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Topic Review
Photodynamic Therapy-Mediated Immune Responses in Three-Dimensional Tumor Models
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising non-invasive phototherapeutic approach for cancer therapy that can eliminate local tumor cells and produce systemic antitumor immune responses. Significant efforts have been made in developing strategies to further investigate the immune mechanisms triggered by PDT. The majority of in vitro experimental models still rely on the two-dimensional (2D) cell cultures that do not mimic a three-dimensional (3D) cellular environment in the human body, such as cellular heterogeneity, nutrient gradient, growth mechanisms, and the interaction between cells as well as the extracellular matrix (ECM) and therapeutic resistance to anticancer treatments. In addition, in vivo animal studies are highly expensive and time consuming, which may also show physiological discrepancies between animals and humans. In this sense, there is growing interest in the utilization of 3D tumor models, since they precisely mimic different features of solid tumors. This entry summarizes the characteristics and techniques for 3D tumor model generation. Furthermore, researchers provide an entry of innate and adaptive immune responses induced by PDT in several in vitro and in vivo tumor models. Future perspectives are highlighted for further enhancing PDT immune responses as well as ideal experimental models for antitumor immune response sudies.
  • 831
  • 08 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Application of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor TKIs
The use of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) as first-line treatment in patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) harboring EGFR-activating mutations has resulted in a dramatic improvement in the management of the disease. Lung cancer remains one of the most frequent and deadly types of cancer for both genders, while predictions about the future do not suggest dramatic improvements in incidence and mortality rates. There are different histological types of primary lung cancer, classified mainly into non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small-cell lung cancer, with an annual incidence of approximately 85% and 15%, respectively. Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common subtype of NSCLC, accounting for around 40% of NSCLC cases.
  • 831
  • 18 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Gut-Microbiota-Mediated Immune Regulatory Mechanisms by Immunotherapy
Cancer contains tumor-initiating stem-like cells (TICs) that are resistant to therapies. Experimental evidence indicates that hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and TIC development are influenced by permissive conditions in response to changes in gut microbiota.
  • 831
  • 25 May 2022
Topic Review
Precision Medicine in Cholangiocarcinoma
Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), or biliary tract cancer, has a poor prognosis. The median survival time among patients with CCA is under 2 years from diagnosis, and the global 5-year survival rate is only 10%. First-line therapy with chemotherapeutic agents, gemcitabine plus cisplatin, has traditionally been used to treat unresectable advanced CCA. Precision medicine has become a mainstream cancer treatment due to innovative next-generation sequencing technology. 
  • 831
  • 14 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation
Autologous stem cell transplantation (auto-SCT) has been the standard of care in eligible newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) patients. Outcomes of patients with MM have improved significantly due to the advent of several novel drugs. Upfront use of these drugs in induction therapy has significantly increased the rate and depth of responses that have translated into longer remission and survival. In addition, post-SCT maintenance have even further improved the PFS and OS in patients. Patients with renal insufficiency and older patients are now able to safely undergo auto-SCT. Evolving role of minimal residual disease together with emerging role of bispecific antibodies provide patients with more effective choices and better outcomes.
  • 830
  • 10 Mar 2021
Topic Review
TDO2/IDO2 in Cancer Development
Elements involved in the tryptophan metabolism pathway and its derivatives are considered factors that play a wide role in silencing the immune system. However, it seems that those agents contribute to tumorigenesis through a direct impact on cancer cells. 
  • 830
  • 16 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Global Trends in Cancer Nanotechnology
This study presents a new way to investigate comprehensive trends in cancer nanotechnology research in different countries, institutions, and journals providing critical insights to prevention, diagnosis, and therapy. This paper applies the qualitative method of bibliometric analysis on cancer nanotechnology using the PubMed database during the years 2000-2021. Inspired by hybrid medical models and content-based and bibliometric features for machine learning models, our results show cancer nanotechnology studies have expanded exponentially since 2010. The highest production of articles in cancer nanotechnology is mainly from US institutions, with several countries notably the USA, China, UK, India, and Iran as concentrated focal points as centers of cancer nanotechnology research, especially in the last five years. The analysis shows the greatest overlap between nanotechnology and DNA, RNA, iron oxide or mesoporous silica, breast cancer, and cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment. Moreover, more than 50% of information related to the keywords, authors, institutions, journals, and countries are considerably investigated in the form of publications from the top 100 journals. This study has the potentials to provide past and current lines of research that can unmask comprehensive trends in cancer nanotechnology, key research topics, or pmost productive countries and authors in the field.
  • 830
  • 10 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy for Locally Advanced Gastric Cancer
Locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC) has a poor prognosis with surgical resection alone, and neoadjuvant treatment has been recommended to improve surgical and oncological outcomes. Although neoadjuvant chemotherapy has been established to be effective for LAGC, the role of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) remains under investigation. Clinical experience and research evidence on esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma (e.g., cardia gastric cancers) indicate that the likelihood of achieving sustainable local control is higher through NCRT than through resection alone. Furthermore, NCRT also has an acceptable treatment-related toxicity and adverse event profile. In particular, it increases the likelihood of achieving an R0 resection and a pathological complete response (pCR). Moreover, NCRT results in higher overall and recurrence-free survival rates than surgery alone; however, evidence on the survival benefits of NCRT versus neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) remains conflicting. For noncardia gastric cancer, the efficacy of NCRT has mostly been reported in retrospective studies, and several large clinical trials are ongoing. Consequently, NCRT might play a more essential role in unresectable LAGC, for which NCT alone may not be adequate to attain disease control.
  • 830
  • 07 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Hyperthermia to Treat Cancer in Low-Middle-Income Group Countries
Loco-regional hyperthermia at 40–44 °C is a multifaceted therapeutic modality with the distinct triple advantage of being a potent radiosensitizer, a chemosensitizer and an immunomodulator. Risk difference estimates from pairwise meta-analysis have shown that the local tumour control could be improved by 22.3% (p < 0.001), 22.1% (p < 0.001) and 25.5% (p < 0.001) in recurrent breast cancers, locally advanced cervix cancer (LACC) and locally advanced head and neck cancers, respectively by adding hyperthermia to radiotherapy over radiotherapy alone. 
  • 830
  • 06 May 2023
Topic Review
Small Cell Lung Carcinoma
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive malignancy characterized by rapid proliferation, early dissemination, acquired therapy resistance, and poor prognosis. Early diagnosis of SCLC is crucial since most patients present with advanced/metastatic disease, limiting the potential for curative treatment. While SCLC exhibits initial responsiveness to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, treatment resistance commonly emerges, leading to a five-year overall survival rate of up to 10%. New effective biomarkers, early detection, and advancements in therapeutic strategies are crucial for improving survival rates and reducing the impact of this devastating disease.
  • 830
  • 18 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Isolated Limb Infusion
Isolated limb infusion (ILI) and hyperthermic isolated limb perfusion (HILP) are used to treat melanoma in-transit metastases and unresectable sarcoma confined to the limb utilizing the effect of high-dose loco-regional chemotherapy, normally melphalan +/- actinomycin-D. Both procedures are able to provide high response rates in patients with numerous or bulky lesions in whom other loco-regional treatments are less effective. In comparison to systemic therapies, on the other hand, ILI and HILP result less in severe systemic side-effects. Although in principle ILI and HILP are similar procedures, ILI is technically simpler to perform and takes advantage of the hypoxic and acidotic environment in the isolated limb, potentiating anti-tumour activity of the cytotoxic agents.
  • 829
  • 22 Sep 2021
Topic Review
CFTR and Gastrointestinal Cancers
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a disease caused by mutations in the CFTR gene that severely affects the lungs as well as extra-pulmonary tissues, including the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. CFTR dysfunction resulting from either mutations or the downregulation of its expression has been shown to promote carcinogenesis. An example is the enhanced risk for several types of cancer in patients with CF, especially cancers of the GI tract. CFTR also acts as a tumor suppressor in diverse sporadic epithelial cancers in many tissues, primarily due to the silencing of CFTR expression via multiple mechanisms, but especially due to epigenetic regulation.
  • 829
  • 22 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Breast Cancer-Delivered Exosomal miRNA for Metastasis Prediction
Metastasis represents the most important cause of breast cancer-associated mortality. Even for early diagnosed stages, the risk of metastasis is significantly high and predicts a grim outcome for the patient. Nowadays, efforts are made for identifying blood-based biomarkers that could reliably distinguish patients with highly metastatic cancers in order to ensure a closer follow-up and a more personalized therapeutic method. 
  • 829
  • 19 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Platelets Extracellular Vesicles
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a membrane-bound structures secreted both in physiological and pathological conditions by prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Their role in cell-to-cell communications has been discussed for more than two decades. Numerous papers showed EVs as tumor growth regulators, by transferring their cargo (e.g.: miRNA, proteins, receptors, cytokines) into cancer cells and cells in the tumor microenvironment. Platelet extracellular vesicles (PEVs) are formed during platelet apoptosis as well as their activation.  PEVs are highly heterogeneous and  the most abundant EVs population in the blood. The reason for the PEVs heterogeneity are their maternal activators, which is reflected on PEVs size and cargo. As PEVs are the most numerous EVs in circulation, their feasible impact on cancer growth isstrongly discussed. PEVs crosstalk could promote cancer cells proliferation, change tumor microenvironment and favor metastasis formation. In many cases these functions were linked to the transfer into recipient cells specific cargo molecules from PEVs.
  • 828
  • 05 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Prostate cancer and its Immunotherapy
Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second-most common cancer in men worldwide. Treatment options for patients with advanced or aggressive prostate cancer or recurrent disease continue to be of limited success and are rarely curative. Despite the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) in some melanoma, lung, kidney and breast cancers, this approach has been remarkably unsuccessful in PCa. One potentially explanation for this lack of efficacy is the generation of a distinctly immunosuppressive prostate tumor microenvironment (TME) by regulatory T (Treg) cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), and type 2 macrophages, all of which have been implicated in a variety of pathological conditions including solid cancers. In PCa, Treg cells and MDSCs are recruited into TME by low-grade chronic inflammatory signals, whereas tissue-resident type 2 macrophages are induced by cytokines such as IL-4, IL-10, IL-13, transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) or prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) produced by Th2 cells. These then drive tumor progression, therapy resistance and the generation of castration (hormone) resistant disease, ultimately conferring a poor prognosis. The biology of MDSCs and Treg cells is highly complex and the development, proliferation, maturation or function can each be pharmacologically mediated to counteract the immunosuppressive effects of these cells.
  • 828
  • 23 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Potential Inhibitor of Glioblastoma
Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most aggressive brain malignancies with high incidences of developing treatment resistance, resulting in poor prognoses. Glioma stem cell (GSC)-derived exosomes are important players that contribute to GBM tumorigenesis and aggressive properties.
  • 828
  • 26 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Inhibitors in Advanced Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in the female population and despite significant efforts made in diagnostic approaches and treatment strategies adopted for advanced breast cancer, the disease still remains incurable. Therefore, development of more effective systemic treatments constitutes a crucial need. Recently, several clinical trials were performed to find innovative predictive biomarkers and to improve the outcome of metastatic breast cancer through innovative therapeutic algorithms. In the pathogenesis of breast cancer, the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-protein kinase B (PKB/AKT)-mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) axis is a key regulator of cell proliferation, growth, survival, metabolism, and motility, making it an interest and therapeutic target. Nevertheless, the PI3K/AKT/mTOR cascade includes a complex network of biological events, needing more sophisticated approaches for their use in cancer treatment.
  • 828
  • 13 May 2022
Topic Review
Circulating MiRNAs and SnoRNAs in Bone Metastasis
Bone is a frequent site of metastasis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) and small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are two classes of small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) that posttranscriptionally regulate gene expression in cells. While miRNAs have been largely investigated in the context of bone metastasis, snoRNAs have been poorly studied. However, there is evidence that snoRNAs can give rise to a specific class of miRNAs (called sno-miRNAs), thus sharing features with miRNAs. Another common ground between miRNAs and snoRNAs is the fact that both can circulate in biological fluids, such as blood and lymph. Compared to other RNAs, their small size as well as their interaction with core proteins protect them from a massive degradation both as free and embedded forms, making sncRNAs stable, secreted, circulating molecules. As an embedded form, they are usually within extracellular vesicles (EVs) that derive from cells. EV-embedded and/or circulating microRNAs, mainly, and snoRNAs have been pointed out as important players in bone metastasis by preparing the pre-metastatic niche, directly and indirectly affecting the activities of osteoclasts and osteoblasts, and acting as mediators within cells to support cancer cell growth in bone.
  • 828
  • 06 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Amino Acids Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
It was shown that the content of individual amino acids changes in breast cancer by an average of 10–15% compared with healthy controls. For some amino acids (Thr, Arg, Met, and Ser), an increase in concentration is more often observed in breast cancer, and for others, a decrease is observed (Asp, Pro, Trp, and His). The accuracy of diagnostics using individual amino acids is low and increases when a number of amino acids are combined with each other or with other metabolites. Gln/Glu, Asp, Arg, Leu/Ile, Lys, and Orn have the greatest significance in assessing the risk of breast cancer.
  • 828
  • 22 Sep 2023
Topic Review
IL-6 Cytokines and EMP
Epithelial–mesenchymal plasticity (EMP) plays critical physiological roles during embryonic development, postnatal growth and epithelial homeostasis, but it is also involved in a number of pathological conditions, including wound repair, fibrosis, inflammation and cancer. EMP has been intimately linked with most, if not all, of the steps during cancer development and progression (e.g., migration, invasion, immune escape, drug resistance and metastatic dissemination). Cytokines from the interleukin 6 (IL-6) family play fundamental roles in mediating tumour-promoting inflammation within the tumour microenvironment. In general, IL-6 cytokines activate EMP processes, fostering the acquisition of mesenchymal features in cancer cells. Here, we will summarise all the relevant literature related to all members of the IL-6 family and EMP.
  • 827
  • 29 Mar 2022
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