H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute

TEN BEST READINGS ON NEW ANTICANCER DRUGS

William S. Dalton, PhD, MD

From the Hematologic Malignancies Program, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, Fla.


The ten best articles in the medical literature relating to anticancer drugs are reviewed here.

Darnell JE Jr. STATs and gene regulation. Science. 1997;277: 1630-1635.

Signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) comprise a family of latent cytoplasmic proteins that are activated to participate in gene control when cells encounter various extracellular polypeptides.


Garcia R, Jove R. Activation of STAT transcription factors in oncogenic tyrosine kinase signaling. J Biomed Sci. 1998;5:79-85.

Recent findings support a model in which activation of STAT signaling in the context of oncogenesis induces gene expression that participates in malignant transformation.


Catlett-Falcone R, Landowski TH, Oshiro MM, et al. Constitutive activation of Stat3 signaling confers resistance to apoptosis in human U266 myeloma cells. Immunity. 1999;10:105-115.

Constitutively activated Stat3 signaling contributes to the pathogenesis of multiple myeloma by preventing apoptosis.


Dalton WS. Mechanisms of drug resistance in hematologic malignancies. Semin Hematol. 1997;34(4 suppl 5):3-8.

Drugs, called chemosensitizers, have been designed to overcome P-gp-mediated drug resistance, and these agents are now being tested in the clinic.


Folkman J. Tumor angiogenesis: therapeutic implications. N Engl Med. 1971;285:1182-1186.

This article is of historical interest to the workers in the burgeoning field of angiogenesis and angiogenesis inhibition.


Fidler IJ, Ellis LM. The implications of angiogenesis for the biology and therapy of cancer metastasis. Cell. 1994;79:185-188.

The discovery of angiostatin confirms the conclusion that the process of cancer metastasis is highly selective and is regulated by a number of different mechanisms. This conclusion is contrary to the once-accepted idea that metastasis represents the ultimate expression of cellular anarchy.


Boehm T, Folkman J, Browder T, et al. Antiangiogenic therapy of experimental cancer does not induce acquired drug resistance. Nature. 1997;390:404-407.

These experiments show that drug resistance does not develop in three tumor types treated with a potent angiogenesis inhibitor. An unexpected finding is that repeated cycles of antiangiogenic therapy are followed by prolonged tumor dormancy without further therapy.


Balducci L, Extermann M. Cancer chemotherapy in the older patient: what the medical oncologist needs to know. Cancer. 1997;80:1317-1322.

A comprehensive assessment of the older person with cancer allows clinicians to predict the benefits and risks of cancer chemotherapy in individual circumstances.


Moinpour CM. Measuring quality of life: an emerging science. Semin Oncol. 1994;21 (suppl 10): 48-63.

Quality of life variables are increasingly included as end-points in cancer therapy trials, supplementing such traditional end-points as survival time in evaluating the effects of cancer treatments.


Moore MJ, Osoba D, Murphy K, et al. Use of palliative end points to evaluate the effects of mitoxantrone and low-dose prednisone in patients with hormonally resistant prostate cancer. J Clin Oncol. 1994;12:689-694.

Mitoxantrone with low-dose prednisone is a well-tolerated treatment regimen that has some beneficial effects on disease-related symptoms and quality of life for patients with advanced prostate cancer.


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