anticanres.13409 -
Biomacromolecules Dec 2019Nanomedicines are deemed as the most promising treatment modality for malignant cancers. Particularly, cancer nanomedicines based on synthetic polypeptides have gained... (Review)
Review
Nanomedicines are deemed as the most promising treatment modality for malignant cancers. Particularly, cancer nanomedicines based on synthetic polypeptides have gained interest because they possess excellent safety, unique hierarchical structure, and tailorable functionalities to suit for delivery of diverse drugs including synthetic drugs, peptides, proteins, and nucleic acids. A few polypeptide-based nanoformulations (e.g., NK105, NC6004, NK911, CT2103) are under phases I-III clinical investigation for treating patients with advanced solid tumors. In recent years, progress has been made in the development of robust and high drug loading, tumor-targeting, membrane-disrupting, and stimuli-sensitive nanomedicines from de novo functional polypeptides, which afford not only better safety and reduced adverse effects, but also further improved anticancer efficacy over clinical formulations. Moreover, virus-mimicking vehicles have been devised from polypeptides for efficient nonviral delivery of highly potent peptides, proteins, and nucleic acids, greatly advancing biotherapy for cancers. In this Perspective, we highlight the state-of-the-art design and fabrication of cancer nanomedicines based on synthetic polypeptides and, at the end, give our viewpoints on their future development for targeted cancer therapy and potential challenges for clinical translation.
Topics: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents; Drug Delivery Systems; Humans; Nanomedicine; Nanoparticles; Neoplasms; Peptides
PubMed: 31659901
DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.9b01291 -
Radiology. Imaging Cancer Jul 2023Theranostics is the combination of two approaches-diagnostics and therapeutics-applied for decades in cancer imaging using radiopharmaceuticals or paired... (Review)
Review
Theranostics is the combination of two approaches-diagnostics and therapeutics-applied for decades in cancer imaging using radiopharmaceuticals or paired radiopharmaceuticals to image and selectively treat various cancers. The clinical use of theranostics has increased in recent years, with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of lutetium 177 (Lu) tetraazacyclododecane tetraacetic acid octreotate (DOTATATE) and Lu-prostate-specific membrane antigen vector-based radionuclide therapies. The field of theranostics has imminent potential for emerging clinical applications. This article reviews critical areas of active clinical advancement in theranostics, including forthcoming clinical trials advancing FDA-approved and emerging radiopharmaceuticals, approaches to dosimetry calculations, imaging of different radionuclide therapies, expanded indications for currently used theranostic agents to treat a broader array of cancers, and emerging ideas in the field. Molecular Imaging, Molecular Imaging-Cancer, Molecular Imaging-Clinical Translation, Molecular Imaging-Target Development, PET/CT, SPECT/CT, Radionuclide Therapy, Dosimetry, Oncology, Radiobiology © RSNA, 2023.
Topics: United States; Male; Humans; Precision Medicine; Radiopharmaceuticals; Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography; Radioisotopes; Neoplasms
PubMed: 37477566
DOI: 10.1148/rycan.220157 -
Cell Communication and Signaling : CCS May 2024Cancer's complexity is in part due to the presence of intratumor heterogeneity and the dynamic nature of cancer cell plasticity, which create substantial obstacles in...
Cancer's complexity is in part due to the presence of intratumor heterogeneity and the dynamic nature of cancer cell plasticity, which create substantial obstacles in effective cancer management. Variability within a tumor arises from the existence of diverse populations of cancer cells, impacting the progression, spread, and resistance to treatments. At the core of this variability is the concept of cellular plasticity - the intrinsic ability of cancer cells to alter their molecular and cellular identity in reaction to environmental and genetic changes. This adaptability is a cornerstone of cancer's persistence and progression, making it a formidable target for treatments. Emerging studies have emphasized the critical role of such plasticity in fostering tumor diversity, which in turn influences the course of the disease and the effectiveness of therapeutic strategies. The transformative nature of cancer involves a network of signal transduction pathways, notably those that drive the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and metabolic remodeling, shaping the evolutionary path of cancer cells. Despite advancements, our understanding of the precise molecular machinations and signaling networks driving these changes is still evolving, underscoring the necessity for further research. This editorial presents a series entitled "Signaling Cancer Cell Plasticity and Intratumor Heterogeneity" in Cell Communication and Signaling, dedicated to unraveling these complex processes and proposing new avenues for therapeutic intervention.
Topics: Humans; Neoplasms; Cell Plasticity; Signal Transduction; Animals; Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition
PubMed: 38702718
DOI: 10.1186/s12964-024-01643-5 -
Cancer Sep 2023There have been significant advances in the treatment of urology cancers, with a number of practice-changing treatments. There is now greater clarity on the role of the...
There have been significant advances in the treatment of urology cancers, with a number of practice-changing treatments. There is now greater clarity on the role of the use of immunotherapies in renal cell carcinoma. The use of triplet combinations with immune checkpoint inhibition with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor tyrosine kinase inhibitors in the front-line setting for metastatic disease (COSMIC313) has been explored. The use of adjuvant therapy has been complicated by a series of negative immune therapy trials. Promising results with the HIF-2α transcription factor inhibitor, belzutifan, alone or in combination with other agents, have been reported. Antibody drug conjugates, including enfortumab vedotin and sacituzumab govitecan, have continued to show activity in urothelial cancer with promising clinical outcomes. This has led to further exploration of the combination of these novel agents with immunotherapy and accelerated Food and Drug Administration approvals. Data are also discussed regarding intensification for front-line therapy of metastatic castrate sensitive prostate cancer. The combination of androgen-signaling inhibitors, docetaxel, and androgen deprivation therapy (PEACE-1, ARASENS), as well as the use of abiraterone acetate for adjuvant therapy in high-risk disease (STAMPEDE), is included. There is also growing evidence for the use of the radioligand therapy Lu-PSMA-617 in metastatic castrate resistant disease, with an established overall survival benefit in this patient population (VISION, TheraP). PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: There have been many advancements in the treatment of cancers of the kidney, bladder, and prostate in the past year. Several studies using new therapies or new combinations of therapies have improved the chances of patients living longer with these cancers, especially those with advanced disease. Here, we discuss a selection of the most compelling recently published data that have changed the way these cancers are treated, as well as those that are expected to change treatment in the near future.
Topics: Male; Humans; Prostatic Neoplasms; Androgen Antagonists; Androgens; Kidney Neoplasms
PubMed: 37378532
DOI: 10.1002/cncr.34907