Current Cancer Therapy Reviews - Volume 18, Issue 3, 2022

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), one of the most common types of oral cancer, is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. OSCC is typically treated with a multidisciplinary approach that includes surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation after a definitive oral cancer diagnosis. Conventional chemotherapy drugs, on the other hand, may be ineffective and have a variety of side effects. Many techniques for treating and diagnosing various types of oral cancer have been proven and approved, while others are currently being researched in clinical trials. This mini-review aimed to explain the current preclinical status of nano-based techniques for diagnosing and treating OSCC successfully. This mini compilation also highlights new theranostics approaches for treating squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Cancer biomarker detection has also been improved thanks to nanotechnology, which has made it faster and more sensitive. Various nanoparticles have been used as innovation drivers to overcome these constraints and enhance in situ drug delivery.

Background: Herbal medicines have been used for thousands of years due to their pharmacological activities against different types of human disorders. The biological effectiveness and pharmacological activities of herbal medicines are mainly due to the presence of different kinds of phytoconstituents, commonly called secondary metabolites. Isoflavones are naturally present in different types of plants and food materials, and most of these phytocompounds have a wide range of biological activities, including anti-tumor, anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, antiviral, anti-oxidant, and estrogen-like activities. Methods: Irigenin isolated from the rhizome of Belamcanda chinensis and the genus Iris showed a wide range of biological activities. Due to the huge biological potential and the therapeutic benefits of irigenin in medicine, here in the present investigation, scientific research data on irigenin has been collected from different literature sources (Science Direct, Google Scholar, PubMed, Google) and analyzed in order to know the therapeutic potential of irigenin in medicine. Scientific data on the pharmacological activities of irigenin have been collected from Science Direct, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Google databases and analyzed in the present work. The importance of different analytical techniques for the isolation and separation of irigenin has also been discussed and presented in the current work. Results: Scientific data analysis of different research works revealed the biological importance of irigenin in medicine. Irigenin is an O-methylated isoflavone found to be present in the Belamcanda chinensis and genus Iris. Scientific data analysis revealed the biological importance of irigenin against gastric cancer, lung carcinoma, prostate cancer, breast cancer, endometrial cancer, diabetic complications, inflammation, and cardiac injury. Analytical data on irigenin revealed the importance of analytical techniques for the separation, isolation, and identification of irigenin from various biological samples. Conclusion: Scientific data analysis of different research works revealed the biological importance and therapeutic potential of irigenin in medicine.

Background: Currently, synthetic therapeutic drugs used in cancer treatment are targeting cancerous tissues that also affect noncancerous dividing cells, which exhibit side effects that decrease the immune response and affect the quality of life. Traditional/ natural products are well proven for a variety of therapeutically active chemical constituents. Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) is one of the bioactive molecules found in the natural product propolis is now attracting researcher’s interest because of its anticancer potential. Objective: The aim of this review is to summarize and critically analyze the current evidence on the therapeutic effects of CAPE in various types of cancer cells, both in terms of in vitro and in vivo, along with supportive anti-inflammatory & antioxidant activity in cancer therapy. Methods: This study focused on the mechanism pathways, synergism of CAPE. Various conventional and advanced targeted nanotechnology based formulation approaches developed for the delivery of CAPE as a promising therapeutic agent were also discussed in detail in terms of challenges and future opportunities. Conclusion: Overall study summarized and demonstrated the excellent therapeutic potential, mechanisms, and formulation approaches of CAPE as a therapeutic bioactive molecule. Study and research further can be initiated for the investigation of biopharmaceutical aspects for therapeutic and clinical applications.

Background: Despite remarkable advancement in screening, diagnosis, and treatment modalities, cancer remains the second leading cause of death globally. Chemoprevention is considered to be a potential strategy for dealing with cancer incidence and mortality. The present demand for a less toxic well-tolerated natural anticancer compound that can be used for chemoprevention has drawn the attention towards D-limonene, which is a monocyclic monoterpene found in citrus oil. In recent years several in vitro and in vivo studies have supported the anticancer potential of D-limonene in various cancers. Although these studies have highlighted its course of action through immune modulation, anti-oxidant activity, apoptosis, autophagy, etc. various scientific pieces of evidence support the fact that it targets multiple pathways to inhibit cancer. Objective: The current review focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying the anticancer activity of D-limonene and discusses its potential as a cost-effective chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic drug alone or in combination with other drugs. Methods: Scientific databases like Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, PubMed Central, etc. have been used to review new insights into the anticancer mechanism of D-limonene. Conclusion: In this review, we discussed the overall significance of the anticancer mechanisms of D-limonene which include modulation of apoptosis, promotion of autophagy and inhibition of angiogenesis and metastasis. D-limonene also inhibits oncogenic signaling molecules and related transcription factors. Additionally, it also acts in combination with other anticancer compounds to inhibit cancer.

Gastric cancer, with more than 1 million cases all over the globe, is a leading contributor to cancer mortality. In the recent past, the evolution of target therapies and the refining of the already existing chemotherapy have widened the therapeutic choices for advanced gastric cancer to increase survival. In addition, more studies have been conducted all over the globe to extensively evaluate epigenomic and genomic heterogeneity of gastric cancer, leading to the recognition of new sensitive and specific prognostic and predictive biomarkers and the development of new molecular tumor classifications based on their molecular profiling. But, many clinical studies aimed at evaluating the efficiency of certain new molecular targets gave negative results. Hence, it is vital to further study the molecular features of subtypes of gastric carcinoma for the purpose of identifying new tools for selecting responsive tumor subtypes for future trials. This review provides an overview of recent developments of target therapy and immunotherapy in advanced gastric cancer.

Background: Early detection of cancer can be done using machine learning approaches with high precision. A brain tumor is a very dangerous disease that may cause the death of cancerous patients. Every year, thousands of people die from that disease all over the world. Proper detection of cancerous cells in the body can save their lives. Methods: To segment the brain tumor region through brain MR images and to classify tumorous and normal brain images into different classes is very crucial to cure death-causing diseases like cancer. There are various techniques or methods for segmenting the tumorous part or area from the medical images. Magnetic resonance imaging is the most important technique to capture the images of the body parts because it has more information than any other imaging method, such as a CT scan, etc. K-means clustering is used for the segmentation of the tumor region, and the SVM classifier is used for classification purposes. Results: The classification was done through the support vector machines in MATLAB 2019a. 350 images were classified with an accuracy of 89.7 %. Conclusion: In this paper, MRI images have been used for tumor detection and classification of those images into different classes with the help of MATLAB software. We calculated the accuracy of the classification using machine learning techniques. Early detection of cancerous regions is effective in curing death-causing diseases.

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer cases with no available targeted therapy and advanced cases of luminal and HER2+ that become resistant to available state-of-the-art treatments are priorities in cancer research. Immune checkpoint blockade, particularly PDL1/PD1 inhibition, is suggested as a potential option for these patients suffering from several other types of cancers, such as melanoma. However, the exact subpopulation of breast cancer patients that overexpress PDL1 is yet to be completely identified. Additionally, reports on the value of PDL1 as a biomarker for the prognosis of cancer and its correlation with clinicopathological features of malignancy are diverse. Methods: In this study, we performed immunohistochemistry on 60 breast cancer, including 22 triple-negative and 38 HER2+ cases, and 20 paired lymph node samples. Results: PDL1 expression was present in 21. 6% (13/60) of breast cancer samples. PDL1 expression is significantly associated with ER/PR negativity and the grade of the tumor. The association between PDL1 positivity and recurrence and the overall survival of patients was not significant. Conclusion: PDL1 expression is similar between triple-negative and non-luminal HER2+ cases, thus some of the advanced non-luminal HER2+ cases might be benefitted from immune checkpoint blockade.