Three papers published this month in the open access general medical journal PLoS Medicine investigate how tumors respond to a an important class of drugs used in cancer chemotherapy, known as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors.

Over four times as many patients with a rapidly fatal type of brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), who are treated with the chemotherapy drug temozolomide (TMZ) and radiation therapy, can live for four years after diagnosis, compared to those who receive only radiation treatment.

Scientists at Sunnybrook have new information that may help to improve the use of anti-cancer drugs designed to block the growth of new blood vessels in tumors, a process called angiogenesis that is critical to tumor growth.

Dutch researcher Cristianne Rijcken has developed a new type of biodegradable nanoparticle. The spherical structures can encapsulate various fat-soluble medicines, which makes it easier to target tumour tissue. These nanoballs are highly promising carriers for the controlled release of anticancer drugs. Rijcken recently gained her doctorate for this research from Utrecht University.

Researchers report positive results from a Phase I/II clinical trial of a novel anti-cancer drug which offers two modes of action. In 26 patients with advanced solid tumors, treatment with ECO-4601 is safe and well tolerated, including at doses yielding plasma concentrations above the expected therapeutic threshold, says Pierre Falardeau, Ph.D., chief operating officer at Thallion Pharmaceuticals in Montreal, Canada.

Although all cancers are not alike, most share common causes, whether it is the result of a genetic mutation or faulty biochemical signaling pathway. For that reason, drugs developed specifically for one disease might have an impact on many others.

While some targeted therapies – drugs developed to attack specific molecules in the critical chemical pathways occurring within cancer cells – work well by themselves, increasingly researchers are finding that they work better when teamed with other targeted and conventional therapies.

A potent and selective inhibitor of the mitotic kinesin CENP-E (GSK923295A) demonstrates a novel mechanism of inhibiting tumor cell proliferation and shows activity against a broad panel of human tumor cell lines in vitro: Abstract A 111.

With the discovery of suitable molecular targets – cellular molecules along pathways crucial for sustaining the life of cancer cells – comes the perplexing dilemma of where to find the next therapeutics that will bind to and disable those targets. While the possibilities for drug designs are near-limitless, the methods to screen drug databases and repositories are often problematic or ill-suited for the particular needs of researchers.

Laboratory experiments have previously shown that cancer cells overproduce an enzyme, heparanase, which splits the body’s own polysaccharide heparan sulfate into shorter fragments.

The breast cancer drugs called taxanes, which include Taxol (paclitaxel) and Taxotere (docetaxel), increase survival rates when used as part of chemotherapy following surgery for cancers that have not spread, according to a new review of the research.

A Brisbane medical specialist says science has not explained why teenagers and young adults do not respond as well as expected to cancer treatments.