Gastric cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Taxanes have shown therapeutic effects against gastric cancer while also activating the PI3K/mTOR signaling pathway. We investigated the effects of NVP-BEZ235 (BEZ235), a novel dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor, alone and in combination with nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-paclitaxel in experimental gastric cancer. Cell ...

Patients with clear cell carcinoma of the ovary (OCCC) have poor survival due to resistance to standard chemotherapy. OCCC has frequent activating mutations of the PIK3CA gene. The present study was conducted to clarify the efficacy of the inhibition of the PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway in OCCC. We used 8 OCCC cell lines and 5 ovarian serous adenocarcinoma (OSAC) cell lines. The mutation status of the ...

Introduction Thyroid cancer is a malignant disease with poor prognosis. The PI3K/Akt/mTOR and Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 4 (CDK4) pathways are vital regulators of tumor cell proliferation and survival. Therefore the present study was designed to use dual inhibition of such pathways to kill thyroid cancer cells. Methods and materials The effects of each inhibitors on human ATC and...

Introduction Thyroid cancer is a malignant disease with poor prognosis. The PI3K/Akt/mTOR and Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 4 (CDK4) pathways are vital regulators of tumor cell proliferation and survival. Therefore the present study was designed to use dual inhibition of such pathways to kill thyroid cancer cells. Methods and materials The effects of each inhibitors on human ATC and...

PURPOSE Altered PI3K/mTOR signaling is implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of breast cancers, including those resistant to hormonal and HER2-targeted therapies. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN The activity of four classes of PI3K/mTOR inhibitory molecules, including a pan-PI3K inhibitor (NVP-BKM120), a p110α isoform-specific PI3K inhibitor (NVP-BYL719), an mTORC1-specific inhibitor (NVP-RAD001), a...

Commentary on: Sauveur-Michel Maira, Fr ed eric Stauffer, Josef Brueggen, Pascal Furet, Christian Schnell, Christine Fritsch, Saskia Brachmann, Patrick Ch ene, Alain De Pover, Kevin Schoemaker, Doriano Fabbro, Daniela Gabriel, Marjo Simonen, Leon Murphy, Peter Finan, William Sellers, and Carlos García-Echeverría. Identification and characterization of NVP-BEZ235, a new orally available dual pho...

Small molecule inhibitors of HER2 are clinically active in women with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer who have progressed on trastuzumab treatment. However, the effectiveness of this class of agents is limited by either primary resistance or acquired resistance. Using an unbiased genetic approach, we performed a genome wide loss-of-function short hairpin RNA screen to identify novel modula...

BMP7 is a growth factor playing pro- or anti-oncogenic roles in cancer in a cell type-dependent manner. We previously reported that the BMP7 gene is overexpressed in pheochromocytomas (PCCs) developing in MENX-affected rats and human patients. Here, analyzing a large cohort of PCC patients, we found that 72% of cases showed elevated levels of the BMP7 protein. To elucidate the role of BMP7 in P...