The role of hypoxia on prostate cancer progression and metastasis.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosed in men and the fifth-leading cause of cancer death in men worldwide. Like any solid tumor, the hypoxic microenvironment of prostatic cancer drives hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) to mediate cell adaptions to hypoxic conditions. HIFs direct different signaling pathways such as PI3K/Akt/mTOR, NOX, and Wnt/ß-Catenin to tumor progression depending on the degree of hypoxia. HIFs regulate cytoskeleton protein expression, promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which occurs when cancer cells lose cell-to-cell adhesions and start invasion and metastasis. Through activating pathways, the hypoxic microenvironment maintains the self-renewal, potency, and anti-apoptotic function of prostate cancer cells and induces tumor metastasis and transformation. These pathways could serve as a potential target for prostate cancer therapy. HIFs increase the expression of androgen receptors on cancer cells maintaining the growth and survival of prostate cancer and the development of its castration resistance. In this review, we elaborate on the role of hypoxia in prostatic cancer pathogenesis and different hypoxia-induced mechanisms.

Nanomedicine as a putative approach for active targeting of hepatocellular carcinoma.

The effectiveness of chemotherapy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is restricted by chemo-resistance and systemic side effects. To improve the efficacy and safety of chemotherapeutics in HCC management, scientists have attempted to deliver these drugs to malignant tissues using targeted carriers as nanoparticles (NPs). Among the three types of NPs targeting (active, passive, and stimuli-responsive), active targeting is the most commonly investigated in HCC treatment. Despite the observed promising results so far, clinical research on nanomedicine targeting for HCC treatment still faces many challenges.These include batch-to-batch physicochemical properties' variations, limiting large scale production and insufficient data on human and environmental toxicities. This review summarized the characteristics of different nanocarriers, ligands, targeted receptors on HCC cells and provided recommendations to overcome the challenges, facing this novel line of treatment for HCC.

Novel therapeutic strategies for spinal osteosarcomas.

At the dawn of the third millennium, cancer has become the bane of twenty-first century man, and remains a predominant public health burden, affecting welfare and life expectancy globally. Spinal osteogenic sarcoma, a primary spinal malignant tumor, is a rare and challenging neoplastic disease to treat. After the conventional therapeutic modalities of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery have been exhausted, there is currently no available alternative therapy in managing cases of spinal osteosarcoma. The defining signatures of tumor survival are characterised by cancer cell ability to stonewall immunogenic attrition and apoptosis by various means. Some of these biomarkers, namely immune-checkpoints, have recently been exploited as druggable targets in osteosarcoma and many other different cancers. These promising strides made by the use of reinvigorated immunotherapeutic approaches may lead to significant reduction in spinal osteosarcoma disease burden and corresponding reciprocity in increase of survival rates. In this review, we provide the background to spinal osteosarcoma, and proceed to elaborate on contribution of the complex ecology within tumor microenvironment giving arise to cancerous immune escape, which is currently receiving considerable attention. We follow this section on the tumor microenvironment by a brief history of cancer immunity. Also, we draw on the current knowledge of treatment gained from incidences of osteosarcoma at other locations of the skeleton (long bones of the extremities in close proximity to the metaphyseal growth plates) to make a case for application of immunity-based tools, such as immune-checkpoint inhibitors and vaccines, and draw attention to adverse upshots of immune-checkpoint blockers as well. Finally, we describe the novel biotechnique of CRISPR/Cas9 that will assist in treatment approaches for personalized medication.