Publications by authors named "Iris Ertl"

Urachal cancer (UrC) is a rare disease which is mostly diagnosed late due to symptoms caused by its local invasion to the urinary bladder. Given the lack of clinical trials and guideline recommendations for systemic treatment, a molecularly informed precision oncology approach is a viable option for UrC already in the early lines of systemic treatment. While single case experiences may provide valuable reference for later decision-making, well-documented clinical experience with off-label targeted treatments is limited to a few patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • SWI/SNF complexes are multi-subunit chromatin remodelers linked to disruptions in over 20% of human tumors, with specific attention given to the SMARCD family in prostate cancer.
  • A study using immunohistochemistry on tissue samples found that SMARCD1 and SMARCD3 protein levels were significantly higher in tumor tissues compared to benign tissues, particularly in lymph node metastases.
  • While SMARCD1 did not correlate with clinical outcomes, low SMARCD3 levels were associated with increased progression to metastasis, suggesting potential roles as biomarkers in prostate tumorigenesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Current standard-of-care systemic therapy options for locally advanced and metastatic bladder cancer (BC), which are predominantly based on cisplatin-gemcitabine combinations, are limited by significant treatment failure rates and frailty-based patient ineligibility. We previously addressed the urgent clinical need for better-tolerated BC therapeutic strategies using a drug screening approach, which identified outstanding antineoplastic activity of clofarabine in preclinical models of BC. To further assess clofarabine as a potential BC therapy component, we conducted head-to-head comparisons of responses to clofarabine versus gemcitabine in preclinical in vitro and in vivo models of BC, complemented by in silico analyses.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose Of Review: Bladder cancer (BC) is a highly heterogenous disease comprising tumours of various molecular subtypes and histologic variants. This heterogeneity represents a major challenge for the development of novel therapeutics. Preclinical models that closely mimic in vivo tumours and reflect their diverse biology are indispensable for the identification of therapies with specific activity in various BC subtypes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Previous studies indicate that SWI/SNF complexes, involved in chromatin remodeling, have both tumor-suppressing and oncogenic roles in prostate cancer.
  • The SMARCD family members (BAF60A, BAF60B, BAF60C) are key components that regulate androgen receptor-driven genes and play a role in the progression to castration-resistant prostate cancer.
  • The findings highlight the complex functions of SMARCD proteins in prostate carcinogenesis, emphasizing their dual roles and the need to consider these interactions in developing targeted therapies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Squamous cell carcinoma of the penis (PSC) is a rare disease with limited information on the molecular events leading to malignant transformation. In a third of PSC cases, presence of human papilloma virus (HPV) is found. The APOBEC3 family of proteins is known to play a significant role in defense against HPV infection, but their role in PSC is largely unknown.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The heterogeneity of bladder cancers (BCs) is a major challenge for the development of novel therapies. However, given the high rates of recurrence and/or treatment failure, the identification of effective therapeutic strategies is an urgent clinical need.

Objective: We aimed to establish a model system for drug identification/repurposing in order to identify novel therapies for the treatment of BC.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) immunotherapy, the standard adjuvant intravesical therapy for some intermediate and most high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancers (NMIBCs), suffers from a heterogenous response rate. Molecular markers to help guide responses are scarce and currently not used in the clinical setting.

Methods: To identify novel biomarkers and pathways involved in response to BCG immunotherapy, we performed a genome-wide DNA methylation analysis of NMIBCs before BCG therapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose Of Review: To acquaint urologists with aristolochic acid nephropathy, an iatrogenic disease that poses a distinct threat to global public health. In China alone, 100 million people may currently be at risk. We illustrate the power of molecular epidemiology in establishing the cause of this disease.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose Of Review: Fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) signalling, especially induced by FGFR3, is a crucial factor in the pathogenesis of urothelial carcinoma and was therefore extensively studied over the last decades. In this review, we summarize the most relevant findings of the past two years.

Recent Findings: Recent studies support the concept that FGFR3 mediates a pathway of urothelial carcinogenesis associated with low malignant potential.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose Of Review: Testicular germ cell tumours (TGCTs) exhibit, in contrast to other cancer types, a relatively low mutational burden. However, numerous epigenetic alterations have been shown to impact TGCT. In this review, we summarize the most relevant findings of the past 2 years.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The recurrence rate of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) is up to 60% within the first year of therapy. Accurate risk stratification is necessary for patient counselling, follow-up scheduling and individualized therapeutic decision making. Current prognostic models rely on clinicopathologic features, but their discrimination remains limited when in external cohorts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Bladder cancer (BCa) is the fifth most frequently diagnosed cancer worldwide and is, in fact, the most expensive cancer on a per-patient to treat basis. There is a critical need to implement new tests into clinical practice to improve the quality of clinical care, decrease unnecessary invasive therapies and ultimately save costs. Currently, no molecular or genetic biomarker has been widely integrated into daily clinical practice.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Notch signaling is an evolutionarily conserved signal transduction pathway that is essential for metazoan development. Upon ligand binding, the Notch intracellular domain (NOTCH ICD) translocates into the nucleus and forms a complex with the transcription factor RBPJ (also known as CBF1 or CSL) to activate expression of Notch target genes. In the absence of a Notch signal, RBPJ acts as a transcriptional repressor.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

SWI/SNF ATP-dependent chromatin-remodeling complexes have been related to several cellular processes such as transcription, regulation of chromosomal stability, and DNA repair. The Caenorhabditis elegans gene ham-3 (also known as swsn-2.1) and its paralog swsn-2.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Genes coding for members of the Sm-like (LSm) protein family are conserved through evolution from prokaryotes to humans. These proteins have been described as forming homo- or heterocomplexes implicated in a broad range of RNA-related functions. To date, the nuclear LSm2-8 and the cytoplasmic LSm1-7 heteroheptamers are the best characterized complexes in eukaryotes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_session75dcb633tv4mh2friepl3vvpg8t44vi0): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once