Title:Pharmaco-Therapeutic Challenges in Cancer Biology with Focus on the Immune- System Related Risk Factors
Volume: 20
Issue: 42
Author(s): Zlatko Dembic
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Cancer, immune system, predisposition, inflammation, epigenetics, genetics, microRNA.
Abstract: Over the past, progress has always been achieved in therapy of various human diseases with the introduction of novel methodologies
from basic to clinical research. Recent advances in techniques, especially DNA sequencing and methylation analyses, faster
miniaturized proteomics and live cellular stainings, are opening a new era in cancer research. Perhaps the difference this time can be envisaged
as the beginning of the long-sought individualization of forthcoming cancer therapies. Cancer has complex genetic susceptibility
that is wider than previously thought. Apart from genes encoding six functional capabilities of cancer – independent growth, avoidance of
apoptosis, immortalization, multi-drug resistance, neovascularization, and invasiveness - predisposition includes four more factors that
promote genome instability, inflammation, deregulation of metabolism as well as evasion of destruction by the immune system. The underlying
genetic events, i.e. base-pair DNA mutations, are not the sole factors in cancer development. Additional novel controls of gene
expression have been found in the epigenetic machinery, which has been increasingly important in assessing cancer risk in recent years.
The predisposing factors, including their regulatory elements, are bona fide potential new targets in prospective cancer pharmacotherapy.
