Current Cancer Therapy Reviews - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2008

Adoptive cell therapy using cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes (CTL) has shown promising results in recent clinical trials for cancer patients. Although significant advances have been achieved in this field, there are still many issues that need to be addressed before wide application of adoptive cellular immunotherapy as an adjuvant or mainstream therapy for various cancers. Difficulties related to the ex vivo generation of large Read More

One of the most important advances in cancer research in recent years is the recognition that killing of tumor cells by anticancer therapies commonly used in the treatment of cancer, e.g. chemotherapy, γ-irradiation, immunotherapy or suicide gene therapy, is predominantly mediated by triggering cell death pathways including apoptosis in cancer cells. Thus, failure to undergo apoptosis may result in treatment resistan Read More

Purine nucleoside analogues are extensively used in the treatment of malignancies and viral diseases. For example, cladribine and fludarabine are two purine nucleoside analogues that have activity in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemias. These chemotherapeutic agents exert their cytotoxic actions through interactions with intracellular targets. Due to their hydrophilic nature, many purine nucleoside analogues do n Read More

KIT and FLT3 are class III trans membrane tyrosine kinases playing key roles in the control of hematopoietic stem cell survival and proliferation. KIT is mutated in about 2.5-3% of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients mainly by point mutations occurring at the level of tyrosine kinase domains. FLT3 is mutated in about 30% of AML patients, either by internal tandem duplication of the juxtamembrane domain or by point mutation Read More

Several decades of investigation concerning the cause and cure of cancer have revealed major discrepancies in the response of different cancer types towards a particular therapy and therefore a need for more effective approaches has been conceived. It is known that cancer development irrespective of its origin occurs due to the compromises that normal cells make in critical pathways, thereby allowing to transform into a Read More

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is over-expressed in 15%-30% of breast cancers. Women with HER2-positive breast cancer tend to have more aggressive cancer, increased risk of recurrence, and less favorable survival outcomes than women with HER2-negative breast cancer. This review focuses on HER2 and its role in breast cancer pathogenesis. We begin by providing background information on the bi Read More

Introduction: Cancers are associated with excess cellular oxidative stress, and during cancer treatment the addition of drug-induced oxidative stress can limit the effectiveness of therapy and cause a number of side effects, such as fatigue, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, as well as more serious adverse effects, including cardiomyopathy, peripheral neuropathy, hepatotoxicity and pulmonary fibrosis. Method: Review of the Read More