Current Cancer Therapy Reviews - Volume 8, Issue 4, 2012

The approval of sipuleucel-T for the treatment of patients with metastatic asymptomatic and minimally symptomatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) has validated immunotherapy, in general, as a valid approach for this disease. Multiple novel immune based approaches including adenoviral-based vector delivering targeted antigen, DNAbased vaccination, listeria-based vaccination, pox-viral based approach, immu Read More

Delivery of plasmid DNA encoding an antigen of interest has been demonstrated to be an effective means of immunization, capable of eliciting antigen-specific T cells. Plasmid DNA vaccines offer advantages over other anti-tumor vaccine approaches in terms of simplicity, manufacturing, and possibly safety. The primary disadvantage is their poor transfection efficiency and subsequent lower immunogenicity relative to oth Read More

There is an unmet need for new approaches to treat prostate cancer beyond hormonal deprivation and chemotherapy. Using immunotherapy to focus immune responses on prostate cancer antigens appears to be a valid therapeutic approach. Several immunotherapeutic agents are being developed employing a variety of approaches. In recent years, Listeria monocytogenes (Lm)-LLO immunotherapy has been well tolerate Read More

Prostate cancer is a significant health problem for men in the United States. While useful treatment modalities are available, their therapeutic efficacies are limited and severe side effects remain a concern. Alternatively, immunotherapy represents one of the most valuable treatments by inducing immune response targeting tumor cells. Sipuleucel-T is the only FDA approved immunotherapeutic agent for the treatment of p Read More

The use of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) for its diagnostic utility in prostate cancer is a subject of discussion; however, due to its specificity to the prostate tissue, PSA remains a potential immunotherapy target. We developed a PSA-recombinant viral vector, adenovirus5-PSA (Ad5-PSA) that generated vigorous PSA-specific immune and antitumor responses in a prostate cancer mouse model. Using Ad5-PSA vaccine we succe Read More

In United States, prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosis (excluding dermatological malignancies) and the second leading cause of cancer related mortality in men [1]. Early stage prostate cancer has an indolent course; however local tumor progression and aggressive metastatic disease may develop in the long term [2]. Androgen deprivation therapy provides disease control for a substantial period of ti Read More

Cell migration is an essential characteristic of life. However, the indispensable, physiological migration of embryonic and adult stem cells, leukocytes, and fibroblasts is opposed to the pathological migration of tumor cells during metastasis formation. Leukemic cells take a special position, since they combine characteristics of leukocyte and tumor cell migration. Although migration occurs in many variants with rega Read More

Surgery is the single most effective therapy for patients with solid tumors. However, up to half of the patients who receive surgical resection will relapse from their cancer. Despite the significant benefit from surgery, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that surgery may also contribute to tumor recurrence. The evidence supporting this claim can be divided into immunologic and non-immunologic mechanisms. Read More

Introduction: The alterations in the expression of five different dopamine receptor genes (DRD1- DRD5) associated with certain diseases of the immune and nervous systems have previously been reported, and play multiple roles in various disorders such as cancer. This study focused on the relationship between changes in dopamine receptor gene expression and non - small - cell lung cancer. Methods: Peripheral blood were Read More