September 15 Clinical Cncer Research Highlights

Selected Articles from the September 15, 2007 Issue

The articles referenced in this Highlights section will be available online in HTML and PDF formats to all interested users at no charge until the next issue of Clinical Cancer Research is published. Click on the article title to view the complete article.

View the Table of Contents for the September 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

CCR Focus:

Immune Regulation and Immunotherapy

Hwu et al.

Page 5249

This issue of CCR Focus examines the barriers to successful immunotherapy and discusses new therapeutic strategies aimed at overcoming them. Five articles address this topic, each from a different aspect of approaching barriers to expoiting the immune response in the treatment of cancer: Lizée and Hwu in the overview; Gajewski in a review of negative regulatory pathways; Zang and Allison on programming the B-7 family of costimulators and coinhibitors; Wrzesinski and colleagues on avoiding the immunosuppressive activity of TGF-β, and Paulos and colleagues on enhancing toll-like receptor signaling. For the non-immunologist, these articles brilliantly highlight the approaches currently underway to finally add immunotherapy to the clinical armamentarium.

Gene Sets Profile Low-Malignant Breast Cancer

Thomassen et al.

Page 5355

In the low-risk group of breast cancer patients, a subgroup experience metastatic recurrence of the disease. Thomassen and colleagues examined the performance of gene sets, developed mainly from high-risk tumors, in a group of low-malignant tumors. Despite a relatively small overlap between gene sets, there was high concordance of classification of samples. Together with analysis of functional gene groups, this indicated that the same pathways may be represented by several of the gene sets. The investigators concluded that several gene sets, mainly developed in high-risk cancers, predict metastasis from low-malignant cancer.

New Method Detects EGFR Mutations in Advanced NSCLC

Takano et al.

Page 5385

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations, especially deletional mutations in exon 19 (DEL) and L858R, predict gefitinib sensitivity in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Takano and colleagues validated EGFR mutation detection by using high-resolution melting analysis (HRMA) and evaluated the associations between EGFR mutations and clinical outcomes in patients with advanced NSCLC who were treated with gefitinib. The investigators concluded that HRMA is a precise method for detecting DEL and L858R mutations and is useful for predicting clinical outcomes in patients with advanced NSCLC treated with gefitinib.

Fas Ligand Delivery Improved

Li et al.

Page 5463

Li et al. Fas ligand (FasL) works as a potential antitumor agent by inducing apoptosis in tumor cells. The toxicity of FasL, however, limits further administration. Li and colleagues developed an improved prostate-restricted replicative adenovirus (PRRA) AdIU3 to deliver FasL specifically in prostate cancer cells by using two individual PSES enhancers to control both virus replication and FasL transgene expression. AdIU3 greatly enhanced the antitumor efficacy by the combination of oncolytic effect of adenovirus and bystander killing of FasL, while decreasing the toxicity of FasL by the control of PSES. The studies suggested that toxic antitumor factors can be delivered safely by a PRRA.

September 15 Clinical Cncer Research Highlights

Selected Articles from the September 15, 2007 Issue

Immune Regulation and Immunotherapy

Gene Sets Profile Low-Malignant Breast Cancer

New Method Detects EGFR Mutations in Advanced NSCLC

Fas Ligand Delivery Improved

Highlights

Highlights: CCR

Highlights: Cancer Research

Highlights: CEBP

Highlights: MCT

AACR Journals

Cancer Research Home

Clinical Cancer Research Home

CEBP Home

Molecular Cancer Research Home

Molecular Cancer Therapeutics Home

Cancer Reviews Online Home