Current Molecular Medicine - Volume 13, Issue 3, 2013

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) are rare but are well understood to cover a broad spectrum of clinical presentation, tumor biology and prognosis. More than 60% of PNETs are diagnosed at advanced disease stage and are ineligible for surgical resection. Prior to 2011, streptozocin was the only approved agent for unresectable advanced PNETs. In recent years, breakthroughs in signal pathway research have led to t Read More

CA 19-9 and CEA are the most commonly used biomarkers for diagnosis and management of patients with pancreatic cancer. Since the original compendium by Steinberg in 1990, numerous studies have reported the use of CA 19-9 and, to a lesser extent, CEA in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Here we update an evaluation of the accuracy of CA 19-9 and CEA, and, unlike previous reviews, focus on discrimination betwee Read More

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly malignant primary brain tumor known for its invasiveness and aggressive resistance to standard treatment. It is currently the most common primary brain tumor which is associated with a high mortality rate. Tumor initiating cells (TICs) are a subpopulation of GBM stem cells which are capable of self-renewal and apoptotic resistance, and are thought to account for GBMs aggressive nature. Rec Read More

The failure to control glioblastoma progression is a major challenge for neuro-oncologists. Emerging data indicate that genetic and epigenetic heterogeneities within tumor cells play a dominant role in the development of resistant disease. These heterogeneities develop because driver mutations enable the proliferation of certain clones of transformed cells within the tumor microenvironment while pre-existing passenge Read More

Tumor heterogeneity is recognized as a major issue within clinical oncology, and the concept of personalized molecular medicine is emerging as a means to mitigate this problem. Given the vast number of cancer types and subtypes, robust pre-clinical models of cancer must be studied to interrogate the molecular mechanisms involved in each scenario. In particular, mouse models of tumor metastasis are of critical import Read More

Pancreatic and duodenal homeobox-1 (PDX-1) is a homeodomain-containing transcription factor that plays a critical role in pancreatic development, β-cell differentiation, maintenance of normal β-cell function and tumorigenesis. PDX-1 is subjected to extensive post-translational modifications for its stability, subcellular location and transactivity. We report here that PDX-1 expression is up-regulated by p38 MAP kin Read More

Methyl-CpG binding domain protein 1 (MBD1) has been implicated in transcriptional regulation, heterochromatin formation, genomic stability, cell-cycle progression and development. It is also predicted that MBD1 might be involved in tumor development and progression. However, whether and how MBD1 is involved in tumorigenesis, especially in pancreatic cancer (PC), is currently unknown. We found that MBD1 was signific Read More

Deregulated expression of zinc transporters was linked to several cancers. However, the detailed expression profile of all human zinc transporters in normal human organs and in human cancer, especially in pancreatic cancer is not available. The objectives of this study are to investigate the complete expression patterns of 14 ZIP and 10 ZnT transporters in a large number of normal human organs and in human pancreatic c Read More

CXC chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) plays a prominent role in cancer progression and metastasis. However, its association with breast cancer subtypes is still unknown. In the current study, we analyzed the expression level and the cellular location of CXCR4 in 175 cases of human breast tumors, including 75 cases of triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs), 41 cases of luminal-subtypes and 60 cases of HER2-positive breast Read More

The correlation between the loss of Profilin 1 (Pfn1) with tumor progression indicated that Pfn1 is a tumor suppressor in human carcinoma. The molecular mechanisms underlying Pfn1 tumor suppression has yet to be elucidated. In this study, we showed that Pfn1 overexpression sensitizes cancer cells to apoptosis through the typical intrinsic apoptotic pathway. Mechanistically, the increased Pfn1 expression mediated the up Read More

Recently immunoglobulin G (IgG) was found to be produced by neoplasms and promote tumor growth in cancer cell lines and animal models. To investigate the pathophysiological significance of cancerproduced IgG in breast cancer, we examined the expressions of IgG in 68 breast cancers including 40 primary cancers without metastasis and 28 cancers with axillary lymph node metastases. IgG gene expression was detecte Read More

The human Distal-less Homeobox (DLX) gene family encodes homeobox transcription factors involved in the control of morphogenesis and tissue homeostasis, which is primarily expressed in embryonic development. Recently, DLX gene family was reported to have essential roles in carcinogenesis. We have profiled whole genome expressed genes in 83 glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients from the Chinese Gliom Read More

Breast cancer is a heterogenetic tumor at the cellular level with multiple factors and components. The inconsistent expression of molecular markers during disease progression reduces the accuracy of diagnosis and efficacy of target-specific therapy. Single target-specific imaging agents can only provide limited tumor information at one time point. In contrast, multiple target-specific imaging agents can increase the accur Read More

Breast cancer stem cells (BCSC) exist within many types of breast cancers, functioning to initiate tumorigenesis and augment its progression. The protein profile associated with BCSC has yet to be extensively studied. Mammospheres have been widely employed as a model system to study BCSC. We used proteomics on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line to compare protein expression in mammosphere-derived cells to that of Read More

A proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL) is overexpressed in many cancers such as colorectal, gastric and liver. Silence APRIL gene or neutralize its expression may serve as therapeutic strategies to manage those cancers. Current phase I clinical trial shows that heavily pretreated patients were well tolerated high dose intravenous infusion. Herein, we report a humanized antibody (Ab) that neutralizes APRIL protein and inhibits ca Read More