Current Clinical Pharmacology - Volume 10, Issue 4, 2015

The purpose of this article is to provide a critical review of the current systemic treatment and the emerging targeted therapeutic strategies in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Cytotoxic chemotherapeutic drugs have been used for palliative treatment of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, as well as for neoadjuvant therapy to facilitate surgical resection, and as adjuvant therapy to prevent tumor recurrence. The recent findings of ear Read More

Cancers of esophagus and stomach are common malignant diseases worldwide, and they are associated with serious morbidity and high mortality rates. When diagnosed at an early stage, gastro-esophageal cancers are potentially curable. Neo-adjuvant or adjuvant therapies using both chemotherapy and radiation therapy have been shown to reduce the risk of local recurrence and distant metastasis. For advanced or m Read More

The survival rate of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) is steadily increasing over the past decade. However, CRC continue to be one of the leading causes of cancer-related fatality in the United States. Current targeted strategies offer limited clinical benefits and the overall survival rate for CRC remains low. Improved understanding of the molecular changes associated with CRC that control growth factor signaling and ev Read More

Medical therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an area of active investigation because fewer than 25% of patients are candidates for curative resection or transplantation. Single agent doxorubicin, the former standard of care, generated a 10% tumor response but resulted in substantial toxicity. The resulting recommendation of the NCCN has been to administer cytotoxic chemotherapy only under clinical proto Read More

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are relatively uncommon. They typically arise in the gastrointestinal tract and lungs, and their incidence seems to be rising. Most patients have advanced disease at the time of diagnosis and many more will relapse after surgery. There is thus a great need for improvements in therapy for advanced neuroendocrine tumors. This article reviews the current therapy for both pancreatic NETs and no Read More

Imatinib therapy has revolutionized the treatment of patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). Compared with older therapy, imatinib significantly improves outcomes in patients with metastatic disease and those with locally advanced tumors, raising progression-free and overall survival. Recent studies have evaluated variables such as timing of treatment, total dosing, and duration of therapy. Different genotypes Read More

Hypertension is recognized as one of the leading risk factors for human morbidity and mortality. It is a major risk factor for myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, stroke, and endstage renal disease. The difficulty in controlling hypertension is related, at least in part, to the complex pathogenesis of hypertension. In spite of the availability of variety of antihypertensive agents, the control of blood pressure in the gener Read More