In spite of the expenditure of many billions of dollars, cancer will soon become the major cause of human death other than aging [1]. Much of the funding allocated to cancer research has merely sustained the vested interests of those promoting the use of chemotherapeutic drugs designed to selectively kill cancer cells [2]. Incremental advances in understanding the biochemistry of cancer cells a...

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone tumor in children and young adults. Resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs is a major problem that is responsible for the failure of treatment. This points to the need for increasing the responsiveness to cytotoxic drugs. We previously showed that lipophilic statins induce apoptosis in human osteosarcoma cells. In this study, we investigated the effect...

Chemoresistant mechanisms in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) patients are not clarified. The apoptotic signaling mediated by receptor of activated C kinase 1 (Rack1), protein kinase C (PKC) and FEM1 homolog b (FEM1b) was investigated in two T-ALL-derived cell lines (Jurkat and CCRF-CEM) following treatment with chemotherapy drugs vincristine and prednisone. Serum starvation or chemo...

The failure of cytotoxic chemotherapy in breast cancers has been closely associated with the presence of drug resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs). Thus, screening for small molecules that selectively inhibit growth of CSCs may offer great promise for cancer control, particularly in combination with chemotherapy. In this report, we provide the first demonstration that cardamonin, a small molecule...

Patient relapse and metastasis of malignant cells is very common after standard cancer treatment with surgery, radiation, and/or chemotherapy. Chemotherapy, a cornerstone in the development of present day cancer therapy, is one of the most effective and potent strategies to treat malignant tumors. However, the resistance of cancer cells to the drugs remains a significant impediment to successfu...

Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) is a promising technique for non-invasive, targeted drug delivery, and its applications in chemotherapeutic drug delivery to solid tumors have attracted growing interest. Ultrasound, which has been conventionally used for diagnostic imaging, has evolved as a promising tool for therapeutic applications mainly because of its ability to be focused...

Chemotherapy is the most common clinical option for treatment of breast cancer. However, the efficacy of chemotherapy depends on the age of breast cancer patients. Breast tissues are estrogen responsive and the levels of ovarian estrogen vary among the breast cancer patients primarily between pre- and post-menopausal age. Whether this age-dependent variation in estrogen levels influences the ch...

diastolic phase of cardiac function is associated with lower arterial flow and hence higher concentration of intra arterially injected drug is achieved at the site of injection. it is herein postulated that drugs show higher efficacy when injected during the diastolic phase of cardiac function. it is also postulated that this benefit cannot be achieved when the drug is injected with higher rate...

In the mid-50s of last century, reports began to appear about ineffectiveness sulfonamides and antibiotics in bacterial infections. And soon widespread spread numerous strains antibiotic-resistant microorganisms was noted. The fight against drug-resistant bacteria is carried out several directions: obtaining new chemotherapeutic drugs, chemical modification known antibiotics, or use inhibitors ...