Redox imbalance induced by docetaxel in the neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells: a study of docetaxel-induced neuronal damage.

Objectives: In cancer survivors, chemotherapy-associated adverse neurological effects are described as side effects in non-targeted tissue. We investigated the role of redox-imbalance in neuronal damage by a relative low dose of Docetaxel (DTX).

Methods: The neuroblastoma cells (SH-SY5Y cells) were exposed to DTX at a dose of 1.

Repurposing of drugs for triple negative breast cancer: an overview.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent cancer among women in the world and it remains a leading cause of cancer death in women globally. Among BCs, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive, and for its histochemical and molecular characteristics is also the one whose therapeutic opportunities are most limited. The REpurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) project investigates the potential use of off patent non-cancer drugs as sources of new cancer therapies.

ReDO_DB: the repurposing drugs in oncology database.

Repurposing is a drug development strategy that seeks to use existing medications for new indications. In oncology, there is an increased level of activity looking at the use of non-cancer drugs as possible cancer treatments. The Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) project has used a literature-based approach to identify licensed non-cancer drugs with published evidence of anticancer activity.

Propranolol and breast cancer-a work in progress.

The non-selective beta-blocker propranolol is a leading candidate for repurposing as a novel anti-cancer agent. Emerging evidence, including human data, suggests that there are multiple mechanisms of action particularly relevant to breast cancer. This editorial reviews a number of recent studies that show it has anti-metastatic activity that warrants clinical investigation, including investigation as a potential perioperative therapy in breast cancer.

Repurposing drugs in oncology (ReDO)-selective PDE5 inhibitors as anti-cancer agents.

Selective phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors, including sildenafil, tadalafil and vardenafil, are widely-used in the treatment of erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. They are also well-known as examples of successful drug repurposing in that they were initially developed for angina and only later developed for erectile dysfunction. However, these drugs may also be effective cancer treatments.

Does the oncology community have a rejection bias when it comes to repurposed drugs?

Among the various measures proposed to combat the challenge of financial toxicity in cancer care, an important strategy is the use of lower-priced drugs instead of expensive alternatives. However, the oncology community seems to either ignore or more readily reject cheaper drugs in cancer care compared to more expensive alternatives. In this commentary, we present three examples of lower-priced drugs rejected or ignored by the oncology community and contrast this with three expensive drugs where persistent optimism remained despite negative clinical trial results.

Omic Approach in Non-smoker Female with Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma Pinpoints to Germline Susceptibility and Personalized Medicine.

Purpose: Lung cancer is strongly associated to tobacco smoking. However, global statistics estimate that in females the proportion of lung cancer cases that is unrelated to tobacco smoking reaches fifty percent, making questionable the etiology of the disease.

Materials And Methods: A never-smoker female with primary EGFR/KRAS/ALK-negative squamous cell carcinoma of the lung and their normal sibswere subjected to a novel integrative "omic" approach using a pedigree-based model for discovering genetic factors leading to cancer in the absence of well-known environmental trigger.

Ethics in oncology: principles and responsibilities declared in the Italian Ragusa statement.

Cancer care involves many ethical issues. The need for more patient-centered healthcare together with the improved empowerment of every person diagnosed with cancer have been transposed by the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) and eventually translated in the Ragusa statement. This position paper describes the philosophy that lies beneath this document and its fundamental principles.

"Green Oncology": the Italian medical oncologists' challenge to reduce the ecological impact of their clinical activity.

For decades Western medicine has followed a biomedical model based on linear thinking and an individualized, disease-oriented doctor-patient relationship. Today this framework must be replaced by a biopsychosocial model based on complexity theory and a person-oriented medical team-patient relationship, taking into account the psychological and social determinants of health and disease. However, the new model is already proving no longer adequate or appropriate, and current events are urging us to develop an ecological model in which the medical team takes into account both individual illness and population health as a whole, since we are all part of the biosphere.

Use of metronomic chemotherapy in oncology: results from a national Italian survey.

Aims And Background: Metronomic chemotherapy refers to the administration of low doses of cytotoxic agents over a prolonged period of time with no or only short drug-free intervals. It is designed to overcome acquired tumor resistance to chemotherapy and reduce neo-angiogenesis despite a lower toxicity than with standard chemotherapy. The role of metronomic chemotherapy remains controversial, and its optimal therapeutic use has not yet been defined.

Triple-negative breast cancer: current state of the art.

Aims And Background: Triple-negative breast cancer, defined by a lack of expression of estrogen, progesterone and HER-2 receptors, accounts for 15% of all types of breast cancer. The subtype mainly includes a molecularly distinct subgroup, the basal-like subtype (accounting for 75% of all cases). We attempt to define triple-negative breast cancer and compare it with basal-like disease, review the molecular, pathologic and clinical features of triple-negative disease, provide an overview of a retrospective subset analysis of clinical trials, and outline ongoing therapeutic trials and possible paths for future research.

Lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the ovary.

Only one case of lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the ovary has been reported so far. A new case is herein illustrated in a 69-year-old woman: an ovarian mass adherent to urinary bladder dome with peritoneal carcinomatosis. Histologically, undifferentiated carcinomatous areas were intermingled with abundant lymphoid tissue.

Art therapy with cancer patients during chemotherapy sessions: an analysis of the patients' perception of helpfulness.

Objective: Art therapy has been shown to be helpful to cancer patients at different stages in the course of their illness, especially during isolation for bone marrow transplantation, during radiotherapy treatment, and after treatment. The aim of this study is twofold: (1) to assess whether patients during chemotherapy sessions perceive art therapy as helpful and (2) to outline in which way art therapy is perceived as helpful.

Method: 157 cancer patients attending an Oncology Day Hospital (Siena, Italy) met the art therapist during their chemotherapy sessions.

Factors predictive of response to hormone therapy in breast cancer.

Aims And Background: Approximately half of metastatic breast cancers expressing estrogen and/or progesterone receptors responds to endocrine therapy, and postoperative adjuvant endocrine therapy provides about a 50% reduction in the development of recurrent disease. A number of publications have focused on the correlation of biomarkers, in particular estrogen and progesterone receptors and HER-2/neu status as well as different gene profiles, multigene assays and genetic polymorphisms with response to hormone therapy. The purpose of this article is to review the literature to identify biological markers predictive of response to tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors.

Long-term results of conventional radiotherapy versus accelerated hyperfractionated radiotherapy versus concomitant radiotherapy and chemotherapy in locoregionally advanced carcinoma of the oropharynx.

Aims And Background: To compare conventional fractionation (CF) radiation therapy (RT), arm A, versus a split-course accelerated hyperfractionated schedule (S-AHF), arm B, versus CFRT plus concomitant chemotherapy (CT), arm C, in terms of five-year survival and toxicity for squamous cell tumors of the oropharynx.

Methods And Study Design: Between January 1993 and June 1998, 192 previously untreated patients with stage III and IV oropharyngeal carcinoma (excluding T1N1 and T2N1) were enrolled in a multicenter randomized phase III trial (ORO 93-01). In arms A and C, 66 to 70 Gy in 33 to 35 fractions was administered five days a week for six and a half to seven weeks.

Locoregionally advanced carcinoma of the oropharynx: conventional radiotherapy vs. accelerated hyperfractionated radiotherapy vs. concomitant radiotherapy and chemotherapy--a multicenter randomized trial.

Purpose: To compare conventional fractionation radiation therapy (RT), Arm A, vs. split-course accelerated hyperfractionated RT (S-AHF), Arm B, vs. conventional fractionation RT plus concomitant chemotherapy (CT), Arm C, in terms of survival and toxicity for advanced, unresectable epidermoid tumors of oropharynx.