Current Cancer Therapy Reviews - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2006

Although cytotoxic chemotherapy is still the cornerstone of systemic therapy for cancer, these treatments have marginal effectiveness in many malignancies and cause significant toxicity. It is now almost 20 years ago that the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was first proposed as a potential target for cancer. The EGFR TKI's gefitinib and erlotinib have shown activity in NSCLC while cetuximab is an active agent in met Read More

Breast cancer continues to be worldwide public health concern in America and Western Europe as the commonest cancer among women and the second highest reason of cancer death. Epidemiological evidences implicating environmental and lifestyle risk factors in breast cancer etiology are accumulating. In this review, the current state of knowledge is reviewed, pertaining to relationship between environmental exposures (p Read More

Drug resistance is the most common cause of relapses and represents a major limitation for successful management of advanced cancers. Patients with relapse often experience an aggressive progression of the disease. The use of conventional chemotherapy drug combinations remains of limited success given the common occurrence of a broad cross-resistance toward structurally and functionally unrelated dru Read More

The Y box-binding protein 1 (YB-1) is a multifunctional DNA/RNA-binding protein regulating transcriptional and translational processes. Emerging evidence suggests a role for YB-1 in malignant human disease. Protein expression levels of YB-1 are increased in numerous human cancers, and nuclear YB-1 correlates with poor prognosis of tumor patients. However, YB-1 has also anti-oncogenic activities and interferes with phos Read More

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a single-stranded enveloped RNA virus, belonging to the Hepacivirus genus within the Flaviviridae family. HCV infection has become a major worldwide health problem because it causes a chronic hepatitis leading to hepatocarcinoma (HCC) and to non-Hodgkin's B-cell lymphoma (NHL). The absence of a reliable experimental model, which mimics the physiological effect of HCV infection in human subjec Read More

The ability to inhibit kinases such as Bcr-Abl, Her2, Flt3, and the epidermal growth factor receptor has ushered in a new generation of targeted therapies, based on the unique molecular abnormalities present in tumor cells. However, activation of most of these kinases is found in only a small fraction of tumors. In most cancers, a variety of kinases may become activated, but the malignant phenotype of a cell is driven through Read More

Surgical treatment of head and neck cancer, in certain cases, inflicts large tissue defects. Some of these defects are associated with devastating functional deficits and disfiguring deformities. In addition, radiation therapy, whenever necessary, often leads to wound breakdown, dehiscence and fistula formation, due to healing mechanism impairment. The advent, development, and nowadays routine use of microsurgical techniq Read More

Survivin is a relatively unique member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family. It contains a single baculovirus IAP repeat (BIR) domain. It is involved in the control of cell cycle and inhibition of apoptosis. Survivin is of interest because it is specifically up-regulated in cancer cells and completely down-regulated and undetectable in normal adult tissues. Thus, survivin has proved to be a promising therapeutic target for Read More

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains the most common cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Considerable progress has been made in recent times that have led to improved outcome for patients with all stages of NSCLC. There is increasing evidence that systemic therapy is integral for the treatment of all stages of NSCLC. Adjuvant chemotherapy has been proven in multiple recent trials to improve survival f Read More