Current Cancer Drug Targets - Volume 9, Issue 6, 2009

Treatment of sporadic cardiac myxoma (CM) has always been a challenging task. Currently, surgical excision remains the only option; however, targeted drug discovery schemes are in progress in order to improve treatment strategies and efficacy. The molecular mechanisms behind CM pathogenesis are still not totally unveiled thus drug target identification is still at early steps, trying to compile structured data on the pat Read More

In the past few years, accumulating evidence in the literature supports the existence of pathways of caspaseindependent programmed cell death (CI-PCD). These pathways are likely to be acting as ‘death backup systems’ that ensure effective removal of defective cells from the organism. Similar to classical apoptosis i.e. caspase-dependent programmed cell death (CD-PCD), the mitochondrion is the main organelle orchest Read More

The phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway is one of the most potent prosurvival signaling cascades that is aberrantly activated in a variety of human cancers. Recent evidence demonstrates that pathological activation of Akt also frequently occurs in neuroblastoma and correlates with poor prognosis. Thus, therapeutic targeting of PI3K/Akt/mTOR may present a pr Read More

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common and third deadliest primary neoplasm. Since HCC is a particularly vascular solid tumor, we determined the antitumor and antiangiogenic activities of sunitinib malate, a potent inhibitor of two receptors involved in angiogenesis - vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) and plateletderived growth factor receptor (PDGFR). In the present study, we repor Read More

Both the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and the insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) can contribute to tumor development and -progression through their effects on cell proliferation, inhibition of apoptosis, angiogenesis, anchorage-independent growth and tumor-associated inflammation. EGFR-targeting monoclonal antibodies and small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors are currently in clinical use for the tre Read More

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are molecular chaperones that stabilize folding and conformation of normal as well as oncogenic proteins. These chaperones thereby prevent the formation of protein aggregates. HSPs are often overexpressed in human malignancies, including AML. HSP90 is the main chaperon required for the stabilization of multiple oncogenic kinases involved in the development of acute myelogenous leuke Read More

Metronomic cyclophosphamide treatment is associated with anti-angiogenic activity and is anticipated to generate exploitable hypoxia using hypoxia-activated prodrugs. Weekly administration of tirapazamine (TPZ; 5 mg/kg body weight i.p.) failed to inhibit the growth of 9L gliosarcoma tumors grown s.c. in scid mice. However, the anti-tumor effect of weekly cyclophosphamide (CPA) treatment (140 mg/kg BW i.p.) was su Read More