Current Cancer Drug Targets - Volume 12, Issue 8, 2012

Radiotherapy (RT) allows for tumor control through the cytotoxic action of ionizing radiation (IR). Although modern technologies permit precise IR delivery to the tumor mass while minimizing exposure of surrounding healthy tissues, the efficacy of RT remains limited by the intrinsic or acquired radioresistance of many tumors. There is thus an ongoing search for agents that augment the sensitivity of tumor cells to IR cytotoxicity Read More

Polysialic acid (polySia) is a carbohydrate polymer critical for neuronal cell migration and axon pathfinding in embryonic development. Besides brain regions requiring persistent neuronal plasticity, polySia is essentially absent from the adult body. However, polySia is aberrantly re-expressed on many tumours, where it decorates the surface of NCAM (neuronal cell adhesion molecule) and modulates cell adhesion, migration an Read More

The phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway contributes to prostate cancer progression and transition to androgen-independent disease. Furthermore, recent microarray analysis demonstrates that this pathway is often deregulated during prostate cancer progression. Thus, targeting of PI3K/AKT/mTOR may present a promising therapy for castration-refr Read More

Esophageal cancer (EC) is the most common esophageal malignancy and has a dismal prognosis. Developing novel strategies to reverse the resistance to chemotherapeutics in EC is currently of intense interest. The wide-type p53 induced gene 1 (WIG-1) is a p53-regulated transcription factor. The effect of WIG-1 on the regulation of cisplatin (DDP) sensitivity was evaluated in DDP-resistant EC cells both in vitro and in vivo Read More

Membrane transporters govern the movement of drugs and their metabolites across biological membranes, thereby determining their pharmacokinetics, efficacy and adverse drug reactions. Platinum-based anticancer drugs are a mainstay of chemotherapy for many human malignancies. However, their clinical utility is limited by tumor resistance and normal tissue toxicities, which are determined at least in p Read More

The current therapy for ovarian cancer has advanced from alkylating agents, to a combination of carboplatinum and paclitaxel offering increased survival. Although most patients respond to this first-line therapy, initially, the majority of these patients relapse within 2 years. The mechanisms responsible for acquired drug resistance in ovarian cancer have been elucidated only in part. They include i) enhanced drug export, ii) a Read More

The main aim of nanomedicine is to revolutionize the health care system and find effective approaches to fighting fatal diseases. Therapeutic beams, which are employed in radiation therapy, do not discriminate between normal and cancerous cells and must rely on targeting the radiation beams to specific cells. Interestingly, the application of nanoscale particles in radiation therapy has aimed to improve outcomes in radia Read More

Adult high grade gliomas (HGG) are the most frequent and fatal primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors. Despite recent advances in the knowledge of the pathology and the molecular features of this neoplasm, its prognosis remains poor. In the last years temozolomide (TMZ) has dramatically changed the life expectancy of these patients: the association of this drug with radiotherapy (RT), followed by TMZ alone, is Read More

Leucine-rich repeat (LRR) genes encode transmembrane proteins that are essential for normal brain development and are often dysregulated in central nervous system tumors. Leucine-rich repeat C4 (LRRC4) is a member of the LRR protein superfamily and specifically expressed in brain tissue. Importantly it acts as a tumor suppressor in the pathogenesis of malignant gliomas. However, the molecular mechanisms by whi Read More