Search results for "Targeted therapy."
showing 10 items of 296 documents
Intermittent targeted therapies and stochastic evolution in patients affected by chronic myeloid leukemia
2016
Front line therapy for the treatment of patients affected by chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is based on the administration of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, namely imatinib or, more recently, axitinib. Although imatinib is highly effective and represents an example of a successful molecular targeted therapy, the appearance of resistance is observed in a proportion of patients, especially those in advanced stages. In this work, we investigate the appearance of resistance in patients affected by CML, by modeling the evolutionary dynamics of cancerous cell populations in a simulated patient treated by an intermittent targeted therapy. We simulate, with the Monte Carlo method, the stochastic evolu…
Involvement of non-coding RNAs in chemo- and radioresistance of colorectal cancer
2016
Despite recent progress in understanding the cancer signaling pathways and in developing new therapeutic strategies, however, the resistance of colorectal cancer (CRC) cells to chemo- and radiotherapy represents the main hurdle to the successful treatment, leading to tumor recurrence and, consequently, a poor prognosis. Therefore, overcoming drug and radiation resistance, enhancing drug and radiation sensitivity of CRC cells, and improving the effi cacy of chemo- and radiotherapy have an important signifi cance in the treatment of CRC. The identifi cation of new molecular biomarkers which can predict therapy response and prognosis is one of the most signifi cant aims in pharmacogenomics and…
Recent Insights into the Development of Preclinical Trastuzumab- Resistant HER2+ Breast Cancer Models.
2018
Background: Overexpression and amplification of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) occur in 20% of total breast carcinomas. HER2-overexpression is implicated in disease initiation and progression and associated with poor prognosis. Trastuzumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody, is the standard HER2-targeted therapy for early and metastatic HER2-amplified breast cancer patients. Trastuzumab has significantly increased clinical benefit in HER2+ metastatic and adjuvant settings; however, it is not effective for many patients due to primary or acquired resistance to the drug. During the last decade, many studies have revealed a number of novel molecular traits of HER2+ breast c…
EGFR inhibition in NSCLC: New findings…. and opened questions?
2017
The targeted inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has represented a milestone in the treatment of lung cancer. Several studies convincingly and consistently demonstrated a significant superiority of EGFR-TKIs over standard platinum-chemotherapy in EGFR-mutated NSCLC patients, leading to the sequential approval of gefitinib, erlotinib and afatinib as new standard first-line clinical treatment. To date we are witnessing a second revolution in the management of EGFR-positive NSCLC thanks to the development of new treatment strategies aiming to overcome acquired resistance to TKIs and ultimately improve patients’ outcomes. In this review we summarize the most important recent f…
Detection of MET Alterations Using Cell Free DNA and Circulating Tumor Cells from Cancer Patients
2020
MET alterations may provide a potential biomarker to evaluate patients who will benefit from treatment with MET inhibitors. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to investigate the utility of a liquid biopsy-based strategy to assess MET alterations in cancer patients. We analyzed MET amplification in circulating free DNA (cfDNA) from 174 patients with cancer and 49 healthy controls and demonstrated the accuracy of the analysis to detect its alteration in patients. Importantly, a significant correlation between cfDNA concentration and MET copy number (CN) in cancer patients (r = 0.57, p <
Target Therapies for Uterine Carcinosarcomas: Current Evidence and Future Perspectives
2017
Carcinosarcomas (CS) in gynecology are very infrequent and represent only 2–5% of uterine cancers. Despite surgical cytoreduction and subsequent chemotherapy being the primary treatment for uterine CS, the overall five-year survival rate is 30 ± 9% and recurrence is extremely common (50–80%). Due to the poor prognosis of CS, new strategies have been developed in the last few decades, targeting known dysfunctional molecular pathways for immunotherapy. In this paper, we aimed to gather the available evidence on the latest therapies for the treatment of CS. We performed a systematic review using the terms “uterine carcinosarcoma”, “uterine Malignant Mixed Müllerian Tumors”, “target therapies”,…
Innovative therapy, monoclonal antibodies, and beyond: Highlights from the eighth annual meeting
2018
The eighth annual conference of “Innovative therapy, monoclonal antibodies, and beyond” was held in Milan on Jan. 26, 2018, and hosted by Fondazione IRCCS–Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (Fondazione IRCCS INT). The conference was divided into two main scientific sessions, of i) pre-clinical assays and novel biotargets, and ii) clinical translation, as well as a third session of presentations from young investigators, which focused on recent achievements within Fondazione IRCCS INT on immunotherapy and targeted therapies. Presentations in the first session addressed the issue of cancer immunotherapy activity with respect to tumor heterogeneity, with key topics addressing: 1) tumor heterogeneit…
Discontinuation of braf/mek-directed targeted therapy after complete remission of metastatic melanoma : a retrospective multicenter adoreg study
2021
The advent of BRAF/MEK inhibitors (BRAFi/MEKi) has significantly improved progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) for patients with advanced BRAF-V600-mutant melanoma. Long-term survivors have been identified particularly among patients with a complete response (CR) to BRAF/MEK-directed targeted therapy (TT). However, it remains unclear which patients who achieved a CR maintain a durable response and whether treatment cessation might be a safe option in these patients. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of treatment cessation on the clinical course of patients with a CR upon BRAF/MEK-directed-TT. We retrospectively selected patients with BRAF-V600-mutant advanced non-res…
Immunotherapy of colorectal cancer: New perspectives after a long path
2016
Although significant therapeutic improvement has been achieved in the last 10 years, the survival of metastatic colorectal cancer patients remains in a range of 28 to 30 months. Presently, systemic treatment includes combination chemotherapy with oxaliplatin and/or irinotecan together with a backbone of 5-fluorouracil/levofolinate, alone or in combination with monoclonal antibodies to VEGFA (bevacizumab) or EGF receptor (cetuximab and panitumumab). The recent rise of immune checkpoint inhibitors in the therapeutic scenario has renewed scientific interest in the investigation of immunotherapy in metastatic colorectal cancer patients. According to our experience and view, here, we review the…
Nintedanib in NSCLC: evidence to date and place in therapy
2016
The treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is currently driven by the detection of targetable oncogenic drivers, i.e. epidermal growth factor receptor, echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4–anaplastic lymphoma kinase, etc. Those patients who are wildtype for known and valuable oncogenes can receive standard chemotherapy as first-line treatment, with the possibility of adding bevacizumab. With regard to second-line treatment, nintedanib can improve the efficacy of docetaxel. Nintedanib is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting three angiogenesis-related transmembrane receptors. The usefulness of nintedanib as an anticancer agent for NSCLC has been proved by both …