The progression and evolution of cancer genomics is giving us unprecedented insight into malignancies. Most recently, a paper on acute myeloid leukemia and one on endometrial carcinoma, part of an ambitious project by the National Institutes of Health to scrutinize DNA aberrations in common cancers, have highlighted that cancer will increasingly be seen as a disease defined by its genetic fingerprint rather than by the organ where it originated.
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Though long considered the gold-standard for diagnosing cancer, customary pathological approaches are not always successful.
Here, De Rienzo and colleagues applied the bioinformatic technique of gene-expression ratio tests to develop and validate molecular signatures for the differential diagnosis of mesothelioma (MPM) as proof of principle of the applicability of this technique to cancer diagnosis.
Malignant Mesothelioma patients exhibiting antitumor immune responses have demonstrated improved survival. One of the most effective vaccination methods for generating potent-specific immune responses is based on recombinant viral vectors. Recent interest has focused on Fowlpox virus as a candidate mammalian vaccine due to its large cloning capacity, which can provide sustained expression of heterologous genes combined with an impeccable safety profile.
In this paper, P. Bertino et al. reveal that a variant of Fowlpox vector expressing the mesothelioma-relevant tumor associated antigen survivin (FP-surv) exerted a significant antitumor effect against experimental mesothelioma tumors in mice.
The targeting of PARP1 is showing considerable potential for selectively killing tumor cells while sparing normal cells, and offers a scientifically rational clinical application.
In this paper, G. Pinton et al. investigate PARP1 expression in normal mesothelial and malignant mesothelioma tissue samples.
Immunohistochemical analysis revealed low PARP1 staining in peri-tumoral normal mesothelium. In contrast, staining was found to be elevated in mesothelioma with a progressive increase from moderate staining in epithelioid mesotheliomas to the highest staining in the most aggressive sarcomatoid mesotheliomas. In mesothelioma-derived cell lines, increased PARP1 expression correlated with sensitivity …
Recent studies in solid organ cancers have shown that cancer stem cells (CSCs) play a pivotal role in the initiation and progression of tumors. However, it is not known whether tumorigenic stem cells exist and whether they promote tumor growth in mesothelioma.
In this study, the authors developed and characterized a CSC model for mesothelioma using stably expandable tumorigenic stem cells derived from patient tumors. They found morphologically distinct populations of CSCs that divide asymmetrically or symmetrically in vitro cell culture.
Mesothelioma stem cells express stem cell markers c-MYC, NES and VEGFR2 …
