Gastroesophageal cancer is among the most common malignant diseases worldwide and is associated with high mortality rates, leading to a substantial burden on public health and healthcare systems around the world. Chemotherapeutic drugs have achieved great success in the treatment of esophageal cancer; however, they also bring cytotoxicity to other organs and often have serious side effects. With the development of molecular diagnostics and biomarker discovery, the application of precision medicine has emerged to improve clinical outcomes.

Pharmaceutical giants have been doubling their investments in drug development, only to see new drug approvals to remain constant for the past decade. This book investigates and highlights a set of proactive strategies, aimed at generating sustainable competitive advantage for its protagonists based on value-generating business practices. We focus on three sources of pharmaceutical innovation: new management methods in the drug development pipeline, new technologies as enablers for cutting-edge R&D, and new forms of internationalisation, such as outside-in innovation in the early phases of R&D.

Nanoformulation Strategies for Cancer Treatment provides an up-to-date review on current developments and regulatory and clinical challenges in the field of nanopharmaceuticals and the effective treatment of diverse varieties of cancer. This important reference source is ideal for biomaterials scientists and pharmaceutical scientists working in the area of cancer diagnosis and therapy. Due to the high cost of traditional cancer treatment types, researchers have increasingly looked for new ways to augment the therapeutic performance of existing drug candidates. The use of nanotechnology-based approaches have gained significant momentum, thus leading to the launch of a series of new drug products. As nanopharmaceuticals improve the therapeutic performance of cancer therapy drugs, but also provide opportunities for site-specific drug targeting in tumors, this work is a welcomed resource on the topics discussed. - Highlights the application of nanoformulations, including liposomes, nanoparticles and nanobiomaterials for targeted drug delivery to cancer cells - Explores recent advances made using novel nanoformulations containing herbal drugs and biotechnology based therapeutic strategies for cancer treatment - Assesses the regulatory hurdles that are necessary for the successful clinical translation of nanomedicines from the laboratory into the market

Cancer immunotherapy, including immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, has revolutionized the paradigm in cancer treatment. However, the clinical outcome of immunotherapy varies considerably among patients and only a minority of patients achieve long-term clinical benefits. This is largely attributed to the fact that existing cancer immunotherapies, which concentrate on several classical targets (CTAL-4, PD-1/PD-L1, etc.) and limited types of immune cell populations (T cells), are insufficient to cope with the complexity of highly heterogeneous tumor microenvironment (TME). This calls for more efforts to not only expand our toolbox for manipulating anticancer immunity but also diversify our combinational strategies. To this end, it is urgent to deeper our understanding of cancer immunotherapy by using both experimental and computational methodologies from multi-scale perspectives: 1) novel targets from either tumor cells or non-tumor cells within TME (e.g., tumor intrinsic resistance drivers, new immune checkpoints, neoantigens), 2) in-depth characterization of more immune cell populations (e.g., macrophages, Tregs, B cells) and their interactions and dynamics within TME, 3) landscape of actionable targets in patient populations for combination design. These efforts will open the avenue of rational design of combinational immunotherapies, allowing researchers and clinicians to design novel targeting therapeutics or to optimally orchestrate combinatory strategies aiming to surmount resistance mechanisms and improve clinical outcomes.

This book highlights the interrelation between cell cycle regulators and breast cancer phenotypes. It reviews the roles of Cyclin-Dependent Kinases (CDK) in driving cell cycle progression, cell cycle checkpoints and dysregulation in breast cancer. It also examines the prognostic significance of CDKs in breast cancer. and CDK inhibitors for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. Further, the book discusses the role of different G1 cyclins in differentiation, chromosome stability, and transcriptional regulation in breast cancer. Additionally, it examines the role of immunogenic effects of CDK inhibitors, the mechanism of resistance and the current clinical trials in breast cancer treatment. Towards the end, the book explores cell cycle regulation as an attractive target for targeted drug therapy in breast cancer. This book is a comprehensive yet concise resource for oncologists and researchers interested in exploring the therapeutic potential of Cyclin-Dependent Kinases in breast cancer. ​

This volume – for pharmacologists, systems biologists, philosophers and historians of medicine – points to investigate new avenues in pharmacology research, by providing a full assessment of the premises underlying a radical shift in the pharmacology paradigm. The pharmaceutical industry is currently facing unparalleled challenges in developing innovative drugs. While drug-developing scientists in the 1990s mostly welcomed the transformation into a target-based approach, two decades of experience shows that this model is failing to boost both drug discovery and efficiency. Selected targets were often not druggable and with poor disease linkage, leading to either high toxicity or poor efficacy. Therefore, a profound rethinking of the current paradigm is needed. Advances in systems biology are revealing a phenotypic robustness and a network structure that strongly suggest that exquisitely selective compounds, compared with multitarget drugs, may exhibit lower than desired clinical efficacy. This appreciation of the role of polypharmacology has significant implications for tackling the two major sources of attrition in drug development, efficacy and toxicity. Integrating network biology and polypharmacology holds the promise of expanding the current opportunity space for druggable targets.

Patient Derived Tumor Xenograft Models: Promise, Potential and Practice offers guidance on how to conduct PDX modeling and trials, including how to know when these models are appropriate for use, and how the data should be interpreted through the selection of immunodeficient strains. In addition, proper methodologies suitable for growing different type of tumors, acquisition of pathology, genomic and other data about the tumor, potential pitfalls, and confounding background pathologies that occur in these models are also included, as is a discussion of the facilities and infrastructure required to operate a PDX laboratory. - Offers guidance on data interpretation and regulatory aspects - Provides useful techniques and strategies for working with PDX models - Includes practical tools and potential pitfalls for best practices - Compiles all knowledge of PDX models research in one resource - Presents the results of first ever global survey on standards of PDX development and usage in academia and industry

DNA repair is a rapidly advancing field in biology and these systems represent a major defense mechanism against environmental and intracellular damaging agents such as sunlight, ionizing radiation, and reactive oxygen species. With contributions from eminent researchers, this book explores the basics and current trends in this critical field. Topi

This reference book, which is the second volume of Targeting Oxidative Stress in Cancer, explores oxidative stress as the potential therapeutic target for cancer therapy. The initial chapters discuss the molecular mechanisms of oxidative stress and its effects on different signaling pathways. Subsequently, the sections examine the impact of redox signaling on tumor cell proliferation and consider the therapeutic potential of dietary phytochemicals and nutraceuticals in reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced cancer. In turn, it examines the evidence supporting the use of Vitamin C in cancer management, before presenting various synthetic and natural compounds that have therapeutic implications for oxidative stress-induced cancer. It also explores the correlation between non-coding RNA and oxidative stress. Furthermore, the book summarizes the role of stem cells in ROS-induced cancer therapy and reviews the therapeutic applications of nanoparticles to alter redox haemostasis in cancer cells. Lastly, it explores heat-shock proteins, ubiquitin ligases, and probiotics as potential therapeutic agents in ROS-mediated cancer. This book is a useful resource for basic and translational scientists as well as clinicians interested in the field of oxidative stress and cancer therapy. ​