Tumor progression and metastatic dissemination in ovarian cancer after dose-dense or conventional paclitaxel and cisplatin plus bevacizumab.

The efficacy of therapeutic regimens incorporating weekly or every-3-weeks paclitaxel (PTX) for ovarian cancer is debated. We investigated the addition of bevacizumab in regimens of chemotherapy with different PTX doses and schedules in preclinical models. Treatments were cisplatin (DDP) with weekly PTX (conventional), or dose-dense-equi (every other day to the conventional cumulative dose), or dose-dense-high (total dose 1.

Modeling Cytostatic and Cytotoxic Responses to New Treatment Regimens for Ovarian Cancer.

The margin for optimizing polychemotherapy is wide, but a quantitative comparison of current and new protocols is rare even in preclinical settings. reconstruction of the proliferation process and the main perturbations induced by treatment provides insight into the complexity of drug response and grounds for a more objective rationale to treatment schemes. We analyzed 12 treatment groups in trial on an ovarian cancer xenograft, reproducing current therapeutic options for this cancer including one-, two-, and three-drug schemes of cisplatin (DDP), bevacizumab (BEV), and paclitaxel (PTX) with conventional and two levels ("equi" and "high") of dose-dense schedules.

Scale-up of water-based spider silk film casting using a film applicator.

Spider silk proteins for applications in drug delivery have attracted an increased interest during the past years. Some possible future medical applications for this biocompatible and biodegradable material are scaffolds for tissue engineering, implantable drug delivery systems and coatings for implants. Recently, we reported on the preparation of water-based spider silk films for drug delivery applications.

Water-based preparation of spider silk films as drug delivery matrices.

The main focus of this work was to obtain a drug delivery matrix characterized by biocompatibility, water insolubility and good mechanical properties. Moreover the preparation process has to be compatible with protein encapsulation and the obtained matrix should be able to sustain release a model protein. Spider silk proteins represent exceptional natural polymers due to their mechanical properties in combination with biocompatibility.

Micromechanical characterization of spider silk particles.

Spider silk fibers are well known for their mechanical properties, and they are therefore in the focus of materials scientists. Additionally, silks display biocompatibility making them interesting materials for applications in medicine or cosmetics. Due to the low abundance of natural spider silk proteins because of the spider's cannibalism, the recombinant spider silk protein eADF4 has been established for material science applications.