Current Cancer Drug Targets - Volume 18, Issue 10, 2018

The B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) family proteins play an important role in regulating apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in response to several extracellular and intracellular signals. These proteins are either pro-apoptotic or anti-apoptotic. The pro-apoptotic Noxa is a Bcl-2 family protein that belongs to a subclass of BH3-only proteins. Noxa induces apoptosis via p53-dependent and/or p53-independent mechanisms. While Read More

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common non-skin cancer in men worldwide, resulting in significant mortality and morbidity. Depending on the grade and stage of the cancer, patients may be given radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, or chemotherapy. However, more than half of these patients develop resistance to treatment, leading to disease progression and metastases, often with lethal consequences. MicroRNAs (m Read More

PRDM14 belongs to the PR domain-containing (PRDM) family. Although a precise understanding focused on the function of PRDM14 to maintain stemness and pluripotency in embryonic stem cells via epigenetic mechanisms, growing experimental evidence has been linked PRDM14 to human cancers. In adults, PRDM14 has low expression in human tissues. Aberrant PRDM14 expression is connected with various malignant histo Read More

Background: Essential oils are complex mixtures of low molecular weight compounds extracted from plants. Their main constituents are terpenes and phenylpropanoids, which are responsible for their biological and pharmaceutical properties, such as insecticidal, parasiticidal, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antinociceptive, anticarcinogenic, and antitumor properties. Cancer is a complex genetic dise Read More

Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) represent the most common malignancy in men aged 15-35. Due to these tumors' biological and clinical characteristics, they can serve as an appropriate system for studying molecular mechanisms associated with cisplatin-based treatment resistance. This review describes treatment resistance from clinical and molecular viewpoints. Cisplatin resistance is determined by various biologic Read More

Background: Endocrine resistance and metastatic dissemination comprise major clinical challenges for breast cancer treatment. The fibroblast growth factor receptor family (FGFR) consists of four tyrosine kinase transmembrane receptors, involved in key biological processes. Genomic alterations in FGFR have been identified in advanced breast cancer and thus, FGFR are an attractive therapeutic target. However, the ef Read More

Background: Uveal melanoma is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults. So far, there have been no effective targeted therapeutic agents in patients with uveal melanoma. Artesunate is a semi-synthetic derivative of artemisinin extracted from traditional Chinese medicine Artemisia annua L for treatment of severe and multidrug-resistant malaria. Besides its antimalarial activity, artesunate is ident Read More