CONTEXT Radiation recall has been described in the context of gemcitabine chemotherapy. However, this phenomenon has been largely limited to skin. CASE REPORT We hereby report a case of radiation recall dermatitis and myositis occurring on gemcitabine monotherapy, five months after completing chemoradiation for locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Radiation recall resolved spontaneously with w...

Gemcitabine (2',2'-difluorodeoxycytidine) is a novel pyrimidine nucleoside drug with clinical efficacy in several common epithelial cancers. We have proposed that gemcitabine requires nucleoside transporter (NT) proteins to permeate the plasma membrane and to exhibit pharmacological activity. In humans, there are seven reported distinct NT activities varying in substrate specificity, sodium dep...

OBJECTIVES Isolated lung perfusion with gemcitabine is an effective technique for the treatment of lung metastases in an experimental model. In clinical studies, increased toxicity has been observed when combining intravenous gemcitabine with radiotherapy (RT). The goal of our study was to determine whether RT in combination with isolated lung perfusion increases lung toxicity. METHODS Rodent...

Metastatic pancreatic cancer is an aggressive malignancy that is difficult to treat. Gemcitabine monotherapy has been used first line and many contemporary treatment approaches have focused on gemcitabine plus experimental agents. The 2012 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium Abstract #213 is a study of gemcitabine with IPI-926, a novel hedgehog pathway inhibitor. Abstract #227 is a study of...

This meta-analysis was designed to compare the efficacy and safety of gemcitabine-based regimens for the treatment advanced breast cancer (ABC). Altogether 15 studies involving 8195 ABC patients were retrieved for analysis. Compared with non-gemcitabine-based chemotherapies, patients receiving gemcitabine-based therapy exhibited better overall survival (OS), progression free survival (PFS), and...

The protein kinase checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1) has been implicated as a key regulator of cell cycle progression and DNA repair, and inhibitors of Chk1 (e.g., UCN-01 and EXEL-9844) potentiate the cytotoxic actions of chemotherapeutic drugs in tumor cells. We have examined the ability of PD-321852, a small-molecule Chk1 inhibitor, to potentiate gemcitabine-induced clonogenic death in a panel of pa...

BACKGROUND Gemcitabine is a pyrimidine nucleoside analog that is clinically active against pancreatic cancer. We have recently demonstrated that p38 MAPK is specifically activated by gemcitabine and that pharmacological blockade of p38 MAPK signaling prevented gemcitabine-induced apoptosis in human pancreatic cancer cells. In this study, we further investigated the implication of p38 MAPK in th...

The objective of this study was to determine potential mechanisms of apoptotic activity of gemcitabine, a pyrimidine nucleoside analogue, in the MM1.S multiple myeloma (MM) cell line. A MM cell line that is sensitive to glucocorticoids (MM1.S) was used for this study. Immunoblotting analysis, cell cycle assays, and annexin V staining were performed to determine whether gemcitabine induced apopt...

Gemcitabine is an effective chemotherapy against non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, resistance to gemcitabine reduces its efficacy. We have isolated gemcitabine-resistant human non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells, termed A549/GR cells. A549/GR cells were resistant to gemcitabine as well as paclitaxel and docetaxel but not carboplatin and irinotecan. The expression level of multidrug...

Autophagy has recently emerged as a significant mechanism in cancer treatment. Although gemcitabine and/or ionizing radiation are important modalities in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, the contribution of autophagy in such treatment has not been fully elucidated. This study investigated the role of autophagy in the treatment of pancreatic cancer with gemcitabine and ionizing radiation. To ...