Search results for "Targeted Therapy"
showing 10 items of 297 documents
New landscapes and horizons in hepatocellular carcinoma therapy
2020
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is the sixth most frequent form of cancer and leads to the fourth highest number of deaths each year. HCC results from a combination of environmental factors and aging as there are driver mutations at oncogenes which occur during aging. Most of HCCs are diagnosed at advanced stage preventing curative therapies. Treatment in advanced stage is a challenging and pressing problem, and novel and well-tolerated therapies are urgently needed. We will discuss further advances beyond sorafenib that target additional signaling pathways and immune checkpoint proteins. The scenario of possible systemic therapies for patients with advanced HCC has changed dramatically in …
Sorafenib: from literature to clinical practice
2013
Sorafenib is considered the standard systemic therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), in patients with well-preserved liver function (Child-Pugh A class) and advanced-stage HCC (BCLC-C) or in patients with HCC progressing after locoregional therapies, with a high grade of recommendation. The approval of sorafenib for this indication was grounded on the efficacy and the safety results reported by two international randomized, controlled trials, the SHARP and the Asia-Pacific studies. In addition, the efficacy and the safety of sorafenib in clinical practice are addressed by several field-practice experiences, including the multinational GIDEON study and the SOFIA study. Finally, further …
Targeted Therapies in Melanoma
2015
The standard approach for malignant melanoma is represented by surgical excision. In most cases, distant metastases develop. Until few years ago, the main strategies to treat metastatic melanoma were chemotherapy and cytokines with subsequent low efficacy and poor tolerability profile. In the last few years, a new biological therapy has become available for metastatic melanoma. It includes targeted therapy, such as BRAF inhibitors (vemurafenib and dabrafenib) and MEK inhibitors (trametinib), and immunotherapy, such as the monoclonal antibodies anti-CTLA-4 (ipilimumab) and anti-PD-1 (nivolumab and lambrolizumab). The different mechanisms of action of these new drugs imply a variability of ou…
Monoclonal antibodies in gastrointestinal cancers
2013
Introduction: Among gastrointestinal cancers, colorectal and gastric neoplasms are the most frequent. The development of new targeted drugs improved the efficacy of systemic therapy in advanced stages of those malignancies. Areas covered: This review highlights the main biological processes implicated in gastrointestinal cancer development and progression, such as angiogenesis and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling pathway. On these bases, anti-EGFR and anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) monoclonal antibodies in colorectal and gastric cancer are discussed. Data about further monoclonal antibodies in development are also reported. Expert opinion: The use of monoclo…
Individualized Tumor Therapy: Biomarkers and Possibilities for Targeted Therapy with Natural Products
2014
Although many tumors respond to chemotherapy, not all patients benefit from anticancer drugs. Tumors often develop resistance to drugs and concentrations sufficient to eradicate the cancer cannot be used due to the severe side effects of chemotherapy. In the present chapter, we give an overview of research on biomarkers with prognostic and predictive value and summarize our own efforts in this context. With a battery of biomarkers and corresponding synthetic and natural targeted drugs, it is likely that custom-tailored combination treatments will soon become a reality and that each individual cancer patient will be treated based on his or her individual molecular tumor architecture.
Soft tissue sarcomas in the precision medicine era: new advances in clinical practice and future perspectives
2018
Soft tissue sarcomas (STSs) represent a rare and heterogeneous group of solid tumours derived from mesenchymal progenitors and account for 1% of all adult malignancies. Although in the last decade anthracycline-based chemotherapy single agent or in combinations has been able to improve clinical benefits, prognosis is still poor and STSs represent an important unmet medical need. Continuous advances in cancer genetics and genomics have contributed to change management paradigms of STSs as it occurred for other solid tumours. Several treatments have been recently developed with the specific aim of targeting different cell pathways and immune-checkpoints that have been recognized to drive tumo…
How to find the Ariadne's thread in the labyrinth of salvage treatment options for metastatic colorectal cancer?
2014
Abstract: Since a chance for cure was found out in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients undergoing a resection of liver and lung metastases, high tumor shrinkage by chemotherapy regimens and their combination with targeted agents have been addressed in potentially resectable mCRC. However, most mCRC patients cannot reach this opportunity because of tumor burden or metastatic sites. For these patients a salvage systemic therapy could be offered to prolong survival. To date, a huge number of clinical trials provided some evidences for the achievement of this goal. A lot of chemotherapeutic regimens in combination with biological therapies are now available. We tried to propose a simpl…
Prognostic and predictive biomarkers for targeted therapy in NSCLC: For whom the bell tolls?
2015
Introduction: The discovery of molecular biomarkers and the advent of targeted therapies have led to a radical change in the treatment of several tumors, including NSCLC. In the last few years, the number of molecular biomarkers has rapidly increased, and a growing interest has been recently focused on their potential prognostic and predictive value in clinical settings. Areas covered: This review describes all the molecular biomarkers with prognostic and predictive value in NSCLC, including both clinically approved biomarkers, and emerging biomarkers under investigation in clinical trials. Liquid biopsy and applications of circulating biomarkers are also described. Expert opinion: The onco…
Looking for a new panacea in ALK-rearranged NSCLC: may be Ceritinib?
2014
Abstract: In the past decade, the advent of targeted therapy led to a silent revolution in the war against lung cancer and a significant evolution on the concept of Phase I clinical trials design. Thanks to the specificity of their target, the new drugs have radically changed NSCLC treatment, leading to the development of personalized strategies. The accelerated approval of the first ALK-inhibitor, Crizotinib and more recently Ceritinib, without a Phase III randomized, clinical trial, has been an amazing success story in lung cancer research, marking the beginning of a new decade of targeted drugs development, characterized by modern, biomarker-driven, early clinical trial design and shorte…
The prognostic impact of PD1 and PDL1 expression in non-small cell lung cancer
2015
Introduction: To improve the prognosis of lung cancer patients, immunotherapy is expected to become a powerful therapeutic option. Several clinical studies demonstrate a positive prognostic effect of a targeted therapy against the programmed cell death receptor PD1 and its ligand PDL1 in solid tumors. For non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) however, the diagnostic, prognostic and predictive impact of these factors needs to be clarified. Materials and Methods: Immunohistochemistry was performed to evaluate the expression profile of PD1 and PDL1 in 398 NSCLC patients (median age: 66 years, 78% male sex, 45% squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) histology). Statistical analysis included Fisher9s Exact test,…