Novel systemic therapies for breast cancer reviewed.

2004 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers review novel systemic therapies for breast cancer in a recent issue of Surgical Oncology - Oxford.

According to published research from England, "The rapid expansion in our knowledge of the molecular pathogenesis of cancer has created several opportunities for novel strategies in anti-cancer drug design and development. Recent developments have included a series of new endocrine therapies such as pure anti-estrogens and selective estrogen receptor modulators, and trials are in progress to determine their role in the sequence of therapies given the first-line role now occupied by the aromatase inhibitors.

"Novel cytotoxic drugs have been developed with an improved toxicity profile, including oral prodrugs that are activated within tumor cells, and liposomal delivery mechanisms for conventional drugs that reduce some of the systemic toxicities," said Soo Lo and Stephen R. D. Johnston at the Royal Marsden NHS Trust in London. "There has been much success with monoclonal antibodies targeted against (growth factor receptors, both as monotherapy and in enhancing the efficacy of cytotoxic drugs. A number of small molecule signal transduction inhibitors are in early stages of clinical development for breast cancer, including tyrosine-kinase inhibitors and ...