Reviews on Recent Clinical Trials - Volume 2, Issue 3, 2007

Angiogenesis inhibition by monoclonal antibodies against vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) combined with cytotoxic chemotherapy has shown encouraging potential for improvement of cancer treatment. Several rationales exist for combining VEGFR antibodies with ionizing radiation, a primary curative cancer treatment, either in bimodal or trimodal fashion, i.e. with or without additional chemot Read More

Three U.S. National Cancer Institute cooperative group randomized phase 3 trials have demonstrated that the intraperitoneal delivery of cisplatin-based chemotherapy as primary treatment of small-volume residual advanced ovarian cancer improves survival compared to the administration of all agents by the intravenous route. As use of intraperitoneal chemotherapy requires additional resources and expertise beyond that ass Read More

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) accounts for 15% of all strokes in the US and Europe and 20% to 30% in Asian populations. ICH is associated with a higher morbidity, disability and mortality than ischemic strokes. Primary ICH originates from spontaneous rupture of small arteries and arterioles previously damaged by chronic hypertension or amyloid angiopathy. Secondary ICH is associated with underlying vascular abnormalities Read More

Prostate cancer is the most common non-cutaneous cancer of men in the United States and represents their second-leading cause of cancer-related death. Metastatic disease is largely resistant to conventional chemotherapies, and targeted therapies are urgently needed. Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is a prototypical cell-surface marker of prostate cancer. PSMA is an integral, nonshed, type 2 membrane pro Read More

Progress in the systemic therapy of thymic malignancies has been hampered in the past by the rarity of this disease entity and the lack of a global collaborative effort in conducting phase II studies. Cisplatin-based therapy has been considered the standard of care, though data typically has been derived from a retrospective case-series approach. However, the arrival of novel cytotoxic agents and molecularly targeted agent Read More

Soft tissue sarcomas are a heterogeneous group of tumours arising predominantly from the embryonic mesoderm. They account for less than 1 % of all adult malignancies. The prognosis of patients with advanced metastatic soft tissue sarcoma remains poor with a disease-free survival at 5 years less than 10 %. Despite improvements in local tumour control due to surgery and radiotherapy, distant metastasis and death rem Read More

Primary and secondary liver tumours are common malignancies that are being treated more aggressively nowadays than decades ago. Surgery is the most effective method of treatment but is only suitable for a minority of patients with well-defined and easily accessible tumours. Surgical resection is contraindicated in patients with massive involvement of the liver or in cases where the disease involves the confluence of ve Read More

Genomic instability during hepatocarcinogenesis causes changes in signal transduction network. Strategies for identification of new markers/therapeutic targets include discovery of early molecular changes during hepatocarcinogenesis, relevant to preneoplastic lesions progression to full malignancy in rodent models, and evaluation of these changes in human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs). Activatio Read More