Targeted Cancer Therapy: The Next Generation of Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the United States along with heart disease. The hallmark of cancer treatment has been conventional chemotherapy. Chemotherapeutic drugs are designed to target not only rapidly dividing cells, such as cancer cells, but also certain normal cells, such as intestinal epithelium. Over the past several years, a new generation of cancer treatment has come to the forefront, i.e, targeted cancer therapies. Like conventional chemotherapy, targeted cancer therapies use pharmacological agents that inhibit growth, increase cell death and restrict the spread of cancer. As the name suggests, targeted therapies interfere with specific proteins involved in tumorigenesis. Rather than using broad base cancer treatments, focusing on specific molecular changes which are unique to a particular cancer, targeted cancer therapies may be more therapeutically beneficial for many cancer types, including lung, colorectal, breast, lymphoma and leukemia. Moreover, recent advances have made it possible to analyze and tailor treatments to an individual patient's tumor. There are three main types of targeted cancer therapies; 1) monoclonal antibodies, 2) small molecule inhibitors and 3) immunotoxins. This review will discuss these three classes of targeted therapies in detail, as well as the biology behind targeted cancer therapies.

Effect of Pyrrole Derivative on the Rat Colonic Mucosa Compared to 5-Fluorouracil

“…5-FU at the dose 5-fold of the effective dose causes the death of animals with signs of exhaustion, ulcers of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), constipation, hair loss. The reason for these phenomena is suppression of the proliferation of the gastrointestinal epithelium (as a result -impaired digestion and absorption, slime excretion, motility) and skin -side effects characteristic of cytostatic action [4,9]. Differing effects of various doses of 5-FU on the proliferation of progenitor cells of colonocytes and regeneration of mucosa can be explained by the different sensitivity of DNA and RNA synthesis to changes of the pool of nucleotides.…”

“…Differing effects of various doses of 5-FU on the proliferation of progenitor cells of colonocytes and regeneration of mucosa can be explained by the different sensitivity of DNA and RNA synthesis to changes of the pool of nucleotides. RNA synthesis is more sensitive to the action of 5-fluorouracil (direct incorporation of 5-FU in the RNA molecule instead of uracil) [2,4,6], and therefore cells differentiation "suffers", which requires the expression of genes, and thus RNA synthesis. As a result, colonocytes in the crypts are immature and therefore, they age faster and are actively peeled requiring the active separation of predecessors to maintain the population of cells of the mucous membrane.…”

“…Often one of the causes of cancer is impaired tyrosine kinase activation processes, which regulates the different stages of growth and proliferation of cells [1,2]. Therefore, a promising trend in modern medicine is associated with targeted highly selective medicinal products, in particular membrane tyrosine kinase inhibitors characterized by high antitumor activity and lower toxicity as compared with traditional cytostatics [3][4][5][6]. Medicinal products in this class include dihydropyrrole derivative 5-amino-4-(1,3-benzothiazole-2-yl)-1-(3-methoxyphenyl)-1,2-dihydro-3Н-pyrrol-3-one (D-1) іn silico synthesized at Research and Production Biochemical Center of Taras Shevchenko National University as targeted inhibitors of protein kinase, which due to the spatial structure of the molecule interacts with the ATP-binding centre of tyrosine protein kinases and is their effective blocker [7][8][9].…”

Introduction and Basic Concepts of Cancer

“…Similar to conventional chemotherapy, targeted therapy also uses pharmacological agents to induce cancer cell death. However, in contrast to conventional chemotherapy, targeted therapy kills cancer cells by interfering solely with specific proteins involved in tumorigenesis, making it therapeutically more tolerated for different cancer types, including lung, colorectal, breast, lymphoma, and leukemia (Baudino, 2015). The molecular pathways frequently targeted in the treatment of solid tumors include the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR, also known as HER1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and HER2/neu.…”

Cancer Therapy with Radiation: The Basic Concept of Radiotherapy and Its Development in Indonesia

“…22 23 Penggolongan kejadian tidak diinginkan pada terapi radiasi berdasarkan National Cancer Institute (NCI) Tujuan terapi radiasi adalah memaksimalkan dosis radiasi ke sel kanker abnormal dan meminimalkan paparan terhadap sel normal yang berdekatan dengan sel kanker atau yang berada pada jalur radiasi, meskipun pada kenyataannya radiasi mampu merusak sel kanker maupun sel normal. 24,25 Untuk mendeskripsikan kejadian-kejadian yang tidak diinginkan dari suatu terapi, NCI telah merilis terminologi deskriptif yang dapat digunakan untuk pelaporan kejadian yang tidak diinginkan (adverse event) yang disebut dengan Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE). Skala penilaian (severity) disediakan untuk setiap istilah kejadian yang tidak diinginkan, terdiri atas: 26 Tingkat 1: Ringan, gejala asimtomatik atau ringan, hanya terjadi pada pengamatan klinis atau diagnostik, tidak diindikasikan untuk intervensi; Tingkat 2: Sedang, diindikasikan intervensi lokal atau non-invasif; Tingkat 3: Parah atau signifikan secara medis namun tidak mengancam jiwa, diindikasikan rawat inap atau perpanjangan rawat inap; Tingkat 4: Konsekuensi yang mengancam jiwa, diindikasikan untuk melakukan intervensi mendesak; Tingkat 5: Berupa kejadian tidak diinginkan yang terkait dengan kematian.…”