Surufatinib combined camrelizumab as a valuable third-line rescue therapy for a patient with extensive-stage for small-cell lung cancer: a case report and literature review.

Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors with the highest incidence. Gene mutations are rare in small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC), resulting in targeted therapy being only a third-line recommendation. Surufatinib (Sulanda) is an oral angio-immune kinase inhibitor used to treat solid tumors. We report a case of SCLC treated with surufatinib combined with camrelizumab, with good therapeutic results in our department. The patient experienced over 18 months of progression-free survival and over 28 months of overall survival. This suggests that surufatinib combined with camrelizumab is an effective third-line treatment for SCLC patients. However, the response rate to surufatinib treatment in all patients with SCLC remains unknown and needs to be determined in a large population.

Simultaneous silencing Aurora-A and UHRF1 inhibits colorectal cancer cell growth through regulating expression of DNMT1 and STAT1.

Aurora-A has attracted a great deal of interest as a potential therapeutic target for patients with CRC. However, the outcomes of inhibitors targeting Aurora-A are not as favorable as expected, and the basis behind the ineffectiveness remains unknown. Here, we found that signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) was highly expressed in colorectal cancer (CRC) xenograft mouse models that were resistant to alisertib, an Aurora-A inhibitor. Unexpectedly, we found that alisertib disrupted Aurora-A binding with ubiquitin-like with plant homeodomain and ring finger domain 1 (UHRF1), leading to UHRF1 mediated ubiquitination and degradation of DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1), which in turn resulted in demethylation of CpG islands of STAT1 promoter and STAT1 overexpression. Simultaneous silencing Aurora-A and UHRF1 prevented STAT1 overexpression and effectively inhibited CRC growth. Hence, concomitant targeting Aurora-A and UHRF1 can be a promising therapeutic strategy for CRC.

The role of Aurora-A in cancer stem cells.

Aurora kinase A (Aurora-A), a member of the Aurora family of serine/threonine kinases, plays a critical role in multiple steps of mitotic progression, including microtubule stability during the G1 phase of the cell cycle, chromosome alignment and segregation, and cytokinesis and is aberrantly expressed in various types of human cancers. In addition to its classic functions, recent studies have indicated that Aurora-A is critical for controlling self-renewal of embryonic stem cells through negative regulation of p53. Additionally, aberrant expression of Aurora-A contributes to oncogenic transformation and induces stem cell-like properties in estrogen receptor α-positive breast cancer cells. Silencing of Aurora-A has been implicated in elimination of leukemia stem cells in vivo. Therefore, Aurora-A is an attractive target for cancer therapeutics and a growing number of small molecule inhibitors of Aurora-A have been developed. In the present review, we will address the role of Aurora-A in cancer stem cells, as well as the outcomes of clinical trials assessing Aurora-A-specific small molecular inhibitors.

Aurora kinases: novel therapy targets in cancers.

Aurora kinases, a family of serine/threonine kinases, consisting of Aurora A (AURKA), Aurora B (AURKB) and Aurora C (AURKC), are essential kinases for cell division via regulating mitosis especially the process of chromosomal segregation. Besides regulating mitosis, Aurora kinases have been implicated in regulating meiosis. The deletion of Aurora kinases could lead to failure of cell division and impair the embryonic development. Overexpression or gene amplification of Aurora kinases has been clarified in a number of cancers. And a growing number of studies have demonstrated that inhibition of Aurora kinases could potentiate the effect of chemotherapies. For the past decades, a series of Aurora kinases inhibitors (AKIs) developed effectively repress the progression and growth of many cancers both in vivo and in vitro, suggesting that Aurora kinases could be a novel therapeutic target. In this review, we'll first briefly present the structure, localization and physiological functions of Aurora kinases in mitosis, then describe the oncogenic role of Aurora kinases in tumorigenesis, we shall finally discuss the outcomes of AKIs combination with conventional therapy.