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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. A. oxyphylla extract is known to possess a wide range of pharmacological activites. However, the molecular mechanism of A. oxyphylla and its bioactive compound nootkatone in colorectal cancer is unknown.

    Authors: Eunsu Yoo, Jaehak Lee, Pattawika Lertpatipanpong, Junsun Ryu, Chong-Tai Kim, Eul-Yong Park and Seung Joon Baek

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:881

    Content type: Research article

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  2. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin and sulindac are effective for colorectal cancer prevention in humans and some animal models, but concerns over gastro-intestinal (GI) ulceration ...

    Authors: Jennifer S. Davis, Preeti Kanikarla-Marie, Mihai Gagea, Patrick L. Yu, Dexing Fang, Manu Sebastian, Peiying Yang, Ernest Hawk, Roderick Dashwood, Lenard M. Lichtenberger, David Menter and Scott Kopetz

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:871

    Content type: Research article

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  3. Interaction between microenvironment and breast cancer cells often is not considered at the early stages of drug development leading to failure of many drugs at later clinical stages. Etanercept is a TNF-alpha...

    Authors: Elnaz Shirmohammadi, Seyed-Esmaeil Sadat Ebrahimi, Amir Farshchi and Mona Salimi

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:836

    Content type: Research article

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  5. Curcumin is herbal compound that has been shown to have anti-cancer effects in pre-clinical and clinical studies. The anti-cancer effects of curcumin include inhibiting the carcinogenesis, inhibiting angiogene...

    Authors: Kamran Mansouri, Shna Rasoulpoor, Alireza Daneshkhah, Soroush Abolfathi, Nader Salari, Masoud Mohammadi, Shabnam Rasoulpoor and Shervin Shabani

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:791

    Content type: Research article

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  6. Tumors with deficient homologous repair are sensitive to PARP inhibitors such as olaparib which is known to have immunogenic properties. Durvalumab (D) is a human monoclonal antibody (mAb) which inhibits bindi...

    Authors: Jean-David Fumet, Emeric Limagne, Marion Thibaudin, Caroline Truntzer, Aurélie Bertaut, Emilie Rederstorff and Francois Ghiringhelli

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:748

    Content type: Study protocol

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  7. Breast tumor initiating cells (BTIC) are stem-like cells that initiate and sustain tumor growth, and drive disease recurrence. Identifying therapies targeting BTIC has been hindered due primarily to their scar...

    Authors: William D. Gwynne, Mirza S. Shakeel, Adele Girgis-Gabardo, Kwang H. Kim, Emily Ford, Anna Dvorkin-Gheva, Craig Aarts, Methvin Isaac, Rima Al-awar and John A. Hassell

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:724

    Content type: Research article

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  8. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous tumor having various genetic alterations. The current treatment options had limited impact on disease free survival due to therapeutic resistance. Novel anticancer ag...

    Authors: Khayal Al-Khayal, Mansoor-Ali Vaali-Mohammed, Mohammed Elwatidy, Thamer Bin Traiki, Omar Al-Obeed, Mohammad Azam, Zahid Khan, Maha Abdulla and Rehan Ahmad

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:685

    Content type: Research article

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  10. Tumors are heterogeneous in nature, composed of different cell populations with various mutations and/or phenotypes. Using a single drug to encounter cancer progression is generally ineffective. To improve the...

    Authors: Vanessa Bellat, Alice Verchère, Sally A. Ashe and Benedict Law

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:661

    Content type: Research article

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  11. HER2 dual-blockade combined with aromatase inhibitors (AI) is a promising strategy to improve progression-free survival (PFS) in hormone receptor (HR) positive, metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Pyrotinib is a n...

    Authors: Changjun Wang, Yan Lin, Yidong Zhou, Feng Mao, Hanjiang Zhu, Jinghong Guan, Xiaohui Zhang, Songjie Shen, Xin Huang, Chang Chen, Ru Yao, Jialin Zhao and Qiang Sun

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:653

    Content type: Study protocol

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  12. Pancreatic cancer has a poor prognosis and few choices of therapy. For patients with adequate performance status, FOLFIRINOX or gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel are preferred first-line treatment. 5-Fluorouraci...

    Authors: Zev A. Wainberg, Kynan Feeney, Myung Ah Lee, Andrés Muñoz, Antonio Cubillo Gracián, Sara Lonardi, Baek-Yeol Ryoo, Annie Hung, Yong Lin, Johanna Bendell and J. Randolph Hecht

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:633

    Content type: Research article

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  13. Oncolytic virotherapy is an upcoming treatment option for many tumor entities. But so far, a first oncolytic virus only was approved for advanced stages of malignant melanomas. Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) con...

    Authors: Linus D. Kloker, Susanne Berchtold, Irina Smirnow, Julia Beil, Andreas Krieg, Bence Sipos and Ulrich M. Lauer

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:628

    Content type: Research article

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  14. Despite an improvement of prognosis in breast and colon cancer, the outcome of the metastatic disease is still severe. Microevolution of cancer cells often leads to drug resistance and tumor-recurrence. To tar...

    Authors: Jérôme Ruhnau, Jonas Parczyk, Kerstin Danker, Britta Eickholt and Andreas Klein

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:617

    Content type: Research article

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  15. Modulated electro-hyperthermia (mEHT) is a form of hyperthermia used in cancer treatment. mEHT has demonstrated the ability to activate host immunity by inducing the release of heat shock proteins, triggering ...

    Authors: I-Ming Kuo, Jih-Jong Lee, Yu-Shan Wang, Hsin-Chien Chiang, Cheng-Chung Huang, Pei-Jong Hsieh, Winston Han, Chiao-Hsu Ke, Albert T. C. Liao and Chen-Si Lin

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:603

    Content type: Research article

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  16. Unlike other breast cancer subtypes that may be treated with a variety of hormonal or targeted therapies, there is a need to identify new, effective targets for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). It has rec...

    Authors: Gina Sizemore, Sarah McLaughlin, Mackenzie Newman, Kathleen Brundage, Amanda Ammer, Karen Martin, Elena Pugacheva, James Coad, Malcolm D. Mattes and Han-Gang Yu

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:595

    Content type: Research article

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  17. KRAS mutations are prevalent in 40–45% of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and targeting this gene has remained elusive. Viruses are well known immune sensitizing agents. The therapeutic efficacy of oncolyti...

    Authors: Ruwan Parakrama, Elisha Fogel, Carol Chandy, Titto Augustine, Matt Coffey, Lydia Tesfa, Sanjay Goel and Radhashree Maitra

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:569

    Content type: Research article

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  18. It may be impossible to perform cancer surgery with free margins in the presence of an unresectable structure. Local drug treatment after surgery has been proposed to increase the rate of tumor control.

    Authors: Iman Al Dybiat, Alibi Baitukha, Cynthia Pimpie, Rachid Kaci, Marc Pocard, Farzaneh Arefi Khonsari and Massoud Mirshahi

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:565

    Content type: Research article

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  19. Novel biomarkers are required to discern between breast tumors that should be targeted for treatment from those that would never become clinically apparent and/or life threatening for patients. Moreover, thera...

    Authors: Catharina Hagerling, Mark Owyong, Vaishnavi Sitarama, Chih-Yang Wang, Charlene Lin, Renske J. E. van den Bijgaart, Charlotte D. Koopman, Audrey Brenot, Ankitha Nanjaraj, Fredrik Wärnberg, Karin Jirström, Ophir D. Klein, Zena Werb and Vicki Plaks

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:542

    Content type: Research article

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  20. Pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory disease represent a population with a desperate medical need. The aim of the INFORM (INdividualized Therapy FOr Relapsed Malignancies in Childhood) program is to ...

    Authors: Cornelis M. van Tilburg, Ruth Witt, Melanie Heiss, Kristian W. Pajtler, Christoph Plass, Isabel Poschke, Michael Platten, Inga Harting, Oliver Sedlaczek, Angelika Freitag, David Meyrath, Lenka Taylor, Gnana Prakash Balasubramanian, Natalie Jäger, Elke Pfaff, Barbara C. Jones…

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:523

    Content type: Study protocol

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  21. Glutamine serves as an important nutrient with many cancer types displaying glutamine dependence. Following cellular uptake glutamine is converted to glutamate in a reaction catalysed by mitochondrial glutamin...

    Authors: Dean C. Singleton, Anne-Lise Dechaume, Pamela M. Murray, William P. Katt, Bruce C. Baguley and Euphemia Y. Leung

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:470

    Content type: Research article

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  22. Dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) status is an indicator of a marked risk for toxicity following fluoropyrimidine (FP)-based chemotherapy. This notion is well-established for low DPD status but little is k...

    Authors: Emmanuel Chamorey, Eric Francois, Marie-Christine Etienne, Jean-Marc Ferrero, Frederic Peyrade, Emmanuel Barranger, Alexandre Bozec, Rémy Largillier, Ophelie Cassuto, Julien Viotti, Renaud Schiappa and Gérard Milano

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:436

    Content type: Research article

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  23. Anti-tumor effects of radiation therapy (RT) largely depend on host immune function. Adenosine with its strong immunosuppressive properties is an important immune checkpoint molecule.

    Authors: Hidenori Tsukui, Hisanaga Horie, Koji Koinuma, Hideyuki Ohzawa, Yasunaru Sakuma, Yoshinori Hosoya, Hironori Yamaguchi, Kotaro Yoshimura, Alan Kawarai Lefor, Naohiro Sata and Joji Kitayama

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:411

    Content type: Research article

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  24. Chronic myeloid leukaemia is in principle a treatable malignancy but drug resistance is lowering survival. Recent drug discoveries have opened up new options for drug combinations, which is a concept used in o...

    Authors: H. Jonathan G. Lindström and Ran Friedman

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:397

    Content type: Research Article

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  25. According to GLOBOSCAN, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) claimed 782,000 lives in 2018. The tyrosine kinase inhibitor sofafenib is used to treat HCC, but new anticancer agents targeting different pathways are ur...

    Authors: Ruey-Shyang Soong, Ravi K. Anchoori, Richard B. S. Roden, Rou-Ling Cho, Yi-Chan Chen, Sheng-Chieh Tseng, Yun-Li Huang, Po-Cheng Liao and Yu-Chiau Shyu

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:386

    Content type: Research article

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  26. Modified docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil (mDCF) regimen has become a new standard for the treatment of metastatic or unresectable locally advanced recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the anus (SCCA) ...

    Authors: Stefano Kim, Bruno Buecher, Thierry André, Marine Jary, François-Clément Bidard, François Ghiringhelli, Éric François, Julien Taieb, Denis Smith, Christelle de la Fouchardière, Jérôme Desramé, Emmanuelle Samalin, Aurélie Parzy, Nabil Baba-Hamed, Olivier Bouché, David Tougeron…

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:352

    Content type: Study protocol

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  27. Cancer patients often receive multiple drugs to maximize their therapeutic benefit, treat co-morbidities and counter the adverse effects of chemotherapy. Concomitant administration of multiple drugs increases ...

    Authors: Mohammad Ismail, Sehrash Khan, Fahadullah Khan, Sidra Noor, Hira Sajid, Shazia Yar and Irum Rasheed

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:335

    Content type: Research article

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  28. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The only drug currently approved for clinical use in the treatment of advanced HCC is sorafenib. However, many patients w...

    Authors: Hanhee Jo, Yusun Park, Taehun Kim, Jisu Kim, Jong Sook Lee, Seon Yoo Kim, Jee-in Chung, Hae yong Ko, Jae-Chul Pyun, Kyung Sik Kim, Misu Lee and Mijin Yun

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:332

    Content type: Research article

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  29. We investigated whether head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) reaffirm patient responses to anti-cancer therapeutics.

    Authors: Han Na Kang, Jae-Hwan Kim, A-Young Park, Jae Woo Choi, Sun Min Lim, Jinna Kim, Eun Joo Shin, Min Hee Hong, Kyoung-Ho Pyo, Mi Ran Yun, Dong Hwi Kim, Hanna Lee, Sun Och Yoon, Da Hee Kim, Young Min Park, Hyung Kwon Byeon…

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:316

    Content type: Research article

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  30. Cancer metastasis and drug resistance have traditionally been studied separately, though these two lethal pathological phenomena almost always occur concurrently. Brain metastasis occurs in a large proportion ...

    Authors: Neal Shah, Zhongwei Liu, Rachel M. Tallman, Afroz Mohammad, Samuel A. Sprowls, Pushkar A. Saralkar, Schuyler D. Vickers, Mark V. Pinti, Weimin Gao and Paul R. Lockman

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:292

    Content type: Research article

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  31. While epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) exert a breakthrough effect, the incidence of skin disorders as a side effect has significantly reduced patients’ quality of life...

    Authors: Kazumi Sano, Kazuhiko Nakadate and Kazuhiko Hanada

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:279

    Content type: Research article

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  33. Multiple myeloma (MM) remains incurable despite recent therapeutic advances. RAS mutations are frequently associated with relapsed/refractory disease. Efforts to target the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MA...

    Authors: Priya Sriskandarajah, Alexis De Haven Brandon, Kenneth MacLeod, Neil O. Carragher, Vladimir Kirkin, Martin Kaiser and Steven R. Whittaker

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:269

    Content type: Research article

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  34. Clinical outcomes of patients with osteosarcoma remain unsatisfactory, with little improvement in a 5-year overall survival over the past three decades. There is a substantial need for further research and dev...

    Authors: Nut Koonrungsesomboon, Nuttapong Ngamphaiboon, Natavudh Townamchai, Pimpisa Teeyakasem, Chaiyut Charoentum, Pimlak Charoenkwan, Rungrote Natesirinilkul, Lalita Sathitsamitphong, Touch Ativitavas, Parunya Chaiyawat, Jeerawan Klangjorhor, Suradej Hongeng and Dumnoensun Pruksakorn

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:268

    Content type: Study protocol

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  35. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are an integral part of bladder cancer therapy, however, the relevance of ICI treatment for mixed and pure squamous cell carcinoma of the bladder remains poorly studied. Ther...

    Authors: Ronja Morsch, Michael Rose, Angela Maurer, Maria Angela Cassataro, Till Braunschweig, Ruth Knüchel, Thomas-Alexander Vögeli, Thorsten Ecke, Markus Eckstein, Veronika Weyerer, Irene Esposito, Maximilian Ackermann, Günter Niegisch and Nadine T. Gaisa

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:230

    Content type: Research article

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  36. Simeoni and colleagues introduced a compartmental model for tumor growth that has proved quite successful in modeling experimental therapeutic regimens in oncology. The model is based on a system of ordinary d...

    Authors: James A. Koziol, Theresa J. Falls and Jan E. Schnitzer

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:226

    Content type: Technical advance

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  37. Casein kinase II (CK2) is involved in multiple tumor-relevant signaling pathways affecting proliferation and apoptosis. CK2 is frequently upregulated in acute B-lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) and can be target...

    Authors: Anna Richter, Sina Sender, Annemarie Lenz, Rico Schwarz, Burkhard Hinz, Gudrun Knuebel, Anett Sekora, Hugo Murua Escobar, Christian Junghanss and Catrin Roolf

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:184

    Content type: Research article

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  38. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous disease with a complex biology and a wide number of altered genes such as BRAF, KRAS and PIK3CA. Advances with new-targeted therapies have been achieved and available...

    Authors: Evelina Miele, Luana Abballe, Gian Paolo Spinelli, Zein Mersini Besharat, Giuseppina Catanzaro, Martina Chiacchiarini, Alessandra Vacca, Agnese Po, Carlo Capalbo and Elisabetta Ferretti

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:129

    Content type: Research article

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  39. Currently, complete surgical resection represents the only potentially curative treatment option for Biliary Tract Cancer (BTC) including Gallbladder Cancer (GBC). Even after curative resection, 5-year OS is o...

    Authors: Thorsten O. Goetze, Wolf O. Bechstein, Ulli Simone Bankstahl, Tobias Keck, Alfred Königsrainer, Sven A. Lang, Claudia Pauligk, Pompiliu Piso, Arndt Vogel and Salah-Eddin Al-Batran

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:122

    Content type: Study protocol

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  41. The SWI/SNF complex is an important chromatin remodeler, commonly dysregulated in cancer, with an estimated mutation frequency of 20%. ARID1A is the most frequently mutated subunit gene. Almost nothing is know...

    Authors: Simon Schallenberg, Julian Bork, Ahlem Essakly, Hakan Alakus, Reinhard Buettner, Axel M. Hillmer, Christiane Bruns, Wolfgang Schroeder, Thomas Zander, Heike Loeser, Florian Gebauer and Alexander Quaas

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:12

    Content type: Research article

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  42. Cell migration and invasion are essential processes for metastatic dissemination of cancer cells. Significant progress has been made in developing new therapies against oncogenic signaling to eliminate cancer ...

    Authors: Pradip Shahi Thakuri, Megha Gupta, Sunil Singh, Ramila Joshi, Eric Glasgow, Alexander Lekan, Seema Agarwal, Gary D. Luker and Hossein Tavana

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2020 20:4

    Content type: Research article

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  43. Bcl-2 family members play an important role in the development of malignant lymphoma and can induce drug resistance in anticancer treatment. The development of small molecules targeting Bcl-2 family proteins m...

    Authors: Yue-Li Sun, Wen-Qi Jiang, Qiu-Yun Luo, Da-Jun Yang, Yu-Chen Cai, Hui-Qiang Huang and Jian Sun

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 20:1

    Content type: Research article

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  44. Pediatric low-grade gliomas (PLGG) are the most frequent brain tumors in children. Up to 50% will be refractory to conventional chemotherapy. It is now known that the majority of PLGG have activation of the MA...

    Authors: Sébastien Perreault, Valérie Larouche, Uri Tabori, Cynthia Hawkin, Sarah Lippé, Benjamin Ellezam, Jean-Claude Décarie, Yves Théoret, Marie-Élaine Métras, Serge Sultan, Édith Cantin, Marie-Ève Routhier, Maxime Caru, Geneviève Legault, Éric Bouffet, Lucie Lafay-Cousin…

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:1250

    Content type: Study protocol

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  45. Lung cancer (LC) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, which highlights the urgent need for better therapies. Peroxisome proliferator-activated nuclear receptor alpha (PPARα), known as a key nuclear...

    Authors: Lujin Wu, Wei Wang, Meiyan Dai, Huihui Li, Chen Chen and Daowen Wang

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:1166

    Content type: Research article

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  47. The CAO/ARO/AIO-94 demonstrated that neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) could decrease the rate of local recurrence rather than distal metastases in advanced rectal cancer. Adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) can eli...

    Authors: Qingguo Li, Dakui Luo, Ji Zhu, Lifeng Yang, Qi Liu, Yanlei Ma, Lei Liang, Sanjun Cai, Zhen Zhang and Xinxiang Li

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:1117

    Content type: Study protocol

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  48. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents 15–20% of breast cancers. Due to its heterogeneity and high rates of relapse, there is a need to optimize treatment efficacy. Platinum chemotherapy is still cont...

    Authors: Jessa Gilda P. Pandy, Joanmarie C. Balolong-Garcia, Mel Valerie B. Cruz-Ordinario and Frances Victoria F. Que

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:1065

    Content type: Research article

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  50. MYC amplification or overexpression is common in Group 3 medulloblastoma and is associated with the worst prognosis. Recently, protein arginine methyl transferase (PRMT) 5 expression has been closely associate...

    Authors: Nagendra K. Chaturvedi, Sidharth Mahapatra, Varun Kesherwani, Matthew J. Kling, Mamta Shukla, Sutapa Ray, Ranjana Kanchan, Naveenkumar Perumal, Timothy R. McGuire, J. Graham Sharp, Shantaram S. Joshi and Don W. Coulter

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:1056

    Content type: Research article

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