CD24+/CD38- as new prognostic marker for non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of death among cancers in the world. The annual death toll due to this disease exceeds the combined deaths caused by colon, breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancers. As a result, there has been a tremendous effort to identify new biomarkers for early detection and diagnosis of lung cancer.

Molecular integrity and global gene expression of breast and lung cancer stem cells under long-term storage and recovery.

Cryopreservation is a common procedure widely used in biological and clinical sciences. Similar protocols are also applied in preserving cancer stem cells, a field with high promises and challenges. Specific cell surface membrane proteins are considered to be biomarkers of cancer stem cells and they may play a critical role in differentiating stem cells from non stem cells.

Pivotal role of CD38 biomarker in combination with CD24, EpCAM, and ALDH for identification of H460 derived lung cancer stem cells.

Lung cancer is the number one killer among all cancers and is estimated to kill over 170,000 individual in 2010 in the United States. However, little is understood about the role of tumor initiating cells in the lung cancer and whether these cells play a major role in initiation, drug resistance, and metastases of this disease. We have isolated lungospheres from tumors grown in mice and have critically examined proposed biomarkers of lung cancer stem cells such as ALDH, EpCAM, CD133/1, CD133/2, CD24, and CD38, using global gene expression, flow cytometric analysis, and quantitative real time PCR.

The stability of breast cancer progenitor cells during cryopreservation: Maintenance of proliferation, self-renewal, and senescence characteristics.

Cancer stem cells are believed to be the driving force behind tumor progression and development. Despite extensive studies on the effects of cryopreservation on embryonic and hematopoietic stem cells there is only limited data that directly deals with in the cryopreservation of cancer stem cells. In this study, we looked at the effect of cryopreservation on breast cancer progenitor cells known as mammospheres, which are derived from the MCF7 breast carcinoma cell line.

Antigenic profiling of glioma cells to generate allogeneic vaccines or dendritic cell-based therapeutics.

Purpose: Allogeneic glioma cell lines that are partially matched to the patient at class I human leukocyte antigen (HLA) loci and that display tumor-associated antigens (TAA) or antigenic precursors [tumor antigen precursor proteins (TAPP)] could be used for generating whole tumor cell vaccines or, alternatively, for extraction of TAA peptides to make autologous dendritic cell vaccines.

Experimental Design: Twenty human glioma cell lines were characterized by molecular phenotyping and by flow cytometry for HLA class I antigen expression. Twelve of the 20 cell lines, as well as analyses of freshly resected glioma tissues, were further characterized for protein and/or mRNA expression of 16 tumor antigen precursor proteins or TAA.

Phase II study of belagenpumatucel-L, a transforming growth factor beta-2 antisense gene-modified allogeneic tumor cell vaccine in non-small-cell lung cancer.

Purpose: Belagenpumatucel-L is a nonviral gene-based allogeneic tumor cell vaccine that demonstrates enhancement of tumor antigen recognition as a result of transforming growth factor beta-2 inhibition.

Patients And Methods: We performed a randomized, dose-variable, phase II trial involving stages II, IIIA, IIIB, and IV non-small-cell lung cancer patients. Each patient received one of three doses (1.