前沿科技及其它

Decades of hypothesis-driven research have identified candidate targets for cancer therapy and chemoprevention. Recently, genomic, proteomic, and tissue-based microarray approaches have made possible another scientific approach. This is one that interrogates compre ...

The use of biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) for controlled drug delivery has shown significant therapeutic potential. Concurrently, targeted delivery technologies are becoming increasingly important as a scientific area of investigation. In cancer, target ...

In recent years, fluorescent silica nanoparticles (FSNPs) received immense interest in cancer imaging. FSNPs are a new class of engineered optical probes consisting of silica NPs loaded with fluorescent dye molecules. These probes exhibit some attractive features, such as photost ...

This chapter describes the methodology by which mAb-F19-conjugated gold nanoparticles were prepared and used to label human pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Specifically, gold nanoparticles were coated with dithiol bearing hetero-bifunctional PEG (polyethylene glycol), a ...

Pancreatic cancer is generally detected at later stages with a poor prognosis and a high-mortality rate. Development of theranostic imaging agents that noninvasively target pancreatic cancer by gene expression and deliver therapies directly to malignant cells could greatly imp ...

During nanoparticle system in drug delivery, liposomes were perhaps the best characterized and one of the first to be developed. Stealth liposomes (SLs), containing polyethylene glycol-conjugated lipid, which can form a hydro-layer around liposomes bilayer, have a long circulation ...

In this chapter, we outline the protocols for PEGylation of some drug carriers, such as dendrimer, polymeric nanoparticles, liposomes, for systemic delivery. PEGylation simply refers to the modification of particle surface by covalently grafting, entrapping, or adsorbing PEG chai ...

Aptamers are DNA or RNA oligonucleotide sequences that selectively bind to their target with high affinity and specificity. They are obtained using an iterative selection protocol called SELEX. Several small molecules and proteins have been used as targets. Recently, a variant of this me ...

Nanoparticulate medicines offer the advantage of allowing delivery of large quantities of unmodified drug within the same particle. Nanoparticle uptake by cancer cells can, however, be compromised due to the large size and hydrophilicity of the particle. To circumvent cell penetrat ...

Inhalation of aerosols represents the most frequently used drug delivery method for the treatment of lung diseases. To further improve drug efficacy in the lungs, it may be advantageous to control aerosol deposition and target aerosols to diseased or disease-causing lung tissue and cell ...

In this chapter, we describe the variability of cancer occurrence by using measures of incidence, mortality, prevalence, and survival, according to demographic characteristics such as age, sex, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity, as well as geographic location and time perio ...

Breast cancer is the commonest cancer in most countries in Asia. The incidence rates remain low, although increasing at a more rapid rate than in western countries, due to changes in the lifestyle and diet. There are many differences between breast cancer in Asia compared with western countries. T ...

Cancer patients have a 20% higher risk of new primary cancer compared with the general population. Approximately one third of cancer survivors aged 60 years were diagnosed more than once with another cancer. As the number of cancer survivors and of older people increases, occurrence of multiple ...

It is widely accepted that there is a differential burden of cancer in certain populations, including racial/ ethnic minorities, the medically underserved, and older adults. Differences in survival, stage at diagnosis, and risk of death have been identified in these populations for canc ...

Screening should allow for the anticipation of cancer diagnosis at an earlier stage, when curative treatment is possible. Screening for cervical, large bowel, and breast cancer were shown to be effective in reducing mortality. The wide acceptance of the screening concept led to the wide diff ...

To address the diverse features of the cancer epidemic, scientists have continually been seeking out different aspects of the cancer problem from cell proliferation at the microenvironment of the cancerous cells to large-scale diversities and variations seen in the incidence of canc ...

Despite many advances in cancer therapy, metastatic disease continues to be incurable in the majority of cancer patients. There ia an need for more efficient and less toxic treatments is this setting. Oncolytic virotherapy represents a novel promising direction in the treatment of cancer. ...

Dose-limiting toxicity of chemotherapeutic agents, i.e., myelosuppression, can limit their effectiveness. The transfer and expression of drug-resistance genes might decrease the risks associated with acute hematopoietic toxicity. Protection of hematopoietic stem/pr ...

Oncolytic or replication-selective viruses have been used as powerful tools for the delivery of therapeutic genes to tumors. Because these vectors are capable of replicating within the tumor, the therapeutic gene is amplified within the target tissue itself, resulting in the spread of the ...

Current mainstays in cancer treatment such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal manipulation, and even targeted therapies such as trastuzumab (Herceptin) for breast cancer or erlotinib (Tarceva) for non-small cell lung cancer are limited by lack of efficacy, cellular res ...