Significantly mutated genes and regulatory pathways in SCLC-a meta-analysis.

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for approximately 15% of all lung cancers and demands effective targeted therapeutic strategies. In this meta-analysis study, we aim to identify significantly mutated genes and regulatory pathways to help us better understand the progression of SCLC and to identify potential biomarkers. Besides ranking genes based on their mutation frequencies, we sought to identify statistically significant mutations in SCLC with the MutSigCV software.

Integrating Domain Specific Knowledge and Network Analysis to Predict Drug Sensitivity of Cancer Cell Lines.

One of fundamental challenges in cancer studies is that varying molecular characteristics of different tumor types may lead to resistance to certain drugs. As a result, the same drug can lead to significantly different results in different types of cancer thus emphasizing the need for individualized medicine. Individual prediction of drug response has great potential to aid in improving the clinical outcome and reduce the financial costs associated with prescribing chemotherapy drugs to which the patient's tumor might be resistant.

Dual-responsive polymer-coated iron oxide nanoparticles for drug delivery and imaging applications.

We reported the synthesis and characterization of dual-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-acrylamide-chitosan) (PAC)-coated magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) for controlled and targeted drug delivery and imaging applications. The PAC-MNPs size was about 150nm with 70% iron mass content and excellent superparamagnetic properties. PAC-MNPs loaded with anti-cancer drug doxorubicin showed dual-responsive drug release characteristics with the maximum release of drugs at 40°C (∼78%) than at 37°C (∼33%) and at pH of 6 (∼55%) than at pH of 7.