Cancer Medicine

We are entering an important era when cancer medicine is being transformed into personalized medicine. At this time, I am delighted to introduce Cancer Medicine, a new Wiley Open Access interdisciplinary journal, which is committed to rapidly disseminating cutting-edge research and will consider submissions from all oncologic specialties, including, but not limited to, the areas of cancer biology, clinical cancer research and cancer prevention to advance the personalized care of cancer patients.

This Editorial describes how the Editors of Cancer Medicine will establish and maintain high standards of data integrity and publication ethics in all the papers published in the journal. We have set detailed guidelines for authors and reviewers and we will monitor compliance with those guidelines.

We found that Snail, a transcription factor that mediates epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), was overexpressed in human colorectal cancer (CRC) specimens. Snail overexpression in human CRC cells by retroviral infection led to an increase in the EMT and the cancer stem cell-like phenotype. In addition, Snail-mediated chemoresistance in CRC cells in vitro and metastasis in vivo. Snail is a potential therapeutic target in CRC and inhibition of Snail activity may serve as a novel method to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy and improve outcomes of patients with metastatic CRC.

Inflammation is a poor prognostic indicator for renal cell carcinoma (RCC), and metastatic RCC remains a major medical concern, as it is refractory to standard therapies. We hypothesized that inflammatory cytokines in the tumor microenvironment directly affect RCC tumor cells to progress to a metastatic phenotype. We report that IL-1β stimulated RCC tumor cell invasion in a mechanism that required the activation of the CCAAT Enhancer Binding Protein-β (CEBPβ) transcription factor and the subsequent induction of Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs).

This study reports that an anti-HER2 antibody increased proliferation and migration of the low HER2 expressing MCF7 cancer cells by inducing HER3/EGFR dimerization independent of HER3 ligand stimulation. The results suggest that equilibrium of dimerization among the HER receptors can be perturbed by HER targeting antibodies and HER3 is a key sensor in the regulation of HER family receptor signaling.

The concept of “lymphangiosarcoma” remains obscure. Therefore, we reported a patient with lymphangiosarcoma, resistant to immunotherapy. From this case, a lymphangiosarcoma cell line, MO-LAS, was established and its characteristics were compared with the hemangiosarcoma cell line, ISO-HAS.

Welding is one of the most ubiquitous of industrial activities, and consequently, welding fumes is one of the most common industrial exposures throughout the world. This paper contributes to the evidence that exposure to welding fumes may increase the risk of lung, most evidently among non-smokers and mild smokers. This holds true for the two major classes of welding, arc welding, and gas welding.

The high-risk HC2 test correctly detected 388 (57.6%) of the 674 high-risk HPV isolates in clinical specimens, mislabeled 88 (46.8%) of the 188 low-risk HPV isolates as high-risk genotypes, and classified 180 (27.4%) of the 657 “true negative” samples as being infected by high-risk HPV. It was found to cross-react with 20 low-risk HPV genotypes. We conclude that nested PCR detection of HPV followed by short target DNA sequencing can be used for screening and genotyping to formulate a paradigm in clinical management of HPV-related disorders in a rapidly developing economy.

Original FISH probes were used for KIF5B/RET translocation in lung adenocarcinimas.

Our studies show that CIP2A protein is specifically expressed in human bladder tumor. CIP2A is preferentially expressed in high-grade and high-stage TCC tumor, which is high-risk and invasive tumor. CIP2A might be useful for the surveillance of bladder cancer progression

Low prevalence of HPV in oropharyngeal cancer outside the base of tongue and tonsills. No clear impact of HPV on outcome.

Multidisciplinary approach in triple negative breast cancer. High-dose chemotherapy. Platinum analogues.

We have now been able to confirm our previous results, that Wnt5a can be used as a predictive biomarker in prostate cancer patients following radical prostatectomy. This finding may also be of importance from a therapeutic point of view as it indicates an opportunity to treat prostate cancer patients with low-grade tumors and positive surgical margin status after radical prostatectomy by targeting Wnt5a signaling. Subsequent therapeutical experiments are on-going.