• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.8
• /
• pp.3163-3166
• /
• 2015

Background: Patients with refractory or relapsed multiple myeloma are considered to have a very poor prognosis, and new regimens are needed to improve this setting. Pomalidomide is a new immunomodulatory drug with high in vitro potency. Immunomodulatory drugs are hypothesized to act through multiple mechanisms. Here we performed a systemic analysis to evaluate pomalidomide-based chemotherapy (pomalidomide in combination with low-dose dexamethasone) as salvage treatment for patients with refractory and relapsed multiple myeloma. Methods: Clinical studies evaluating the efffectiveness of pomalidomide based regimens on response and safety for patients with refractory and relapsed multiple myeloma were identified using a predefined search strategy. Pooled response rate (RR) of treatment were calculated. Results: For pomalidomide based regimens, 4 clinical studies which including 291 patients with refractory and relapsed multiple myeloma were considered eligible for inclusion. Systemic analysis suggested that, in all patients, pooled RR was 41.2% (120/291). Major adverse effects were hematologic toxicity, including grade 1 or 2 anemia, leucopenia and thrombocytopenia with pomalidomide based treatment. No treatment related death occurred. Conclusion: This pooled analysis suggests that pomalidomide in combination with low-dose dexamethasone is active with good tolerability in treating patients with refractory or relapsed multiple myeloma.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.10
• /
• pp.4147-4156
• /
• 2015

Lung cancer is a serious health problem and leading cause of death worldwide due to its high incidence and mortality. More than 80% of lung cancers feature a non-small cell histology. Over few decades, systemic chemotherapy and surgery are the only treatment options in this type of tumor but due to their limited efficacy and overall poor survival of patients, there is an urge to develop newer therapeutic strategies which circumvent the problems. Enhanced knowledge of translational science and molecular biology have revealed that lung tumors carry diverse driver gene mutations and adopt different intracellular pathways leading to carcinogenesis. Hence, the development of targeted agents against molecular subgroups harboring critical mutations is an attractive approach for therapeutic treatment. Targeted therapies are clearly more preferred nowadays over systemic therapies because they target tumor specific molecules resulting with enhanced activity and reduced toxicity to normal tissues. Thus, this review encompasses comprehensive updates on targeted therapies for the driver mutations in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the potential challenges of acquired drug resistance faced i n the field of targeted therapy along with the imminent newer treatment modalities against lung cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.24
• /
• pp.10557-10563
• /
• 2015

It is well known that conventional chemotherapy and radiation therapy can result in toxicity to both normal cells and tumor cells, which causes limitations in the application of these therapeutic strategies for cancer control. Novel and effective therapeutic strategies for cancers with no or low toxicity for normal cells are a high priority. Therefore, natural products with anticancer activity have gained more and more attention due to their favorable safety and efficacy profiles. Pre-clinical and clinical studies have demonstrated that several representative natural compounds such as resveratrol, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, curcumin, allicin and ginsenosides have obvious anticancer potential. In this article, we summarize autophagy-associated targeting pathways of such natural products for inducing the death of cancer cells, and discuss the core autophagic pathways involved in cancer treatments. Recent advances in the discovery, evaluation and exploitation of natural compounds as therapeutic agents for cancers will provide references and support in pre-clinical and clinical application of novel natural drugs for the treatment of primary and metastatic tumors in the future.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.315-320
• /
• 2006

Silymarin showed P-glycoprptein(P-gp) inhibitory activity as much as verapamil, a well-known P-gp inhibitor, by decreasing $IC_{50}$ value of daunomycin(DNM)($16.0{\pm}0.7{\mu}M$), increasing the DNM accumulation($224.9{\pm}3.2%$), and decreasing DNM efflux($58.5{\pm}6.7%$), concurrently. In this study, we clarified the mechanism of action of silymarin for P-gp inhibitory function. First, silymarin may bind to the ATP-binding site and thus, prevent ATP hydrolysis. Second, the P-gp inhibitory activity of silymarin is not related to changing the cellular P-gp level. Third, the cytotoxicity of silymarin was increased in the presence of verapamil, reflecting that silymarin is a competent P-gp substrate against verapamil in the P-gp-overexpressed adriamycin-resistant MCF-7 breast cancer(MCF-7/ADR) cells. Conclusively, silymarin had the P-gp inhibitory activity through the action of competent binding to the P-gp substrate-binding site. Therefore, silymarin can be a good candidate for safe and effective MDR reversing agent in clinical chemotherapy by administering concomitantly with anticancer drugs.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.93-101
• /
• 2002

The extract of European mistletoe ( Viscum album, L) has been used in adjuvant chemotherapy of cancer and mistletoe lectins are considered to be major active components. The present work was performed to investigate the effects of Korean mistletoe lectin (Viscum album L. coleratum agglutinin, VCA) on proliferation and apoptosis of human hepatoma cells as well as the underlying mechamisns for these effects. We showed that VCA induced atoptosis in both SK-Hep-1 and Hep 3B (p53-negative) cells through p53- and p21 -independent pathways. VCA induced apoptosis by down-regulation of Bcl-2 and by up-regulation of Bax functioning upstream of caspase-3 in both cell lines. In addition, we observed down-regulation of telomerase activity in both VCA-treated cells. Our results provide direct evidence of the anti-tumor potential of this biological response which comes from inhibition of telomerase and consequent inducing apoptosis. VCA-induced apoptosis is regulated by mitochondria controlled pathway independently of p53. These findings are important for the therapy with preparation of mistletoe because they show that telomerase-dependent mechanism can be targeted by VCA in human hepatocarcinoma. Taken together, our results suggest that the VCA, considered as a telomerase-inhibitor, can be envisaged as a candidate for enhancing sensitivity of conventional anticancer drugs.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.32 no.10
• /
• pp.3666-3674
• /
• 2011

Overexpression of P-glycoprotein (Pgp) is associated with multidrug resistance (MDR) of tumor cells to a number of chemotherapeutic drugs. Pgp inhibitors have been shown to effectively reverse Pgp-mediated MDR. We prepared a series of phenoxy-N-phenylacetamide derivatives and tested for their ability to inhibit Pgp as potential MDR reversing agents, using a Pgp over-expressing MCF-7/ADR cell line. Some of the synthesized compounds exhibited moderate to potent reversal activity. Of note, compound 4o showed a 3.0-fold increased inhibition compared with verapamil, a well-known Pgp inhibitor. In addition, co-treatment of the representative compound 4o and a substrate anticancer agent doxorubicin resulted in a remarkable increase in doxorubicin's antitumor effect and inhibition of DNA synthesis in the MCF-7/ADR cell line. Taken together, these findings suggest that compound 4o could be a useful lead for development of a novel Pgp inhibitor for treatment of MDR.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.40 no.5
• /
• pp.532-538
• /
• 1996

In cancer chemotherapy, it is necessary to control the phamacokinetic behavior of an antitumor drug for effective treatment. Therefore, two 5-fluorouracil derivatives synthesize d with N-a-cyloxycarbonyl derivatives {1-(N-t-butyloxycarbonyl)leucyloxymethyl-5-FU(BLFU) and 1-(N-t-carbobenzyloxymethyl)leucyloxymethyl-5-FU(CLFU)}. prodrugs of 5-fluorouracil, antitumor agent, were loaded into liposome of different lipid compositions. After liposomal drugs were injected intramuscularly, their pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution were assessed. The $AUC_{0{\to}{\infty}$ values were 1.29, 72.50, 85.57, 66.40 and 103.60${\mu}$g.hr/ml for 5-FU, BLFU, CLFU, BLFU- and CLFU-loaded liposome, respectively. 5-FU was distributed to spleen and liver with a maximal concentration after 1 hr and eliminated after 24 hr. But both prodrugs and dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine liposome entrapped prodrugs were distributed to spleen and liver at a lower concentration but maintained for a long time with a relatively high concentration in lung. Especially, liposome-entrapped CLFU was distributed to lung with a maximal concentration after 1 hr and redistributed to spleen increasingly, while the concentration of liposome-entrapped BLFU in lung reached a maximal level after 12 hr.

• Proceedings of the Korea Environmental Mutagen Society Conference
• /
• 2004.05a
• /
• pp.27-29
• /
• 2004

Drug transporters play an essential role in the absorption, distribution and elimination of clinical drugs, nutrients and toxicants. The importance of the transporters is exampled by therapeutic failure in cancer chemotherapy that is mainly caused by the overexpression of multidrug resistance (MDR)-related transporters. In addition, the transporters may involve in drug-drug interactions that lead to serious adverse drug responses and some transporters also contribute to inter-individual variation in drug responses. As an effort to understand the mechanism underlying the inter-individual variation of transporters activity, genetic and environmental factors influencing the expression or function of the transporters have extensively explored through last decade. Among them, genetic polymorphism of drug transporter encoding genes has generated much interest since the discovery of functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of MDR1 gene. Besides drug transporters, xenobiotic receptors also modulate drug disposition by regulating the transcription of drug metabolizing enzymes and drug transporters. Among many xenobiotic receptors, pregnane X receptor (PXR) and constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) are two most well characterized since these receptors show wide substrate specificities and regulate the expression of various enzymes involved in drug disposition. Recently, several functional genetic polymorphisms were reported in PXR coding gene. In the present study, genetic polymorphisms of two drug transporters, MDR1 and BCRP, and two xenobiotic receptors, PXR and CAR, were investigated in Korean population.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.100-104
• /
• 1993

Malignant tumors of the paranasal sinuses are quite rare entity, with maxillary neoplasms accounting for less than 1 percent of all head and neck malignancies. When considering the paranasal sinuses alone, 77 percent of cancers arise in the maxillary sinuses. There is no situation more frustrating than the management of the patients with chronic facial pain due to cancer. The initial step in managing patients with cancer pain is the use of oncologic therapy in the form of radiotherapy, surgery, chemotherapy, alone or combined, either to effect a cure or decrease the size of the tumor and thus decrease or eliminate the pain. When oncologic therapy is ineffective in providing relief, the pain must be treated by one or more of the followings: Systemic analgesics and adjuvant drugs, psychologic techniques of analgesia, neurostimulating techniques, neuroablative surgical procedures, regional analgesia with local anesthetics or neurolytic blocks. An 82-year old patient had severe pain of the orbital and infraorbital region due to squamous cell carcinoma of the maxillary sinus. We successfully treated this patient with the percutaneous retrogasserian ethanol gangliolysis by a H$\ddot{a}$rtel approach, and the analgesia lasts until the death of the patient.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.26 no.8
• /
• pp.1490-1503
• /
• 2016

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in the world. Although 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is the representative chemotherapy drug for colorectal cancer, it has therapeutic limits due to its chemoresistant characteristics. Colorectal cancer cells can develop into cancer stem cells (CSCs) with self-renewal potential, thereby causing malignant tumors. The human gastrointestinal tract contains a complex gut microbiota that is essential for the host's homeostasis. Recently, many studies have reported correlations between gut flora and the onset, progression, and treatment of CRC. The present study confirms that the most representative symbiotic bacteria in humans, Lactobacillus plantarum (LP) supernatant (SN), selectively inhibit the characteristics of 5-FU-resistant colorectal cancer cells (HT-29 and HCT-116). LP SN inhibited the expression of the specific markers CD44, 133, 166, and ALDH1 of CSCs. The combination therapy of LP SN and 5-FU inhibited the survival of CRCs and led to cell death by inducing caspase-3 activity. The combination therapy of LP SN and 5-FU induced an anticancer mechanism by inactivating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling of chemoresistant CRC cells, and reducing the formation and size of colonospheres. In conclusion, our results show that LP SN can enhance the therapeutic effect of 5-FU for colon cancer, and reduce colorectal cancer stem-like cells by reversing the development of resistance to anticancer drugs. This implies that probiotic substances may be useful therapeutic alternatives as biotherapeutics for chemoresistant CRC.