Anthracyclines are frequently used chemotherapeutic agents for childhood cancer that can cause cardiotoxicity during and after treatment. Although several medical interventions in adults with symptomatic or asymptomatic cardiac dysfunction due to other causes are beneficial, it is not known if the same treatments are effective for childhood cancer patients and survivors with anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity.

Many women with ovarian cancer eventually develop resistance to conventional chemotherapy drugs, and so novel agents are being developed to target specific molecular pathways. One such class of drugs inhibits angiogenesis (the development of new blood vessels), which is essential for tumour growth. It is important to establish whether the addition of these new drugs to conventional chemotherapy regimens improves survival, and what the side-effects may be.

The typical class side effect of anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibodies (panitumumab and cetuximab) is a cutaneous maculopapular rash, although hypomagnesemia is also described to be a frequent adverse event. The purpose of our meta-analysis is to evaluate the frequency and the relative risk of hypomagnesemia in patients treated with cetuximab or panitumumab in randomized trials.

A central goal of gene expression studies coupled with drug response screens is to identify predictive profiles that can be exploited to stratify patients. Numerous methods have been proposed towards this end, most of them focusing on novel statistical methods and model selection techniques that attempt to uncover groups of genes, whose expression profiles are directly and robustly correlated with drug response. However, biological systems process information through the crosstalk of multiple signaling networks, whose ultimate phenotypic consequences may only be determined by the combined input of relevant interacting systems. By restricting predictive signatures to direct gene-drug correlations, biologically meaningful interactions that may serve as superior predictors are ignored. Here we demonstrate that predictive signatures, which incorporate the interaction between background gene expression patterns and individual predictive probes, can provide superior models than those that directly relate gene expression levels to pharmacological response, and thus should be more widely utilized in pharmacogenetic studies.

Sunitinib is a multitargeted receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved for treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and GI stromal tumor. Congestive heart failure (CHF) is an important adverse effect that has been reported with sunitinib, but overall incidence and relative risk (RR) remain undefined. We performed an up-to-date meta-analysis to determine the risk of developing CHF in patients with both RCC and non-RCC tumors treated with sunitinib.

As trials of 5 years of tamoxifen in early breast cancer mature, the relevance of hormone receptor measurements (and other patient characteristics) to long-term outcome can be assessed increasingly reliably. We report updated meta-analyses of the trials of 5 years of adjuvant tamoxifen.

To perform a meta-analysis in order to quantify the actual cumulative randomized evidence for the benefit and toxicity of trastuzumab combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapy in HER2-positive breast cancer.

Discovery of the over-expression of Her-2/neu or the amplification of its regulatory gene in stomach and esophageal cancer has resulted in targeted treatment directed at this protein. The fact itself and its consequences have been the topic of an abundance of studies and clinical trials. In the present report we review the current state of the art as regards diagnosis of the over-expression and amplification of Her-2/neu, its inhibition as a new therapeutic concept, treatment toxicity, and the development of resistance to Her-2/neu as a limiting factor in stomach and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

Imatinib at a dose of 400 mg daily is considered frontline treatment in chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CP-CML). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials comparing frontline treatment with imatinib 400 mg daily versus higher doses (≥600 mg daily) in patients with CP-CML. The search yielded four trials, randomizing 1,673 patients. At 12 months, high dose compared with standard dose imatinib improved complete cytogenetic response (CCyR) (RR 1.17, 95% CI 1.08-1.26, four trials, I(2) = 33%) as well as major molecular response (MMolR) (RR 1.26, 95% CI 1.12-1.42, four trials, I(2) = 0%). There was no difference in all-cause mortality or disease progression at the end of follow up. Adverse events requiring discontinuation were more common in the high-dose arm (RR 1.98, 95% CI 1.20-3.26, three trials, I(2) = 0%), as were Grade III/IV neutropenia and thrombocytopenia: RR 1.56, 95% CI 1.15-2.12 and RR 1.86, 95% CI 1.28-2.70, respectively. There is currently insufficient evidence to support the routine use of higher doses of imatinib as frontline treatment for CP-CML. Extended follow up is needed to evaluate if the superior CCyR and MMolR with higher doses of imatinib will translate to long-term clinical benefit.

Aromatase inhibitors are associated with consistent improvements in disease-free survival but not in overall survival. We conducted a literature-based meta-analysis of randomized trials to examine whether the relative toxicity of aromatase inhibitors compared with tamoxifen may explain this finding.

Survival rates have greatly improved as a result of more effective treatments for childhood cancer. Unfortunately the improved prognosis has resulted in the occurrence of late, treatment-related complications. Liver complications are common during and soon after treatment for childhood cancer. However, among long-term childhood cancer survivors the risk of hepatic late adverse effects is largely unknown. To make informed decisions about future cancer treatment and follow-up policies it is important to know the risk of, and associated risk factors for, hepatic late adverse effects.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of multikinase inhibitors sunitinib, sorafenib, and pazopanib have reported efficacy compared with results from placebo and interferon-α (INF-α). To date, these drugs have not been compared in head-to-head trials.

Since the introduction of chemotherapy, survival in localised high-grade osteosarcoma has improved considerably. However, there is still no worldwide consensus on a standard chemotherapy approach. In this systematic review evidence for effectiveness of each single drug and the role of response guided salvage treatment of adjuvant chemotherapy are addressed, whereas in a meta-analysis the number of drugs in current protocols is considered.

Anthracyclines are among the most effective chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of numerous malignancies. Unfortunately, their use is limited by a dose-dependent cardiotoxicity. In an effort to prevent this cardiotoxicity, different cardioprotective agents have been studied.

The purpose of this study is to review the effects of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) in the prevention and treatment of cancer therapy-induced oral mucositis (OM).

The present study documents the chemosensitizing anti-leukemic activity of the leflunomide metabolite (LFM) analog, LFM-A13, a dual-function inhibitor of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) and Polo-like kinases (PLK), against human leukemic B-cell precursors. The results in 135 xenografted NOD/SCID mice regarding the anti-leukemic activity of GMP-grade LFM-A13, obtained with only 4-days of LFM-A13 therapy at nontoxic dose levels corresponding to 1-20% of its NOAEL (no observable advserse effect level), alone or in combination with the standard chemotherapy drug vincristine, demonstrate the potential of LFM-A13 as a new anti-leukemic drug candidate. All 82 LFM-A13-treated mice, including those receiving a combination of vincristine + LFM-A13 at the highest dose level of LFM-A13, tolerated their treatments well without weight loss, diarrhea, lethargy/ paralysis, other signs of morbidity, or mortality. The present study provides preclinical proof-of-principle for the development of LFM-A13 as a new chemosensitizing and apoptosis-promoting anti-leukemic agent and lends support to the hypothesis that the chemoresistance of relapsed B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL) can be overcome by using LFM-A13 in combination with chemotherapy. Also presented are the results of a comprehensive meta-analysis of the overexpression of genes for LFM-A13 targeted kinases and their downstream effector molecules in B-lineage lymphoid malignancies utilizing the Oncomine database.

Pancreatic cancer was the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States in 2010. Recurrence of disease after resection occurs because of neoplastic cell survival. To better understand these highly aggressive cells, gene expression microarrays were performed.

The role of cytoreductive nephrectomy in metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is controversial.

To compare docetaxel-based doublet with single-agent docetaxel as second-line treatment in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).