Current Cancer Drug Targets - Volume 10, Issue 5, 2010

Targeted cancer therapies are drugs or other substances that block the growth and spread of cancer by interfering with specific molecules involved in cellular pathways which regulate tumor growth, cell proliferation or apoptosis, thus interfering with pathways that are genetically altered in tumor cells. For these drugs it is recognized that the molecular profile of the target cells predicts response. Nevertheless, recent data fo Read More

Targeted therapies affecting specific molecular target, expressed preferentially by neoplastic cells, block cancer growth. Current targets are represented by cell-surface trans-membrane proteins, intracellular proteins, and by growth factors. Today a targeted therapy exists for most commonly diagnosed types of human cancer often combined with chemotherapy or sometimes as monotherapy option. The epidermal Read More

Over the last ten years, several new and therapeutically relevant cancer drugs targeting tyrosine kinase signaling pathways have been developed. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are a pharmaceutical class of small molecules, orally available, well-tolerated, worldwide approved drugs for the treatment of several neoplasms, including lung, breast, kidney and pancreatic cancer as well as gastro-intestinal stromal tumors and ch Read More

Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a key protein kinase controlling signal transduction from various growth factors and upstream proteins to the level of mRNA translation and ribosome biogenesis, with pivotal regulatory effects on cell cycle progression, cellular proliferation and growth, autophagy and angiogenesis. The mTOR pathway, and its upstream regulators in the PI3K/PTEN/AKT cascade, are altered in a variety of Read More

The cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis provides an attractive model of tumor development and progression, holding that solid tumors are hierarchically organized and sustained by a minority of the tumor cell population with stem cell properties, such as self-renewal, tumorigenicity and multilineage differentiation capacity. Therapeutic resistance, underlying tumor recurrence and the lack of curative treatments in metast Read More

What clinical oncologists learned about the metastatic process, is that it is the main cause of cancer-related deaths. What scientists learned about the metastatic disease, is that it is due to a highly selective process, which involves a minority of tumor cells that are able to survive within the bloodstream, and to initiate a new growth in distant sites. These cells “in transit” are known as circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Although t Read More

Approximately 70% of breast cancers express the estrogen receptor (ER) and endocrine therapy is the most important component of systemic therapy for hormone-responsive breast cancer. Unfortunately, endocrine-resistant ER-positive disease represents up to one-quarter of all breast cancers and a number of different mechanisms have been implicated in endocrine resistance, either intrinsic, occurring de novo at the i Read More

In 1991, Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) was introduced to assess the expression of Tyrosinase in the peripheral blood of melanoma patients, in order to identify the presence of Circulating Melanoma Cells. To date, hundreds of studies, some of which are reviewed here, were performed to assess the clinical value of tyrosinase expression alone, and/or, in addition to other molecular markers. Unfortu Read More

DNA methylation and histone acetylation are two most studied epigenetic markers. Aberrant methylation of gene promoter regions and histone tail lysine residue modification through acetylation and methylation play a key role in malignant disorders. Two DNA methyltransferase inhibitors, azacitidine and decitabine, have been licensed for clinical therapy for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome. New hypomethylating ag Read More

Purpose: The close association of lymphatic and blood vessels and their coordinated development in vivo suggest that there are parallel mechanisms regulating hemangiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis. Here, we hypothesize that inhibition of the Src tyrosine kinase, apart from anti-hemangiogenic effects, results in a suppression of lymphangiogenesis. Experimental design: The ability of the Src kinase inhibitor PP2 to Read More