Cervical cancer, a potentially preventable disease, remains the second most common malignancy in women worldwide. Human papillomavirus is the single most important etiological agent in cervical cancer. HPV contributes to neoplastic progression through the action of two viral on ...
The lack of a robust small-animal model for hepatitis C virus (HCV) has hindered the discovery and development of novel drug treatments for HCV infections. We developed a reproducible and easily accessible xenograft mouse efficacy model in which HCV RNA replication is accurately monitor ...
A link between chronic inflammation and cancer has been known for well over a century. However, direct evidence detailing the role of inflammation in carcinogenesis has been slow forthcoming. In Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL), a malignancy which has many features reminiscent of chronic inflamm ...
Molecular diagnostic adjuncts could improve the specificity of cervical cancer screening. Since persistent infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is found in virtually 100% of cervical cancer cases, testing for markers of HPV integration may have a role in identifying underlyi ...
Animal models are necessary to reproduce the complex host, microbial and environmental influences associated with infectious carcinogenesis of the digestive system. Today, mouse models are preferred by most researchers because of cost efficiencies, rapid reproduction, cho ...
Helicobacter pylori is the most frequent cause of infection-induced cancer worldwide. Gastric carcino-genesis is the consequence of the important and life-long inflammation induced by H. pylori in the stomach. Gastric carcinogenesis, can be studied in many ways. In this chapter, we foc ...
Chronic inflammation is a well-recognized risk factor for the development of human cancer. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, is a typical longstanding inflammatory disease of the colon with increased risk for the development of col ...
Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from existing vessels, is tightly linked to chronic inflammation and cancer. Angiogenesis is one of the molecular events bridging the gap between inflammation and cancer. One of the events linking inflammation and cancer is an increase in ce ...
YKL-40, a member of ‘mammalian chitinase-like proteins’, is secreted by macrophages, neutrophils, chondrocytes, endothelial-, vascular smooth muscle-, and cancer cells. High serum YKL-40 is a biomar-ker of poor prognosis in patients with cancer, inflammation and increased tissue re ...
Antigen-specific T cells play a key role in cellular immune response against cancer. The ability to isolate, maintain, and characterize tumor-specific T cells is a prerequisite to studying anticancer immune response and developing novel strategies for cancer immunotherapy. Howev ...
There is an increasing awareness of the role of inflammation in cancer. Immune responses can limit the growth of some tumors, but paradoxically, may promote the growth of others. Cytokines are critical mediators of both the innate and the adaptive immune responses. In this chapter, we will descri ...
The ability to monitor gene expression in experimental and clinical samples is an essential element of modern molecular biology and cell biology research. However with the advent of a systems biology approach toward understanding cell and cancer biology, analysis of expression of a sing ...
Matrix invasion by a tumor cell requires the degradation of components in the extracellular matrix (ECM) as one of the initial steps in the metastatic process. Tumors cells achieve ECM invasion primarily through the overexpression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), a family of enzymes ...
Angiogenesis is an important marker for tumor growth, development, and metastasis. There are many studies to detect angiogenesis, for instance by microvessel density (MVD),though several of the studies to MVD measurement show opposite results. Measurement of MVD is a nontime-related ...
Histology, as a mean of tissue visualization on a cellular level, is a fundamental tool in the study of cancer. The need for simultaneous delivery of quality histological material for pathological evaluation and subsequent genomic and proteomic studies, however, requires modificati ...
Target identification of novel therapeutic drugs is pivotal for the establishment of (1) new anticancer regimens, (2) to control side effects of the drugs, and (3) to identify appropriate combinations with established drugs. Here, we describe several in vitro assays applicable to charac ...
The introduction of new high-throughput methodologies such as DNA microarrays constitutes a major breakthrough in cancer research. The unprecedented amount of data produced by such technologies has opened new avenues for interrogating living systems although, at the same time, it h ...
Preoperative treatment strategies are now recommended for a variety of human cancers. Unfortunately, the response of individual tumors to a preoperative treatment is not uniform, and ranges from complete regression to resistance. This poses a considerable clinical dilemma, beca ...
Gene profiling and expression analysis using microarrays have made a significant impact on our biological understanding of prostate cancer. The procedures for generating high-quality expression data from prostate cancer cell lines and tumors are not trivial. However, during the p ...
High levels of RNases present in the normal pancreas and the abundance of desmoplastic stroma of most pancreatic cancers have traditionally caused difficulty in the extraction of high-quality RNA and gene expression profiling from pancreatic tissues. However, a variety of innovati ...