Biotechnology articles within Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology

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  • Review Article |

    Nucleic acid-based therapies offer an alternative to traditional cancer treatment modalities, with promising data beginning to emerge. In this Review, the authors describe the design and development of nucleic acid-based therapies administered virally and non-virally, including discussions of the advantages and disadvantage of each approach, as well as the role of patient-specific factors such as the tumour microenvironment, and consider the most promising future research directions.

    • Sebastian G. Huayamares
    • , David Loughrey
    •  & Eric J. Sorscher

  • Review Article |

    Immunotherapies have dramatically improved the outcomes of a subset of patients with advanced-stage cancers. Nonetheless, most patients will not respond to these agents and adverse events can be severe. In this Review, the authors describe the potential to address these challenges by combining immunotherapies with currently available thermal therapies as well as by using thermal immuno-nanomedicines.

    • Zhe Yang
    • , Di Gao
    •  & Xingcai Zhang

  • Review Article |

    Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells are effective therapies for patients with relapsed and/or refractory B cell malignancies, partly owing to the ability to target B cell-specific antigens. However, CAR T cells targeting solid tumour antigens are likely to carry a higher risk of on-target, off-tumour toxicity (OTOT). Here, the authors summarize the available data on OTOT in the context of CAR T cells targeting solid tumour antigens and describe novel CAR T cell designs that might overcome such toxicities.

    • Christian L. Flugel
    • , Robbie G. Majzner
    •  & Mohamed Abou-el-Enein

  • Review Article |

    Owing to several limitations, including elimination by the immune system and a lack of tumour specificity, systemically administered synthetic nanoparticles are used for a limited range of cancer indications. In this Review, the authors describe the potential of cellular nanoparticles (comprising a cell membrane coating around a synthetic core) to overcome these issues as well as their application in drug delivery, phototherapy and immunotherapy.

    • Ronnie H. Fang
    • , Weiwei Gao
    •  & Liangfang Zhang

  • Review Article |

    CRISPR systems have enabled important advances in cancer research by accelerating the development of study models or as a tool in genetic screening studies to discover and validate therapeutic targets. The authors of this Review discuss these applications and new potential uses, such as cancer detection and development of anticancer therapies.

    • Hao Yin
    • , Wen Xue
    •  & Daniel G. Anderson

  • News & Views |

    Major advances in our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have led to effective targeted therapeutics in several genomically-defined subsets of NSCLC. The recently updated College of American Pathologists, International Association for the Study of Lung cancer, and Association for Molecular Pathology joint guideline, which was endorsed by ASCO, sets new standards for molecular testing in NSCLC.

    • Chul Kim
    •  & Giuseppe Giaccone

  • Opinion |

    Precision cancer medicine has the potential to dramatically improve the outcomes of patients with cancer; however, despite the precise nature of the therapies involved, generating reliable evidence of efficacy is often challenging. In this Perspective, the authors describe the challenges and potential solutions that might address the need for evidence in precision cancer medicine.

    • Jeffrey A. Moscow
    • , Tito Fojo
    •  & Richard L. Schilsky

  • Review Article |

    Cell-based immunotherapies are showing great promise in the treatment of even the most treatment-refractory of haematological malignancies. Herein, Jennifer Brudno and James Kochenderfer review the results obtained to date with CAR-T-cell therapies for lymphoma. They also discuss what has been learned regarding the limitations of CAR-T-cell therapies and areas for improvement relating to toxicity management, the design of CAR-T-cell products, conditioning regimens, and combination therapies.

    • Jennifer N. Brudno
    •  & James N. Kochenderfer

  • Comment |

    Few clinical trials incorporate studies of evolutionary cancer biology, despite the frequent emergence of acquired resistance to anticancer therapies. This problem motivated the first CRUK Marshall Symposium on Cancer Evolution in May 2017, which provided a forum for evolutionary and ecological theorists, cancer biologists, and clinicians to consider how evolutionary biology might inform improvements in cancer medicine. Herein, we discuss the key themes and opportunities for the future.

    • Erik Sahai
    •  & Charles Swanton

  • News & Views |

    Important biological questions can be addressed by interrogating the transcriptomes of cancer cells. In a recently published landmark study, Giustacchini and collaborators used a single-cell approach to analyse mRNA of cancer cells derived from patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia. Herein, we discuss how this approach could be used to address relevant clinical questions.

    • Sam Behjati
    •  & Muzlifah Haniffa

  • Review Article |

    Clinical trials of CAR-T-cell therapy for patients with B-cell malignancies have yielded impressive results. Ongoing clinical trials are now testing CAR-T-cell therapies with new designs for the treatment of other haematological and solid malignancies. The authors of this Review present an overview of the approaches that are currently being tested in registered clinical trials, and discuss strategies that can increase the antitumour efficacy and safety of CAR-T-cell therapy.

    • Hollie J. Jackson
    • , Sarwish Rafiq
    •  & Renier J. Brentjens

  • Review Article |

    The aim of immunotherapy is to treat cancer by enabling the immune system to attack the tumour. In the past decade, remarkable results have been obtained in clinical trials with immunotherapy for patients with advanced-stage cancer. Two types of immunotherapy have been used in the majority of trials conducted in the past decade: immune cell-targeted antibody therapy and adoptive cellular therapy. Herein, the latest advances in both modalities are discussed, including settings for which testing combination strategies and 'armoured' CAR T cells are recommended.

    • Danny N. Khalil
    • , Eric L. Smith
    •  & Jedd D. Wolchok

  • Review Article |

    A meaningful revolution in managing malignant diseases has occurred since the advent of molecular targeted therapies; while some agents have resulted in a clinical benefit, these novel agents are also associated with undesired effects and assessing these risks in the correct context of potential clinical benefit is paramount. The authors overview of the development and toxicity profiles of kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies, with an emphasis on their clinical management, including patient supportive care needs, and the impact of these treatments use on the health-care expenditures at the end of life.

    • Helen Gharwan
    •  & Hunter Groninger

  • Review Article |

    Mucinous colorectal cancer has, in the past, been associated with inferior responses to treatment, and worse patient outcomes compared with other colorectal cancer subtypes; although, this situation has improved in the past 10–15 years. In this Review, the authors describe the key developments that have enabled these improvements, in addition to the potential for further improvements in the care of patients with mucinous colorectal cancer.

    • Niek Hugen
    • , Gina Brown
    •  & Iris D. Nagtegaal

  • Review Article |

    The development of precision medicine for the management of metastatic breast cancer is an appealing concept; however, major scientific and logistical challenges hinder its implementation in the clinic. The authors discuss the limitations, including the identification of driver events, and the possible solutions to the application of precision medicine in the management of patients with metastatic disease, which include scaling-up the number of patients screened for identifying a genomic alteration, the clustering of genomic alterations into pathways, and the development of personalized medicine trials.

    • Monica Arnedos
    • , Cecile Vicier
    •  & Fabrice Andre

  • Review Article |

    The ability to follow the distribution and migration of biologically active cells in living organisms is crucial for the development of cell-based therapies. In this Review, Kircher et al. describe the imaging principles underlying currently available cell-tracking methods and highlight recent examples of their application in animal models and patients.

    • Moritz F. Kircher
    • , Sanjiv S. Gambhir
    •  & Jan Grimm

  • Review Article |

    Personalized cancer medicine—where treatments are selected and tailored for individual patients—is now a reality, although improvements are needed to identify predictive biomarkers for stratifying and subgrouping patients. A critical appraisal of biomarkers in clinical use for a range of cancers is presented, and the unique and unprecedented opportunity to deliver personalized cancer therapy on an ongoing and rational basis is highlighted.

    • Nicholas B. La Thangue
    •  & David J. Kerr

  • Review Article |

    In this Review, Zitvogel and colleagues discuss the impact of immune parameters on the efficacy of chemotherapeutic regimens. They suggest that immune-relevant biomarkers may guide personalized therapeutic interventions including compensatory measures to restore or improve anticancer immune responses.

    • Laurence Zitvogel
    • , Oliver Kepp
    •  & Guido Kroemer

  • Opinion |

    A number of biomarkers that predict clinical outcome in response to gemcitabine treatment have been identified. These markers could be used in the clinic to personalize treatment, thereby improving efficacy and reducing adverse effects. The authors of this article describe how treatment can be tailored according to the pharmacogenetics and pharmacokinetics of each patient. In particular, evaluating the status of the liver enzyme cytidine deaminase holds promise as a strategy to optimize therapy.

    • Joseph Ciccolini
    • , Cédric Mercier
    •  & Nicolas André

  • News & Views |

    Nanoparticles are a promising vector-based strategy for the therapeutic administration of small interfering (si)RNA because they protect siRNA from nuclease degradation. A recent phase I study employed transferrin–targeted nanovectors to demonstrate RNA interference mechanisms in a melanoma patient. Multifunctional nanoparticles are providing patient-specific biodistributions of systemically administered siRNA.

    • Mauro Ferrari

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