Journal of Cancer Biology

A man in his 90s presented to clinic with a conjunctival lesion on the right eye noticed two months prior. The patient denied pain but endorsed worsening blurry vision. The patient’s past medical history was significant for skin cancer on the right ear removed 3 years ago, and a history of ocular surface lesion removal on one eye approximately 20 years ago that was negative for any neoplasia. Slit lamp photograph revealed a gelatinous and opalescent lesion suspicious for ocular surface squamous neoplasia (OSSN) and the high-resolution optical coherence tomography (HROCT) cut (arrow)

Examining BRCA mutations in preoperative breast cancer patients is very important when selecting a surgical procedure. Although there are advantages and disadvantages associated with knowing about the presence of genetic mutations, including for the patient’s family, there are many benefits for the patient. BRCA genetic testing should be recommended for patients who are strongly suspected of being positive for a BRCA mutation. 

Chemotherapy?induced neutropenia (CIN) can cause life-threatening complications such as febrile neutropenia (FN) or other infections. Patients who develop FN often require prolonged hospitalizations and treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics.

Metastatic breast cancer to brain carries poor prognostic features with increased risks of occurrence in Tripple- negative and HER- positive breast tumors. In addition, tumors with mutated BRCA tumors, carry as well increased metastatic incidence. However, new clinical evidence suggest distinct clinical features between BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutated breast cancer and brain metastasis.

Brain metastases are a feared complication of breast cancer, occurring in 15-25% of patients and being associated with poor prognosis and reduced quality of life. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an advanced technique that uses powerful magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed three-dimensional (3D) images of the brain's neuroanatomy and any potential pathology, especially in the management of brain metastases. 

Epigenetics is the study of heritable modifications to gene expression, such as DNA methylation, histone modifications, and RNA modifications, that do not alter the nucleotide sequence of the corresponding gene. Recently, RNA modification has emerged as a novel research focus. 

The management of anxiety and distress in patients with cancer is stressful for the oncology clinicians who treat them. Unfortunately, psychosocial care for patients with cancer is not universally available or standardized. Referrals from oncology services to psychological serves are often not initiated early enough, may not be encouraged from medicine or surgical services, and are subsequently foregone or patients do not follow up beyond a single appointment.

Machine learning (ML) is a branch of artificial intelligence that uses an algorithm to process the data, retrieve valuable information, learn from it, find a pattern, and make predictions. Manual data analyses suffer from several disadvantages including it is time-consuming and subject to error.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a member of the ErbB family. It is involved in biological processes such as cell proliferation, angiogenesis, inhibition of apoptosis, adhesion, metastasis, and is associated with the progression of lung cancer [1-3].

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women in the United States. Because lung cancer is genetically heterogeneous, tailored therapy alone or in combination with chemotherapy would increase patient overall survival as compared with the one-size-fits-all chemotherapy. TP53-mutant lung cancer accounts for more than half of all lung cancer cases and is oftentimes more aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy. Directly targeting mutant p53 has not yet been successful, so identification of novel therapy targets and biomarkers in the TP53-mutant lung cancer is urgently needed to increase the overall survival in this subgroup.

Cryoablation of breast cancer offers an alternative to surgery for women who are not ideal surgical candidates. It is a minimally invasive procedure that has already had success in fibroadenoma treatment with good tumor reduction and cosmesis. The findings of cryoablation as treatment for early-stage, low-risk breast cancer has been previously discussed in the recently published article ‘Cryoablation: A promising non-operative therapy for low-risk breast cancer’.

In the United States, lung and bronchus cancers are the second most common types of cancer and are responsible for the largest number of deaths from cancer, with African Americans suffering disproportionately from lung and bronchus cancers. This disparity likely results from a complex interplay among social, psycho-social, lifestyle, environmental, health system, and biological determinants of health.

Evolution of our thinking and design of cancer therapeutics has gone through a tortuous path in the last eighty or so years, since the first patient was treated with a chemical agent. Introduction of nitrogen mustard in the treatment of cancer in 1940’s was based on a serendipitous finding and observation during the second world war.

Arthritis remains a common and debilitating disease affecting millions of people worldwide. Osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are among the most common forms of this chronic, degenerative disease, which is moving toward precision medicine.

Glomerulonephritis refers to inflammation and injury of the glomeruli, the tiny filtration units within the kidneys. It can arise from various causes like infections, autoimmunity, and genetic factors, and may be acute or chronic. Symptoms include blood and protein in the urine, high blood pressure, and swelling, though manifestations differ.

Living cell could be considered the most sophisticated anti-entropy machinery born in the heart of the strong and ferocious pro-entropy environment of the primordial ocean full of boiling and salty water, some thirty-eight hundred million years ago on this planet. Evolution of prokaryotes with a simple cell membrane to eukaryotes and later on multi-cellular organisms, has necessitated the birth and evolution of a protective microenvironment, which could shield and secure evolution of living organisms by its sophisticated anti-entropy components

Gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma remains a fatal condition worldwide, ranking fifth in prevalence and fourth in mortality globally [1]. The treatment of advanced gastric cancer is currently stratified based on MSI (Microsatellite Instability) status and HER2 status.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the world’s oldest known herbal medicine, has long been used in several Asian countries. Emerging evidence has demonstrated their effectiveness and safety in the treatment of various diseases, ranging from mild flu to severe cancers. A great number of patients have benefited by receiving TCM therapies. However, due to the complex chemical compositions of TCM, which could produce highly complex compound-protein binding interactions, the molecular mechanisms underlying the pharmacological actions of TCM still remain poorly understood. Specifically, it is difficult to identify and isolate the effective constituents from the mixture of many compounds, even the therapeutic targets are known.

Eight protein biomarkers (ER, PR, HER2, Cyclin A2, Cytokeratin 5, Vimentin, Bcl2, and Ki-67) were evaluated using tissue microarrays (TMAs) and immunohistochemistry (IHC). The IHC results from TMAs were analyzed by both supervised and unsupervised clustering methods. The predictive clusters for the supervised and unsupervised methods were compared for agreement with the empirical classification. Kappa values were used to determine the overall percent correct clusters and agreement between specific clusters.

In Goodman and Gilman's, “The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics,” we were all taught to search for the one molecule that targets a single pathway, and specifically targets only that one pathway, underlying a disease or condition to optimally develop a therapeutic.