Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - Volume 12, Issue 11, 2011

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have been implicated in both normal and pathologic processes. In cancer in particular, in vitro and animal studies showed an involvement of MMPs in many stages of cancer progression. This led to the development of MMP inhibitors that in most cases failed in clinical trials. In this review we go over the role of MMPs in the different stages of cancer progression and try to understand why the earl Read More

Tumor metastasis is a main contributor to death in cancer patients. In the last years, a new class of molecules that reduces the metastatic propensity has been identified: metastasis suppressors. These proteins regulate multiple steps in the metastatic cascade, including cell invasion, survival in the vascular and lymphatic circulation, and colonization of distant organ sites. As a consequence, they are very important the Read More

In the last years, PKC has become an attractive target for the treatment of cancer patients given its widely described role in carcinogenesis and tumor promotion. Despite the extensive research conducted on these phorbol ester receptors there is only limited knowledge about the contribution of each individual PKC isozyme in malignant transformation, mainly due to the different roles of each isozyme and their tiss Read More

Metastatic disease is responsible for most of cancer lethality. A main obstacle for therapy of advanced cancers is that the outcome of metastasis depends on a complex interplay between malignant and host cells. The perioperative period represents an underutilized window of opportunity for cancer treatment where tumor-host interactions can be modulated, reducing the risk of local recurrences and distant metastases. Blood Read More