Tamoxifen Never Ceases to Amaze: New Findings on Non-Estrogen Receptor Molecular Targets and Mediated Effects.

Tamoxifen is a first targeted drug that continues to be the gold standard in treatment of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer for almost 50 years. The current review is an update of the paper published in 2012. We provide the new data on the tamoxifen targets that are the key points of signaling cascades activating cellular proliferation, which determines aggressiveness of disease and chemotherapy resistance or sensitivity.

Flow cytometric analysis of the ERCC1, marker of DNA damage repair, in the tumor specimens embedded into paraffin blocks.

The differences in expression of ERCC1 were estimated between tumor specimens embedded into paraffin blocks and surgical biopsy specimens of non-small cell lung cancer as well as breast and ovarian cancers. Concordance or differences not higher than 20% were observed in 73% of the cases. The number of the cases with more significant differences in ERCC1 expression was less than 17%.

New Data on Molecular Targets of Tamoxifen Besides Estrogen Receptors, Their Clinical Significancy.

Tamoxifen is the first target agent with a high-end position in breast cancer therapy till now. In recent years experimental researches revealed new biological effects of tamoxifen on tumor cells. The present study continues the theme of the review published in 2012, where a plenty of tamoxifen effects besides interaction with estrogen receptors was discussed.

Digoxin is a selective modifier increasing platinum drug anticancer activity.

Using the model of breast cancer Ehrlich ascites tumor in mice, we showed that a sigle intraperitoneal injection of cardiac glycoside digoxin 1 h before the intraperitoneal injection of cisplatin increased the anticancer effect of the cytostatic drug more than twice when recalculated for the dose. It is assumed that the modifying effect of digoxin is determined by the direct inhibition of glycolysis in tumor cells. Taking into account the design of the study, we consider promising the clinical evaluation of the effectiveness of digoxin as a modifier of cisplatin efficiency in intracavitary therapy of ascites cancers with pleural and abdominal dissenmination.

[PROSPECTIVE SYNTHETIC MATRICES FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF TRACHEAL DEFECTS IN CANCER PATIENTS].

A replacement of major defects of the trachea remains a challenge despite numerous attempts to use for this purpose various options of autologous and allogeneic implants as well as synthetic matrixes. The most prospective direction is to create tracheal matrixes based on biocompatible porous or fibrous materials that mimic native tissues and provide the proliferation of multipotent cells. This review summarizes current data regarding the development of experimental research and clinical testing of biocompatible tracheal matrixes, which were created using innovative technologies.