Chemotherapeutic Therapies Research Articles

Ongoing trials in patients with head and neck cancer

Treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck has recently undergone several important changes. New approaches to treating these tumours are now being evaluated. An overview of the surgical, radiotherapeutic and chemotherapeutic therapies or multimodality approaches currently under study are described. In addition, the design of ongoing chemoprevention trials is reported.

Contemporary Approaches of Chemotherapy

This article discusses recent chemotherapeutic therapies for patients with malignant glioma. The use of biodegradable polymer wafers, chemical alteration of the blood-brain barrier, high-dose hormonal therapy, and bone marrow transplantation are included as new approaches to treatment. The use of growth factors and improved antiemitics allow patients to tolerate aggressive chemotherapy.

1 - Amniocentesis for Antenatal Diagnosis of Genetic Defects

Breast cancer is the highest global spread of invasive cancer in women. While significant progress has been made in breast cancer, diagnostic and therapeutic effective prevention and treatment options remain scarce. Concerning chitosan-based chemotherapeutic therapies, the studies reported cell migration resistance, improved drug absorption, membrane interaction and permeability, immune stimulating behavior, and extended in-vitro drug release. However, chitosan has been practically restricted mostly to unmodified forms. Targeted distribution is ensured by chitosan-based ligand conjugated carrier systems in conjunction with active moieties such as DNA, RNA, proteins, and therapeutic agents. The purpose of this context is to emphasize the efficient drug delivery to breast cancer cell lines using chitosan. Chitosan also exhibited excellent capabilities in gene packaging. For the interaction of bioactive molecules and the regulation of the drug release profile, chemical modification of chitosan is beneficial. This article discusses the various chitosan-based ligand conjugated carrier systems. From the studies reviewed it can be concluded that chitosan derivatives are promising materials for targeted and non-viral gene delivery in treatment of breast cancer.

Para-aortic irradiation in cervical carcinoma

Cervical carcinoma spreads in a progressive and predictable manner in the vast majority of cases so that present management involves therapeutics directed to the primary and regional pelvic nodes. In the past 2 decades, the ability to encompass and sterlize lymph nodes by external radiation therapy has improved 5 year survivals over techniques that concentrated only on the primary site.” More recent attempts to improve these statistics by concentrating therapeutics only to the pelvic region have had little impact in terms of survival but instead have increased the incidence and severity of complications.“*” In deference to the natural history of the spread of cervical cancer, radiation oncologists have directed their attention to the echelon of lymph nodes in the para-aortic region.4,8*‘0 Until recently, the empiricism of the total dose delivered, and the techniques utilized, assured the occurrence of unacceptable morbidity. Lately, several reports have indicated that para-aortic doses of 4500-5000 rad in 5-6 weeks are tolerated we11.6*” The incidence of isolated loco-regional recurrence with radical radiation therapy is minimal; in the majority of patients who fail, disease is outside the pelvic confines. s*9 The naturally consequent use of systematic chemotherapeutic and immunological therapies have yielded unenviable results to date. Conversely, extending the irradiation portals to the para-aortic region offers the most promise of encompassing and sterilizing viable disease with resultant improvement in survival. This short communication will review the rationale in terms of results, complications and future portents in the management of cervical cancer.