Efficacy and safety of EGFR inhibitor gefitinib in recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer: a preliminary report

There has been growing interest in the use of epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors in various cancers. The study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of gefitinib as a monotherapy in patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer. Patients with cervical carcinoma who experienced locoregional recurrence or distant metastases either at presentation or after definitive combined chemoradiotherapy or postoperative radiotherapy were enrolled. Gefitinib was administered orally at a dose of 250 mg/d to eligible patients. Treatment with Gefitinib was continued until disease progression, intolerable adverse effects were developed, or consent was withdrawn. Clinical and radiological investigations were used to verify the disease response. Toxicity was graded according to the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 5.0. The study enrolled 32 patients who met the eligibility criteria. Thirty patients were available for the analysis. The majority of the patients included in the analysis had FIGO stage IIIB disease at their initial presentation. The median follow-up time was 6 months (3-15 months). Two patients (7%) had a complete clinical response, 7 patients (23%) had a partial response, 5 patients (17%) showed a stable disease and 16 patients had progressive disease (53%). The disease control rate was 47%. The median PFS was noted to be 4.5 months and the 1-year PFS was 20%. None of the individuals experienced toxicity of grade 3 or higher. All toxicities were managed conservatively. The study suggests that gefitinib may be a promising therapeutic option for patients with advanced cervical cancer who have limited treatment alternatives.

Cancer Categorization Using Genetic Algorithm to Identify Biomarker Genes

In the microarray gene expression data, there are a large number of genes that are expressed at varying levels of expression. Given that there are only a few critically significant genes, it is challenging to analyze and categorize datasets that span the whole gene space. In order to aid in the diagnosis of cancer disease and, as a consequence, the suggestion of individualized treatment, the discovery of biomarker genes is essential. Starting with a large pool of candidates, the parallelized minimal redundancy and maximum relevance ensemble (mRMRe) is used to choose the top m informative genes from a huge pool of candidates. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used to heuristically compute the ideal set of genes by applying the Mahalanobis Distance (MD) as a distance metric. Once the genes have been identified, they are input into the GA. It is used as a classifier to four microarray datasets using the approved approach (mRMRe-GA), with the Support Vector Machine (SVM) serving as the classification basis. Leave-One-Out-Cross-Validation (LOOCV) is a cross-validation technique for assessing the performance of a classifier. It is now being investigated if the proposed mRMRe-GA strategy can be compared to other approaches. It has been shown that the proposed mRMRe-GA approach enhances classification accuracy while employing less genetic material than previous methods. Microarray, Gene Expression Data, GA, Feature Selection, SVM, and Cancer Classification are some of the terms used in this paper.

Factors Contributing to Delays in the Management of Lung Cancer: Retrospective Study From Government Cancer Center in India

Background: Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer related morbidity and mortality among both the sexes. It accounts for 13% of all new cancer cases and 19% of cancer related deaths worldwide. In India, lung cancer constitutes 6.9% of all new cancer cases and 9.3% of all cancer related deaths in both sexes. Majority of them present in advanced disease. Aim: This study aims to identify the contributing factors for delays in lung cancer diagnosis and treatment. Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional observational study which was conducted at Department of Oncology, Mysore Medical College and Research Institute, India. Records of the all histologically confirmed lung cancer patients from the year 2011 to 2016 were reviewed. Results: A total of 133 patients were identified with lung cancer and their records were evaluated. Out of these 133 patients, 60% of the cases were males. The median age was 63 years with the youngest being 37 and the eldest was 83 years. Majority of patients were in stage III (59%) and IV (36%). About 89% of the patients were smokers. Non–small cell lung cancer accounted 83% (squamous cell 66.5%, adenocarcinoma 30.5%, large cell 1.5% and neuroendocrine 1.5%) and small cell lung cancer was 17%. A total of 17% (26) of patient were on empirical antitubercular treatment (ATT) since the onset of current symptoms. While analyzing delay with independent T test showed mean delay of 25.01 days (± SD 6.17) in patient without ATT and with ATT delay was 57.09 days (± SD 8.05) ( P ≤ 0.01). Thirty five percentage (46) of patient received treatment within 1 month from the first hospital visit, 28% (37) within two months and 37% (50) within 3-4 months of the first hospital visit. The delay to hospital visit was shorter in advanced cancer and small cell cancer maybe because of the acute presenting symptoms. Conclusion: Various factors contributing for the delays are lag time from symptom onset to first visit with primary physician, delay due to investigation and symptomatic treatment under primary physician care, delay further aggravated by empirical but inappropriate ATT, further delay due to diagnostic procedure to establish the cancer diagnosis. Thus proper and timely referral to the specialist from primary physician will reduce these delays and help to avoid situation where curable disease become incurable and significantly alters the prognosis.

BACE1 in Alzheimer's disease

Targeting BACE1 (β-site APP cleaving enzyme 1 or β-secretase) is the focus of Alzheimer's disease (AD) research because this aspartyl protease is involved in the abnormal production of β amyloid plaques (Aβ), the hallmark of its pathophysiology. Evidence suggests that there is a strong connection between AD and BACE1. As such, strategies to inhibit Aβ formation in the brain should prove beneficial for AD treatment. Aβ, the product of the large type1 trans-membrane protein amyloid precursor protein (APP), is produced in a two-step proteolytic process initiated by BACE1 (β-secretase) and followed by γ-secretase. Due to its apparent rate limiting function, BACE1 appears to be a prime target to prevent Aβ generation in AD. Following its discovery, the BACE1 has been cloned, its structure solved, novel physiologic substrates discovered and numerous inhibitors developed. This review focuses on elucidating the role of BACE1 to facilitate drug development in the treatment of AD.

Effect of ethanolic fruit extract of Cucumis trigonus Roxb. on antioxidants and lipid peroxidation in urolithiasis induced wistar albino rats

Urolithiasis was induced using ethylene glycol in wistar albino rats, the formation of calcium stones in the kidney results with the damage of antioxidant system. Ethanolic extract of Cucumis trigonus Roxb fruit of family Curcurbitaceae was used to treat urolithiasis. On this course, the extract also repairs the changes that happened in the enzymatic, non enzymatic antioxidants and lipid peroxidation in liver and kidney of urolithiasis induced rats. The results obtained from the analysis were compared at 5% level of significance using one way ANOVA. The results show that the ethanolic fruit extract has repaired the levels of antioxidants and malondialdehyde to their normal levels.

Biopotency of Acalypha indica Linn on Membrane Bound ATPases and Marker Enzymes urolithic Rats

The ethanolic extract of Acalypha indica was tested for its biopotency on membrane bound enzymes and marker enzymes in urolithiasis in male wistar albino rats. Calcium oxalate urolithiasis was induced by 0.75% ethylene glycol in drinking water for 30 days. There was a significant decrease in membrane bound enzymes such as Ca(2+) ATPase, Mg(2+) ATPase, Na(+)K(+) ATPase and marker enzymes Aspartate Transaminase (AST), Alanine Transaminase (ALT), Acid phosphatase (ACP) and Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) in liver and kidney. The AST, ALT, ACP and ALP were increased in serum and urine of rats. Therapeutic treatment with plant extract (200mg/kg b.wt.dose(-1) day(-1) oral(-1)) has significantly ameliorated to near normalcy in the curative group. These results of the present study concluded that A. indica can play an important role in the prevention of disorders associated with kidney stone formation.

In vitro Propagation of the Biodiesel Plant Jatropha curcas L

The biodiesel plant, Jatropha curcas L. was micropropagated using nodal explants on MS supplemented with BAP (1.5 mg/l), Kn (0.5 mg/l) and IAA (0.1 mg/l). Somatic embryos were induced directly from green cotyledon explants on MS fortified with 2 mg/l of BAP. The results of histological studies showed that several layers of meristematic cells participated in the formation of somatic embryos. Rooting was effectively achieved on MS supplemented with IAA at 1.0 mg/l. The subsequent hardening experiment showed that the commercial medium containing a mixture of decomposed coir waste, perlite and organic compost in the ratio of 1:1:1 by volume was most effective, 80% plantlets survived. Key words: Jatropha curcas, Nodal explants, Cotyledons, Somatic Embryos, Multiple shoot formation D.O.I. 10.3329/ptcb.v17i2.3234 Plant Tissue Cult. & Biotech. 17(2): 137-147, 2007 (December)