No abstract

Angiogenesis is the process of formation of new blood vessels due to over expression of VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) which plays a critical role in the growth and development of all solid tumor types. With the advancement in understanding of tumor angiogenesis and VEGF, there have been a number of agents developed to target VEGF for the treatment of cancer. These targeted agents can affect downstream VEGF signal transduction by unique mechanisms at different cellular and extracellular levels. FDA has recently approved Aflibercept or VEGF-Trap in August 2012 for the treatment of colorectal cancer. It is a recombinant, decoy receptor fusion protein, rationally designed to block angiogenesis by targeting VEGF-A, VEGF-B and placental growth factor. VEGF-Trap exerts its antiangiogenic effects through regression of tumor vasculature, remodelling or normalization of surviving vasculature and inhibition of new tumor vessel growth. In this review, pre-clinical and clinical data have been summarized for aflibercept alone and in combination with chemotherapy to explore its efficacy and benefits in ovarian cancer, breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, glioblastoma, adenocarcinoma and renal cell cancer xenograft models.

No abstract

Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy among men found to be the second leading cause of male cancer-related mortality due to development of resistance against androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). With the advancement in understanding of prostate cancer, numbers of agents have been emerged to target Androgen-Receptor (AR) signaling for the treatment of castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved enzalutamide (XTANDI) for the treatment of CRPC. Androgen receptor promotes the prostate cancer progression after transformation. Androgen receptor signaling leads to CRPC when cellular nucleus binds to DNA and increases pro cancer gene expression. In phase ΙΙΙ clinical trial, enzalutamide showed that 160 mg once daily oral administration is well tolerated and significantly enhanced overall survival in men with CRPC after chemotherapy, demonstrated by reduction in the serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) level and increased survival rate by 4.8 months.

Background: The present work investigates the ridge characteristics and ridge density of fingerprints to determine gender differences among population of Punjab. The main characteristics studied were general pattern type, ridge density and minutiae or ridge characteristics with respect to general pattern type. Further, instead of using conventional method of ridge counting, Adobe Photoshop cs5 is used to conclude ridge density and minutiae characteristics. Experimental results shows, along with ridge density, minutiae characteristics procure special importance in determining the gender from fingerprints. Results: The results suggest that mean ridge density in males is 12.32 ridges/25mm 2, where as it was 13.94 ridges/ 25mm 2 in females. The study has supported the hypothesis that women tend to have thin ridges i.e. more ridge density as compared to men. The study of minutiae or ridge characteristics revealed that frequency of ridge ending (50.24 index fingers, 50.62 middle fingers) and enclosures (2.87% in index and 3.08% in middle finger) is higher in females as compared to males. Further significant gender difference has been observed in minutiae characteristics with respect to general pattern type. Among both genders; males tend to have more number of minutiae as compared to females in case of loop and whorl as general pattern type. In case of Arch pattern females tends to have more number of minutiae as compared to males. Conclusions: The research carried by the authors of this paper synchronizes with the findings of other researchers despite differences in populations selected. More number of minutiae and ridges were found in case of females as compared to male fingerprints. In the present study an attempt has been made to validate the method by analyzing the blind samples which likewise showed more number of minutiae in case of females as compared to males. Although the study agrees with common theory of more ridge details in females as compared to males, yet low success rate in case of blind trial has unveiled further scope of research required to determine gender from fingerprints found at scene of crime or disputed documents.