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Experimental therapeutics and drug development

This section covers all aspects of preclinical investigations on therapeutic agents. It welcomes submissions concerning anti-cancer drug discovery and development, and targeted therapies.

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  1. Neuroblastoma (NB) patients with MYCN amplification or overexpression respond poorly to current therapies and exhibit extremely poor clinical outcomes. PI3K-mTOR signaling-driven deregulation of protein synthe...

    Authors: Matthew J. Kling, Connor N. Griggs, Erin M. McIntyre, Gracey Alexander, Sutapa Ray, Kishore B. Challagundla, Shantaram S. Joshi, Don W. Coulter and Nagendra K. Chaturvedi

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:1061

    Content type: Research article

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  2. This study compared the long-term efficacy of different durations of adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with gastric cancer after radical gastrectomy with D2 lymphadenectomy.

    Authors: Lei Chen, Chenghai Zhang, Zhendan Yao, Ming Cui, Jiadi Xing, Hong Yang, Nan Zhang, Maoxing Liu, Kai Xu, Fei Tan, Yuzhe Li, Beihai Jiang and Xiangqian Su

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:974

    Content type: Research article

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  3. D-limonene and its derivatives have demonstrated potential chemopreventive and anticancer activity in preclinical and clinical studies. The aim of this scoping review was to assess and critically appraise curr...

    Authors: Joy J. Chebet, John E. Ehiri, Deborah Jean McClelland, Douglas Taren and Iman A. Hakim

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:902

    Content type: Research article

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  4. Pralatrexate (PDX) is a novel antifolate approved for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma, but some patients exhibit intrinsic resistance or develop acquired resistanc...

    Authors: Kana Oiwa, Naoko Hosono, Rie Nishi, Luigi Scotto, Owen A. O’Connor and Takahiro Yamauchi

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:879

    Content type: Research article

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  5. Epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs), such as gefitinib, have achieved good efficacy in EGFR mutation-positive non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, but eventual drug ...

    Authors: Wanjun Yu, Fei Ye, Xiao Yuan, Yali Ma, Chaoming Mao, Xiaoqin Li, Jian Li, Chunhua Dai, Fenhong Qian, Junrong Li, Xiujuan Fan, Yuepeng Zhou, Deqiang Wang, Zhenhong Guo, Huazhang An, Minghui Zhang…

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:877

    Content type: Study protocol

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  6. Afatinib is one of the standard treatments for patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, data on the use of afatinib in patients with poor performa...

    Authors: Chiao-En Wu, Ching-Fu Chang, Chen-Yang Huang, Cheng-Ta Yang, Chih-Hsi Scott Kuo, Ping-Chih Hsu and John Wen-Cheng Chang

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:859

    Content type: Research article

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  7. This Phase 2a dose expansion study was performed to assess the safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy of the maximum tolerated dose of the oral histone de-acetylase (HDAC) inhibitor CXD101 in patients w...

    Authors: Stephen W. Booth, Toby A. Eyre, John Whittaker, Leticia Campo, Lai Mun Wang, Elizabeth Soilleux, Daniel Royston, Gabrielle Rees, Murali Kesavan, Catherine Hildyard, Farasat Kazmi, Nick La Thangue, David Kerr, Mark R. Middleton and Graham P. Collins

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:851

    Content type: Research article

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  8. The overwhelming majority of dose-escalation clinical trials use methods that seek a maximum tolerable dose, including rule-based methods like the 3+3, and model-based methods like CRM and EWOC. These methods ...

    Authors: Kristian Brock, Victoria Homer, Gurjinder Soul, Claire Potter, Cody Chiuzan and Shing Lee

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:777

    Content type: Research article

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  9. Eribulin mesylate (ERI; Halaven®) is a microtubule inhibitor approved in the United States for metastatic breast cancer patients with at least two prior chemotherapy regimens for metastatic breast cancer, and ...

    Authors: Qi Zhao, Rachel Hughes, Binod Neupane, Kristin Mickle, Yun Su, Isabelle Chabot, Marissa Betts and Ananth Kadambi

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:758

    Content type: Research article

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  10. Prolactin receptor (PRLR) is an attractive antibody therapeutic target with expression across a broad population of breast cancers. Antibody efficacy, however, may be limited to subtypes with either PRLR overe...

    Authors: Mark G. Anderson, Qian Zhang, Luis E. Rodriguez, Claudie M. Hecquet, Cherrie K. Donawho, Peter J. Ansell and Edward B. Reilly

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:681

    Content type: Research article

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  11. Cholesterol plays vital roles in human physiology; abnormal levels have deleterious pathological consequences. In cancer, elevated or reduced expression of cholesterol biosynthesis is associated with good or p...

    Authors: Fang Yu, Babu Gajendran, Ning Wang, Klarke M. Sample, Wuling Liu, Chunlin Wang, Anling Hu, Eldad Zacksenhaus, Xiaojiang Hao and Yaacov Ben-David

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:680

    Content type: Research article

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  13. Ipilimumab has shown long-term overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced melanoma in clinical trials, but robust real-world evidence is lacking. We present long-term outcomes from the IMAGE study (NCT015...

    Authors: Stéphane Dalle, Laurent Mortier, Pippa Corrie, Michal Lotem, Ruth Board, Ana María Arance, Frank Meiss, Patrick Terheyden, Ralf Gutzmer, Brian Buysse, Kelly Oh, Jane Brokaw, T. Kim Le, Susan D. Mathias, Julie Scotto, Jennifer Lord-Bessen…

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:642

    Content type: Research article

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  14. CC chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4), the receptor for CCL22 and CCL17, is expressed on the surface of effector Tregs that have the highest suppressive effects on antitumor immune response. CCR4 is also widely expre...

    Authors: Ting Zhang, Jing Sun, Jinying Li, Yunuo Zhao, Tao Zhang, Ruoning Yang and Xuelei Ma

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:618

    Content type: Research article

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  15. It has been shown that a subgroup of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) and medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) would progress to advanced stages of thyroid cancer. Therefore, the present study wa...

    Authors: Zohreh Maghsoomi, Zahra Emami, Ramin Malboosbaf, Mojtaba Malek and Mohammad E. Khamseh

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:579

    Content type: Research article

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  16. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an anticancer treatment that utilizes the interaction of light and a photosensitiser (PS), promoting tumour cell death mediated by generation of reactive oxygen species. In this s...

    Authors: Pablo Vallecorsa, Gabriela Di Venosa, M. Belén Ballatore, Dario Ferreyra, Leandro Mamone, Daniel Sáenz, Gustavo Calvo, Edgardo Durantini and Adriana Casas

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:547

    Content type: Research article

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  17. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is still a highly fatal malignancy among the most common cancers. More powerful treatments are expecting to bring hope for patients. Biweekly gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel/...

    Authors: Chen Chang, Xiaofen Li and Dan Cao

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:545

    Content type: Study protocol

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  18. Osimertinib is a third generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that targets the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in lung cancer. However, although this molecule is not subject to some of the resistan...

    Authors: Ulrich Jarry, Mégane Bostoën, Raphaël Pineau, Laura Chaillot, Valentine Mennessier, Pierre Montagne, Emilie Motte, Marjorie Gournay, Arnaud Le Goff, Thierry Guillaudeux and Rémy Pedeux

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:530

    Content type: Technical advance

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    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Cancer 2021 21:574

  19. The aim of this multicenter, randomized phase II study was to analyze the feasibility and safety of alternate-day S-1, an oral fluoropyrimidine, for adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with completely resected p...

    Authors: Norihito Okumura, Junichi Soh, Hiroyuki Suzuki, Masao Nakata, Toshiya Fujiwara, Hiroshige Nakamura, Makoto Sonobe, Takuji Fujinaga, Kazuhiko Kataoka, Kenichi Gemba, Masafumi Kataoka, Katsuyuki Hotta, Hiroshige Yoshioka, Keitaro Matsuo, Junichi Sakamoto, Hiroshi Date…

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:506

    Content type: Research article

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  20. Glioblastoma (GBM) is the deadliest and the most common primary brain tumor in adults. The invasiveness and proliferation of GBM cells can be decreased through the inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin pathway. In this ...

    Authors: Aleksandra Majchrzak-Celińska, Julia O. Misiorek, Nastassia Kruhlenia, Lukasz Przybyl, Robert Kleszcz, Katarzyna Rolle and Violetta Krajka-Kuźniak

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:493

    Content type: Research article

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  21. One key approach for anticancer therapy is drug combination. Drug combinations can help reduce doses and thereby decrease side effects. Furthermore, the likelihood of drug resistance is reduced. Distinct alter...

    Authors: Jonas Parczyk, Jérôme Ruhnau, Carsten Pelz, Max Schilling, Hao Wu, Nicole Nadine Piaskowski, Britta Eickholt, Hartmut Kühn, Kerstin Danker and Andreas Klein

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:481

    Content type: Research article

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  22. Pressurized Intra-Peritoneal Aerosol Chemotherapy (PIPAC) is an innovative treatment against peritoneal carcinomatosis. Doxorubicin is a common intra-venous chemotherapy used for peritoneal carcinomatosis and ...

    Authors: Myriam Mimouni, Christophe Richard, Pierre Adenot, Martine Letheule, Anne Tarrade, Olivier Sandra, Michèle Dahirel, Thomas Lilin, Benoit Lecuelle, Valérie Gélin, Julien Cohen, Arnaud Fauconnier, François Vialard, Cyrille Huchon and Pascale Chavatte-Palmer

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:461

    Content type: Research article

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  23. In the era of immunotherapy, it is still unclear which is the best first-line therapy for patients with oncogenic driver negative advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NS-NSCLC) who cannot tolerate...

    Authors: Le-Tian Huang, Rui Cao, Yan-Ru Wang, Li Sun, Xiang-Yan Zhang, Yi-Jia Guo, Jian-Zhu Zhao, Shu-Ling Zhang, Wei Jing, Jun Song, Cheng-Bo Han and Jietao Ma

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:426

    Content type: Research article

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  24. Evidence bearing on the role of statins in the prevention and treatment of cancer is confounded by the diversity of statins, chemotherapeutic agents and cancer types included in the numerous published studies;...

    Authors: Kaitlyn A. Khandelwal Gilman, Seungmin Han, Young-Wook Won and Charles W. Putnam

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:356

    Content type: Research article

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  25. We prepared an anti-p21Ras scFv which could specifically bind with mutant and wild-type p21Ras. However, it cannot penetrate the cell membrane, which prevents it from binding to p21Ras in the cytoplasm. Here, ...

    Authors: Chen-Chen Huang, Fang-Rui Liu, Qiang Feng, Xin-Yan Pan, Shu-Ling Song and Ju-Lun Yang

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:321

    Content type: Research article

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    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Cancer 2021 21:361

  26. Avapritinib, a potent inhibitor of KIT and platelet-derived growth factor receptor A (PDGFRA) tyrosine kinases, has demonstrated unprecedented clinical activity in PDGFRA D842V-mutant gastrointestinal stromal ...

    Authors: Margaret von Mehren, Michael C. Heinrich, Hongliang Shi, Sergio Iannazzo, Raymond Mankoski, Saša Dimitrijević, Gerard Hoehn, Silvia Chiroli and Suzanne George

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:291

    Content type: Research article

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  27. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a target for cancer therapy as it is overexpressed in a wide variety of cancers. Therapeutic antibodies that bind EGFR are being evaluated in clinical trials as imagi...

    Authors: Wendy Bernhard, Kris Barreto, Ayman El-Sayed, Carolina Gonzalez, Raja Solomon Viswas, Darien Toledo, Angel Casaco, John DeCoteau, Humphrey Fonge and Clarence Ronald Geyer

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:270

    Content type: Research article

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  28. Mesothelin is a 40-kDa glycoprotein that is highly overexpressed in various types of cancers, however molecular mechanism of mesothelin has not been well-known. Amatuximab is a chimeric monoclonal IgG1/k antib...

    Authors: Fumihiko Matsuzawa, Hirofumi Kamachi, Tatsuzo Mizukami, Takahiro Einama, Futoshi Kawamata, Yuki Fujii, Moto Fukai, Nozomi Kobayashi, Yutaka Hatanaka and Akinobu Taketomi

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:200

    Content type: Research article

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  29. The concept of personalized therapy has been proven to be a promising approach. A popular technique is to utilize gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as drug delivery vectors for cytotoxic drugs and small molecule inhi...

    Authors: Hend M. Abdel Hamid, Zeinab E. Darwish, Sahar M. Elsheikh, Ghada M. Mourad, Hanaa M. Donia and Marwa M. Afifi

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:170

    Content type: Research article

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  30. Side population (SP) cells, which have similar features to those of cancer stem cells, show resistance to dexamethasone (Dex) treatment. Thus, new drugs that can be used in combination with Dex to reduce the p...

    Authors: Wenfeng He, Yonghui Fu, Yongliang Zheng, Xiaoping Wang, Bin Liu and Junquan Zeng

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:125

    Content type: Research article

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  32. Chemoresistance is one of the main problems in treatment of cancer. Periostin (PN) is a stromal protein which is mostly secreted from cancer associated fibroblasts in the tumor microenvironment and can promote...

    Authors: Khine Kyaw Oo, Thanpawee Kamolhan, Anish Soni, Suyanee Thongchot, Chalermchai Mitrpant, Pornchai O-charoenrat, Chanitra Thuwajit and Peti Thuwajit

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:65

    Content type: Research article

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  33. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is the prime approach to the management of locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). Influenced by different factors such as pathologic tumor characteristics, hormone receptor stat...

    Authors: Dena Firouzabadi, Amirreza Dehghanian, Alireza Rezvani, Laleh Mahmoudi and Abdolrasoul Talei

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:47

    Content type: Research article

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  34. Rho-family GTPases, including Ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate 1 (Rac1) and cell division control protein 42 (Cdc42), are important modulators of cancer-relevant cell functions and are viewed as promis...

    Authors: Martha M. Grimes, S. Ray Kenney, Dayna R. Dominguez, Kathryn J. Brayer, Yuna Guo, Angela Wandinger-Ness and Laurie G. Hudson

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:40

    Content type: Research article

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  35. Our previous studies demonstrated that the administration of crude Polysaccharide from Panax notoginseng (CPPN) can effectively prolong the lifespan of tumor-bearing mice via boosting the host immune system as we...

    Authors: Yan-Hong Liu, Hua-Yan Qin, Yuan-Yuan Zhong, Shuang Li, Hua-Jing Wang, Hong Wang, Li-Ling Chen, Xiang Tang, Ya-Lin Li, Zhong-Yi Qian, Huai-Yu Li, Lei Zhang and Tong Chen

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:37

    Content type: Research article

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  36. The continual reassessment method (CRM) identifies the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) more efficiently and identifies the true MTD more frequently compared to standard methods such as the 3 + 3 method. An initia...

    Authors: G. D. James, S. Symeonides, J. Marshall, J. Young and G. Clack

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2021 21:7

    Content type: Research article

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  37. Glypican-1 is a heparan sulfate proteoglycan that is overexpressed in prostate cancer (PCa), and a variety of solid tumors. Importantly, expression is restricted in normal tissue, making it an ideal tumor targ...

    Authors: Maria E. Lund, Christopher B. Howard, Kristofer J. Thurecht, Douglas H. Campbell, Stephen M. Mahler and Bradley J. Walsh

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:1214

    Content type: Research article

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  38. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease that frequently relapses after standard chemotherapy. Therefore, there is a need for the development of novel chemotherapeutic agents that could treat AM...

    Authors: Sook-Kyoung Heo, Eui-Kyu Noh, Ho-Min Yu, Do Kyoung Kim, Hye Jin Seo, Yoo Jin Lee, Jaekyung Cheon, Su Jin Koh, Young Joo Min, Yunsuk Choi and Jae-Cheol Jo

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:1193

    Content type: Research article

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  39. The treatment of Ewing sarcoma, an aggressive bone and soft tissue sarcoma, is associated with suboptimal outcomes and significant side-effects. Consequently, there is an urgent need to identify novel therapie...

    Authors: Torin Waters, Kelli L. Goss, Stacia L. Koppenhafer, William W. Terry and David J. Gordon

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:1171

    Content type: Research article

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  40. Preoperative chemoradiotherapy with capecitabine is considered as a standard of care for locally advanced rectal cancer. The “Tratamiento de Tumores Digestivos” group (TTD) previously reported in a randomized ...

    Authors: Ramón Salazar, Jaume Capdevila, Jose Luis Manzano, Carles Pericay, Mercedes Martínez-Villacampa, Carlos López, Ferrán Losa, María José Safont, Auxiliadora Gómez-España, Vicente Alonso-Orduña, Pilar Escudero, Javier Gallego, Beatriz García-Paredes, Amalia Palacios, Sebastiano Biondo, Cristina Grávalos…

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:1164

    Content type: Research article

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  41. Peritoneal metastasis (PM) in patients with breast (BC) and endometrial cancer (EC) is rare and treatment options are limited. Pressurized IntraPeritoneal Aerosol Chemotherapy (PIPAC) has demonstrated efficacy...

    Authors: Günther A. Rezniczek, Urs Giger-Pabst, Omar Thaher and Clemens B. Tempfer

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:1122

    Content type: Research article

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  42. Breast cancer (BC) is the second most common type of cancer worldwide. Among targeted therapies for Hormone Receptor-positive (HR+) and Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2-negative (HER2−) BC, the Cyclin-Dep...

    Authors: Oliviero Marinelli, Emanuela Romagnoli, Federica Maggi, Massimo Nabissi, Consuelo Amantini, Maria Beatrice Morelli, Matteo Santoni, Nicola Battelli and Giorgio Santoni

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:1119

    Content type: Research article

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  43. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive breast cancer subtype with limited systemic treatment options. RX-5902 is a novel anti-cancer agent that inhibits phosphorylated-p68 and thus attenuates nu...

    Authors: John J. Tentler, Julie Lang, Anna Capasso, Deog Joong Kim, Ely Benaim, Young B. Lee, Andrew Eisen, Stacey M. Bagby, Sarah J. Hartman, Betelehem W. Yacob, Brian Gittleman, Todd M. Pitts, Roberta Pelanda, S. Gail Eckhardt and Jennifer R. Diamond

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:1063

    Content type: Research article

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  45. Hypoxic tumors are known to be highly resistant to radiotherapy and cause poor prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. CKD-516, a novel vascular disrupting agent (VDA), mainly affects blood v...

    Authors: Min-Young Kim, Jung-Young Shin, Jeong-Oh Kim, Kyoung-Hwa Son, Yeon Sil Kim, Chan Kwon Jung and Jin-Hyoung Kang

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:1057

    Content type: Research article

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  46. Both intermittent intravenous (IIV) infusion and continuous intravenous (CIV) infusion of Endostar are widely used for NSCLC in China. We aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of CIV of Endostar versus IIV ...

    Authors: Bo Wang, Lu Xu, Qihuan Li, Sailimai Man, Cheng Jin, Lian Liu, Siyan Zhan and Yi Ning

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:1021

    Content type: Research article

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  47. New treatment options for ovarian cancer are urgently required. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are an attractive target for therapy; repolarizing TAMs from M2 (pro-tumor) to M1 (anti-tumor) phenotypes rep...

    Authors: Alyssa A. Hoover, Demetra H. Hufnagel, Whitney Harris, Kennady Bullock, Evan B. Glass, Esther Liu, Whitney Barham, Marta A. Crispens, Dineo Khabele, Todd D. Giorgio, Andrew J. Wilson and Fiona E. Yull

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:970

    Content type: Research article

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  48. Previous studies have shown a major green tea polyphenol (−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate ((−)-EGCG) as a powerful anti-cancer agent. However, its poor bioavailability and requirement of a high dosage to manifes...

    Authors: Gene Chi Wai Man, Jianzhang Wang, Yi Song, Jack Ho Wong, Yu Zhao, Tat San Lau, Kam Tong Leung, Tak Hang Chan, Huating Wang, Joseph Kwong, Tzi Bun Ng and Chi Chiu Wang

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:964

    Content type: Research article

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  49. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide with one in every five patients diagnosed with metastatic CRC (mCRC). In mCRC cases, the 5-year survival rate remai...

    Authors: Susan A. Kennedy, Maria E. Morrissey, Margaret R. Dunne, Fiona O’Connell, Clare T. Butler, Mary-Clare Cathcart, Amy M. Buckley, Brian J. Mehigan, John O. Larkin, Paul McCormick, Breandán N. Kennedy and Jacintha O’Sullivan

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:952

    Content type: Research article

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  50. Lung squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) remains a challenging disease to treat, and further improvements in prognosis are dependent upon the identification of LSCC-specific therapeutic biomarkers and/or targets. W...

    Authors: Erkhem-Ochir Bilguun, Kyoichi Kaira, Reika Kawabata-Iwakawa, Susumu Rokudai, Kimihiro Shimizu, Takehiko Yokobori, Tetsunari Oyama, Ken Shirabe and Masahiko Nishiyama

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:935

    Content type: Research article

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