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Topic Review
Basal Cell Carcinoma
Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common human cancer worldwide, and is a subtype of nonmelanoma skin cancer, characterized by a constantly increasing incidence due to an aging population and widespread sun exposure. Although the mortality from BCC is negligible, this tumor can be associated with significant morbidity and cost.
  • 1.2K
  • 24 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Self-Expandable Metal Stent
Self-expandable metal stent (SEMS) is commonly accepted in a palliative setting for symptomatic obstructive colorectal cancer.
  • 1.2K
  • 28 Apr 2021
Topic Review
COVID-19 Vaccination in Patients with Malignant Disease
Vaccination plays an important role in the prevention of infection and subsequent severe COVID-19 among the general population. Compared to the general population, patients with malignancy are more likely to develop a less proficient immune response upon vaccination. This is mainly caused by disease-associated or therapy-led immune deficiency. Therefore, patients with cancer are usually prioritized for vaccinations but excluded from registration in clinical trials. 
  • 1.2K
  • 02 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Hormone Therapy for Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common cancer and the second deadliest cancer among men in the United States, which is mainly due to metastatic disease. In general, surgery or radiation is potentially a curative treatment for localized disease. Since PCa is characterized as a typical androgen-dependent disease, hormone therapy (i.e., androgen deprivation therapy (ADT)) is the most effective therapy to control metastatic disease. However, almost all patients eventually develop castration-resistant PCa (CRPC) within 12 to 18 months, with a median survival of 14 to 26 months. Nowadays, new anti-androgens (Enzalutamide or Abiraterone), radiotherapy (Radium-223) or immunotherapy (sipuleucel-T) have been approved for metastatic CRPC (mCRPC) patients to prolong the overall survival. Inevitably, mCRPC further acquires resistance and becomes therapy- and castration-resistant PCa (t-CRPC), which is considered as an end-stage disease without effective therapy, and on which new therapeutic strategies have been actively explored.
  • 1.2K
  • 24 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Oral Microbiota in Chemotherapy-Induced Oral Mucositis in Children
The perturbation of the diversity and proportions of species within the oral microbiota leads to dysbiosis and associated increased risk of local and systemic diseases. In children who receive chemotherapy for cancer, oral mucositis is a common and painful side effect that decreases quality of life (QoL) and treatment adherence. The oral microbiota undergoes a substantial dysbiosis as an effect of cancer and its treatment, characterized by lower richness and less diversity. Furthermore, this dysbiosis seems to promote pro-inflammatory cytokine release and pro-apoptotic mediators, enhancing the oral tissue damage. Further studies on the role of the oral microbiota in the pathogenesis of oral mucositis should be performed among children with cancer who receive chemotherapy, to find preventive and protective factors against the pathogenesis of oral mucositis.
  • 1.2K
  • 18 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Medulloblastoma
Medulloblastoma is the most prevalent malignant brain tumor in children, while it accounts for only 1–2% of adult brain tumors. Recognized as a biologically heterogeneous disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) considers there to be four molecular subgroups: wingless-activated (WNT), sonic hedgehog-activated (SHH); Group 3; and Group 4. Recently, the picture became more complex when 12 different medulloblastoma subtypes were described, including two WNT subtypes, four SHH subtypes, three group 3 subtypes, and three group 4 subtypes, with each subgroup being characterized by specific mutations, copy number variations, transcriptomic/methylomic profiles, and clinical outcomes. For the SHH subgroup MB, germline or somatic mutations and a copy-number variation are the common drivers that affect critical genes involved in SHH signaling, including PTCH1 (patched 1 homologue), SUFU (suppressor of fused homologue), and SMO (smoothened), among others 
  • 1.2K
  • 29 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Many people still die of lung cancer (LC), a disease that is mainly related to cigarette smoking. Smokers may also develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is a risk factor per se for LC. Cigarette smoking and other chemicals injure DNA on a daily basis. A repair mechanism based on PARP-1 and PARP-2 activity can restore damaged DNA to keep cells alive. However, cancer cells also take advantage of this mechanism to survive. Fifteen LC-COPD and 15 LC patients were enrolled in this study to elucidate whether COPD influences DNA damage-dependent PARP activity in lung tumors. DNA damage, PARP activity, PARP-1 and PARP-2 expression were analyzed in tumor and non-tumor lungs obtained during surgical resection of the lung tumors. DNA damage and PARP activity were increased only in tumors in LC-COPD patients. However, PARP-1 and PARP-2 expression decreased in tumors of both patient groups. LC patients with COPD may benefit from PARP inhibitor therapies.
  • 1.2K
  • 24 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Cell-Penetrable Peptide-Conjugated FADD protein
Peptide mediated intracellular delivery of FADD protein, efficiently expressed in the cytosol and target core pro-tumorigenic NFκB signaling to restrict cancer cells proliferation. This approach has the potential to design strategies for targeted delivery of proteins inside the cells, which might be useful in cancer therapeutics.
  • 1.2K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Cancer Therapy Targeting CD47
The interaction between cluster of differentiation 47 (CD47) on cancer cells and signal regulatory protein alpha (SIRPα) on immune cells, such as macrophages and dendritic cells, generates a “don’t eat me” signal. This is a common mechanism that provides cancer cells an escape from the innate immune system. Several therapeutics directed to CD47 or SIRPα have entered early clinical trials in recent years.
  • 1.2K
  • 29 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Radiomics of Liver Metastases
Multidisciplinary management of patients with liver metastases (LM) requires a precision medicine approach, based on adequate profiling of tumor biology and robust biomarkers. Radiomics, defined as the high-throughput identification, analysis, and translational applications of radiological textural features, could fulfill this need. The present review aims to elucidate the contribution of radiomic analyses to the management of patients with LM. We performed a systematic review of the literature through the most relevant databases and web sources. English language original articles published before June 2020 and concerning radiomics of LM extracted from CT, MRI, or PET-CT were considered. Thirty-two papers were identified. Baseline higher entropy and lower homogeneity of LM were associated with better survival and higher chemotherapy response rates. A decrease in entropy and an increase in homogeneity after chemotherapy correlated with radiological tumor response. Entropy and homogeneity were also highly predictive of tumor regression grade. In comparison with RECIST criteria, radiomic features provided an earlier prediction of response to chemotherapy. Lastly, texture analyses could differentiate LM from other liver tumors. The commonest limitations of studies were small sample size, retrospective design, lack of validation datasets, and unavailability of univocal cut-off values of radiomic features. In conclusion, radiomics can potentially contribute to the precision medicine approach to patients with LM, but interdisciplinarity, standardization, and adequate software tools are needed to translate the anticipated potentialities into clinical practice.
  • 1.2K
  • 06 Nov 2020
Topic Review
SMYD3
The SMYD3 methyltransferase has been found overexpressed in several types of cancers of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. While high levels of SMYD3 have been positively correlated with cancer progression in cellular and advanced mice models, suggesting it as a potential risk and prognosis factor, its activity seems dispensable for autonomous in vitro cancer cell proliferation. We first describe the oncogenic activity of SMYD3 as a transcriptional activator of genes involved in tumorigenesis, cancer development and transformation and as a co-regulator of key cancer-related pathways. Then, we dissect its role in orchestrating cell cycle regulation and DNA damage response (DDR) to genotoxic stress by promoting homologous recombination (HR) repair, thereby sustaining cancer cell genomic stability and tumor progression. Based on this evidence and on the involvement of PARP1 in other DDR mechanisms, we also outline a synthetic lethality approach consisting of the combined use of SMYD3 and PARP inhibitors, which recently showed promising therapeutic potential in HR-proficient GI tumors expressing high levels of SMYD3. Overall, these findings identify SMYD3 as a promising target for drug discovery.
  • 1.2K
  • 14 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Signaling Lymphocytic Activation Molecule Family
The signaling lymphocytic activation molecule (SLAM) family receptors are expressed on various immune cells and malignant plasma cells in multiple myeloma (MM) patients. In immune cells, most SLAM family molecules bind to themselves to transmit co-stimulatory signals through the recruiting adaptor proteins SLAM-associated protein (SAP) or Ewing’s sarcoma-associated transcript 2 (EAT-2), which target immunoreceptor tyrosine-based switch motifs in the cytoplasmic regions of the receptors. Notably, SLAMF2, SLAMF3, SLAMF6, and SLAMF7 are strongly and constitutively expressed on MM cells that do not express the adaptor proteins SAP and EAT-2.
  • 1.2K
  • 26 Jan 2021
Topic Review
β-Hemoglobinopathies
β-hemoglobinopathies are the most common genetic disorders worldwide and are caused by mutations affecting the production or the structure of adult hemoglobin. Patients affected by these diseases suffer from anemia, impaired oxygen delivery to tissues, and multi-organ damage. In the absence of a compatible donor for allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, the lifelong therapeutic options are symptomatic care, red blood cell transfusions and pharmacological treatments. The last decades of research established lentiviral-mediated gene therapy as an efficacious therapeutic strategy. However, this approach is highly expensive and associated with a variable outcome depending on the effectiveness of the viral vector and the quality of the cell product. In the last years, genome editing emerged as a valuable tool for the development of curative strategies for β-hemoglobinopathies. Moreover, due to the wide range of its applications, genome editing has been extensively used to study regulatory mechanisms underlying globin gene regulation allowing the identification of novel genetic and pharmacological targets.
  • 1.2K
  • 18 Feb 2021
Topic Review
State-of-the-Art of Glioblastoma Treatment
Glioblastoma is the most frequent and lethal primary tumor of the central nervous system. Through many years, research has brought various advances in glioblastoma treatment. Glioblastoma management is based on maximal safe surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy with temozolomide. Bevacizumab has been added to the treatment arsenal for the recurrent scenario. Despite the great efforts in therapeutic research, glioblastoma management has suffered minimal changes, and the prognosis remains poor. Combined therapeutic strategies and delivery methods, including immunotherapy, synthetic molecules, natural compounds, and glioblastoma stem cell inhibition, may potentiate the standard of care therapy and represent the next step in glioblastoma management research.
  • 1.2K
  • 15 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Targeting Replication Stress Response Pathways to Treat Cancer
Proliferating cells regularly experience replication stress caused by spontaneous DNA damage that results from endogenous reactive oxygen species, DNA sequences that can assume secondary and tertiary structures, collisions between opposing transcription and replication machineries, and exogenous genotoxic agents. Replication stress often leads to DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) that can cause genome instability and cell death. The importance of replication stress responses in cells exposed to genotoxic chemo- or radiotherapy has prompted considerable research focused on how tumor cells might be selectively killed by combined treatments with genotoxins and agents targeting DNA damage response (DDR) factors involved in the replication stress response.
  • 1.2K
  • 12 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Preclinical Prostate Cancer Research
We address the challenges of using primary cultures and patient-derived xenografts to study prostate cancer. We describe emerging approaches using primary prostate epithelial cells and prostate organoids and their genetic manipulation for disease modelling. Furthermore, the use of human prostate-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is highlighted as a promising complimentary approach. Finally, we discuss the manipulation of iPSCs to generate ‘avatars’ for drug disease testing. Specifically, we describe how a conceptual advance through the creation of living biobanks of "genetically engineered cancers" that contain patient-specific driver mutations hold promise for personalised medicine. 
  • 1.2K
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Treatment Combinations with DNA Vaccines
Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) is a challenging disease to treat, with poor outcomes for patients. One antitumor vaccine, sipuleucel-T, has been approved as a treatment for mCRPC. DNA vaccines are another form of immunotherapy under investigation. DNA immunizations elicit antigen-specific T cells that cause tumor cell lysis, which should translate to meaningful clinical responses. They are easily amenable to design alterations, scalable for large-scale manufacturing, and thermo-stable for easy transport and distribution. Hence, they offer advantages over other vaccine formulations. However, clinical trials with DNA vaccines as a monotherapy have shown only modest clinical effects against tumors. Standard therapies for CRPC including androgen-targeted therapies, radiation therapy and chemotherapy all have immunomodulatory effects, which combined with immunotherapies such as DNA vaccines, could potentially improve treatment. In addition, many investigational drugs are being developed which can augment antitumor immunity, and together with DNA vaccines can further enhance antitumor responses in preclinical models.
  • 1.2K
  • 20 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Transfer Learning in Breast Cancer
Transfer learning is a machine learning approach that reuses a learning method developed for a task as the starting point for a model on a target task. The goal of transfer learning is to improve performance of target learners by transferring the knowledge contained in other (but related) source domains. As a result, the need for large numbers of target-domain data is lowered for constructing target learners. Due to this immense property, transfer learning techniques are frequently used in ultrasound breast cancer image analyses. In this study, we focus on transfer learning methods applied on ultrasound breast image classification and detection from the perspective of transfer learning approaches, pre-processing, pre-training models, and convolutional neural network (CNN) models. Finally, comparison of different works is carried out, and challenges—as well as outlooks—are discussed.
  • 1.2K
  • 25 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Carbonic Anhydrase IX Inhibitors and Solid Tumors
Carbonic anhydrase (CA, EC 4.2.1.1) IX isoform is a surficial zinc metalloenzyme that is proven to play a central role in regulating intra and extracellular pH, as well as modulating invasion and metastasis processes. With its strong association and distribution in various tumor tissues and well-known druggability, this protein holds great promise as a target to pharmacologically interfere with the tumor microenvironment by using drug combination regimens.
  • 1.2K
  • 20 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Implantation-Based Genetic Modeling of BTC
Biliary tract cancer (BTC) is often refractory to conventional therapeutics and is difficult to diagnose in the early stages. Implantation-based models have recently drawn attention for their convenience, flexibility, and scalability. 
  • 1.2K
  • 12 Oct 2021
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