Utility of Glioblastoma Patient-Derived Orthotopic Xenografts in Drug Discovery and Personalized Therapy.

Despite substantial effort and resources dedicated to drug discovery and development, new anticancer agents often fail in clinical trials. Among many reasons, the lack of reliable predictive preclinical cancer models is a fundamental one. For decades, immortalized cancer cell cultures have been used to lay the groundwork for cancer biology and the quest for therapeutic responses.

Synthesis and Characterization of Novel BMI1 Inhibitors Targeting Cellular Self-Renewal in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents one of the most lethal cancers worldwide due to therapy resistance and disease recurrence. Tumor relapse following treatment could be driven by the persistence of liver cancer stem-like cells (CSCs). The protein BMI1 is a member of the polycomb epigenetic factors governing cellular self-renewal, proliferation, and stemness maintenance.

Corrigendum: Personalized Medicine Approaches in Prostate Cancer Employing Patient Derived 3D Organoids and Humanized Mice.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2016.

Personalized Medicine Approaches in Prostate Cancer Employing Patient Derived 3D Organoids and Humanized Mice.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common malignancy and the second most common cause of cancer death in Western men. Despite its prevalence, PCa has proven very difficult to propagate in vitro. PCa represents a complex organ-like multicellular structure maintained by the dynamic interaction of tumoral cells with parenchymal stroma, endothelial and immune cells, and components of the extracellular matrix (ECM).

BMI-1 Targeting Interferes with Patient-Derived Tumor-Initiating Cell Survival and Tumor Growth in Prostate Cancer.

Purpose: Current prostate cancer management calls for identifying novel and more effective therapies. Self-renewing tumor-initiating cells (TICs) hold intrinsic therapy resistance and account for tumor relapse and progression. As BMI-1 regulates stem cell self-renewal, impairing BMI-1 function for TIC-tailored therapies appears to be a promising approach.