Several factors can limit the use of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) for cancer chemotherapeutic agents, including poorly defined concentration-effect relationships for many antineoplastic agents. This is further complicated by cancer being a highly heterogeneous group of diseases, each of which may have a unique concentration-effect relationship for any given drug or drug combination. Noneth...

Antineoplastic agents directed at nuclear and cytoplasmic targets in tumor cells represent the current mainstay of treatment for patients with disseminated malignant diseases. Cellular uptake of antineoplastics is a prerequisite for their efficacy. Five of six lymphoma cell lines as well as primary samples from chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients demonstrated significant expression of SLC22A1...

BACKGROUND One of the major mechanisms that could produce resistance to antineoplastic drugs in cancer cells is the ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporters. The ABC transporters can significantly decrease the intracellular concentration of antineoplastic drugs by increasing their efflux, thereby lowering the cytotoxic activity of antineoplastic drugs. One of these transporters, the multiple res...

OBJECTIVES Some targeted therapies have improved survival and overall quality of cancer care generally, but these increasingly expensive medicines have led to increases in pharmaceutical expenditure. This study examined trends in use and expenditures of antineoplastic agents in Taiwan, and estimated market shares by prescription volume and costs of targeted therapies over time. We also determin...

UNLABELLED Laboratory research and pharmacoepidemiology are providing converging evidence that the widely used antidiabetic drug metformin has antineoplastic activity, but there are caveats. Although population studies suggest that metformin exposure is associated with reduced cancer risk and/or improved prognosis, these data are mostly retrospective and nonrandomized. Laboratory models show an...

Sarcoidosis is a systemic inflammatory disease characterized by the development of noncaseating granulomas in multiple organ systems. Many hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, including melanoma, have been associated with sarcoidosis. We describe the clinical and pathologic findings of a 54-year-old man with melanoma-associated sarcoidosis. In addition, we not only review the literature d...

PURPOSE Antineoplastic preparation presents unique safety concerns and consumes significant pharmacy staff time and costs. Robotic antineoplastic and adjuvant medication compounding may provide incremental safety and efficiency advantages compared with standard pharmacy practices. METHODS We conducted a direct observation trial in an academic medical center pharmacy to compare the effects of ...

OBJECTIVES Protease inhibitors are one of the most promising and investigated subjects for their role in pharmacognostical and pharmacological studies. This study aimed to investigate antineoplastic and antioxidant activity of trypsin inhibitors (TIs) isolated from three plant sources and their inhibitory role in the cell line. MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY TIs were obtained from different plant ...

Defects in apoptotic pathways can promote cancer cell survival and also confer resistance to antineoplastic drugs. One pathway being targeted for antineoplastic therapy is the anti-apoptotic B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) family of proteins (Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, Bcl-w, Mcl-1, Bfl1/A-1, and Bcl-B) that bind to and inactivate BH3-domain pro-apoptotic proteins. Signals transmitted by cellular damage (includi...

Farnesyltransferase (FTase) inhibitors (FTI) have broad antineoplastic actions targeting both cancer cells and mesenchymal cells involved in tumor angiogenesis. The small GTPases H-Ras, Rheb, and RhoB and the centromere proteins CENP-E and CENP-F are relevant targets of farnesylation inhibition; however, their relative importance in the antineoplastic effect of FTIs may vary in different cell t...