Skip to main content

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.

Page 1 of 11

  1. 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

    Published on:

  2. 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

    Published on:

  3. 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

    Published on:

  4. 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

    Published on:

  5. 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

    Published on:

  6. 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

    Published on:

  7. 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

    Published on:

  8. 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

    Published on:

  9. 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

    Published on:

  10. 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

    Published on:

  11. 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

    Published on:

  12. 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

    Published on:

  13. 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

    Published on:

  14. 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

    Published on:

  15. 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

    Published on:

  16. 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

    Published on:

  17. 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

    Published on:

  18. 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

    Published on:

  20. 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

    Published on:

  21. 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

    Published on:

  22. 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

    Published on:

  23. 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

    Published on:

  24. 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

    Published on:

  25. 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

    Published on:

  26. 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

    Published on:

  28. 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

    Published on:

  29. 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

    Published on:

  30. 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

    Published on:

  31. 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

    Published on:

  32. 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

    Published on:

  34. 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

    Published on:

  35. 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

    Published on:

  37. 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

    Published on:

  38. Neuroblastoma (NB) is a frequent pediatric tumor associated with poor prognosis. The disregulation of Bcl-2, an anti-apoptotic protein, is crucial for the tumoral development and chemoresistance. Autophagy is ...

    Authors: Sonia Cournoyer, Anissa Addioui, Assila Belounis, Mona Beaunoyer, Carine Nyalendo, Roxane Le Gall, Pierre Teira, Elie Haddad, Gilles Vassal and Hervé Sartelet

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:1018

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  39. Chemotherapy-induced alimentary mucositis (AM) is difficult to prevent and treatment is rarely effective. Recent study have been showed that glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 and GLP-2 has protective in chemothera...

    Authors: Jung Min Lee, In Kyung Yoo, Jae Min Lee, Seung Han Kim, Hyuk Soon Choi, Eun Sun Kim, Bora Keum, Yeon Seok Seo, Yoon Tae Jeen, Hoon Jai Chun, Hong Sik Lee, Soon Ho Um and Chang Duck Kim

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:1016

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  40. The high expression of BLM (Bloom syndrome) helicase in tumors involves its strong association with cell expansion. Bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloids own an antitumor property and have developed as candidates fo...

    Authors: Wangming Zhang, Shuang Yang, Jinhe Liu, Linchun Bao, He Lu, Hong Li, Weidong Pan, Yanchao Jiao, Zhixu He and Jielin Liu

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:1009

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  41. Although the dual anti-HER2 therapy, namely, pertuzumab plus trastuzumab and docetaxel, has shown promising results in HER2+ breast cancer patients, whether the dose, efficacy and safety of this treatment diff...

    Authors: Shanshan Chen, Yu Liang, Zhangying Feng and Mingxia Wang

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:973

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  42. Castrate Resistant Prostate Cancer (CRPC) is an advanced disease resistant to systemic traditional medical or surgical castration, and resistance is primarily attributed to reactivation of AR through multiple ...

    Authors: Louie Semaan, Navneet Mander, Michael L. Cher and Sreenivasa R. Chinni

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:972

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  43. We previously reported the synergistic effect of S-1 and eribulin in preclinical models. In addition, our phase I study revealed the recommended dose for the phase II study of the combination therapy in advanc...

    Authors: Tsutomu Iwasa, Junji Tsurutani, Satomi Watanabe, Ryoji Kato, Yutaka Mizuno, Yasuyuki Kojima, Tsutomu Takashima, Nobuki Matsunami, Takashi Morimoto, Jun Yamamura, Shoichiro Ohtani, Yuko Tanabe, Tetsuhiro Yoshinami, Toshimi Takano, Yoshifumi Komoike and Kazuhiko Nakagawa

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:962

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  44. The efficacy of hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. We conducted a multi-center randomized phase II study comparing a sequential HAIC-sora...

    Authors: Masaaki Kondo, Manabu Morimoto, Satoshi Kobayashi, Shinichi Ohkawa, Hisashi Hidaka, Takahide Nakazawa, Hiroshi Aikata, Takeshi Hatanaka, Daichi Takizawa, Kotaro Matsunaga, Chiaki Okuse, Michihiro Suzuki, Masataka Taguri, Takako Ishibashi, Kazushi Numata, Shin Maeda…

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:954

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  45. In the quest for new anti-cancer drugs, the drug discovery process has shifted to screening of active ingredients in traditional eastern medicine. Matrine is an active alkaloid isolated from plants of the Soph...

    Authors: Yuming Zou, Melika Sarem, Shengnan Xiang, Honggang Hu, Weidong Xu and V. Prasad Shastri

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:949

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  46. Intra-arterial therapy with embolics is established for the treatment of malignancies of the liver. However, there are no studies comparing the different effects of various embolics used in clinical practice. ...

    Authors: Christian Ziemann, Jonas Roller, Markus M. Malter, Kira Keller, Otto Kollmar, Matthias Glanemann, Michael D. Menger and Jens Sperling

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:938

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  48. Leukemia is a cancer of blood and bone marrow cells, causing about 300,000 deaths worldwide. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising alternative for the treatment of malignant tumors. KillerRed is a genetica...

    Authors: Meng Yuan, Chengcheng Liu, Jiao Li, Wenpeng Ma, Xiaozhuo Yu, Ping Zhang and Yanhong Ji

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:934

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  49. Current therapies fail to cure over a third of osteosarcoma patients and around three quarters of those with metastatic disease. “Smac mimetics” (also known as “IAP antagonists”) are a new class of anti-cancer...

    Authors: Tanmay M. Shekhar, Ingrid J. G. Burvenich, Michael A. Harris, Angela Rigopoulos, Damien Zanker, Alex Spurling, Belinda S. Parker, Carl R. Walkley, Andrew M. Scott and Christine J. Hawkins

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:924

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  50. Free flap-mediated gene therapy in the tumor bed following surgical resection is a promising approach in cancer targeted treatment of residual disease. We investigated the selective killing efficacy of a lenti...

    Authors: Jianhua Zhang, Yuanbo Liu, Mengqing Zang, Shan Zhu, Bo Chen, Shanshan Li, Bingjian Xue and Li Yan

    Citation: BMC Cancer 2019 19:921

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

Submit manuscript

Follow

BMC Cancer

ISSN: 1471-2407

Contact us