Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0006142 (breast cancer)
 160,383 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

T cell immunity in breast cancer is suggested to play a role in tumor dormancy, a period of stability which can correspond to the time interval between primary treatment and tumor recurrence. Bone marrow in breast cancer patients seems to be particularly important because it is highly enriched with cancer specific memory T cells. Similar cells can be found in peripheral blood, but these appear to be functionally anergic. The immune system of primary operated breast cancer patients does not seem to be completely anergized. Bone marrow derived memory T cells can be reactivated ex vivo and show functional reactivity, including tumor rejection in NOD/SCID mice. Promising results were obtained from a postoperative phase-II active specific immunotherapy study. In this study, 32 patients treated with an optimal formulation of a virus-modified autologous tumor vaccine (ATV-NDV) appeared to have a significant 5-year survival benefit. Our results suggest that cancer reactive memory T cells which are enriched in the bone marrow of breast cancer patients, can be activated ex vivo via autologous dendritic cells pulsed with breast cancer tumor antigens, or they can be activated in situ via a tumor vaccine, which combines tumor antigens with virus infection. The findings should encourage further studies in breast cancer on active specific immunotherapy with tumor vaccines or adoptive immunotherapy with activated memory T cells.
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PMID:T cell memory, anergy and immunotherapy in breast cancer. 1246 40

Cisplatin, cis-[PtCl2(NH3)2], is commonly utilized in various combination chemotherapy protocols for the treatment of both ovarian and breast cancer while the corresponding trans isomer is therapeutically inactive. This work describes efforts to elucidate the cellular mechanism of action of a novel trans-platinum compound, trans-(dichloroamminethiazole)platinum(II) (ATZ), which demonstrates antiproliferative and cytotoxic effects against both MCF-7 human breast and A2780 human ovarian carcinoma cells in culture. A2780 cells were approximately twofold more sensitive to ATZ than MCF-7 cells in both cell growth and clonogenic survival assays. Dye exclusion studies revealed a 50-70% loss in cell viability within the first 12 h of drug treatment in both cell lines. This initial wave of cell death was succeeded by a prolonged interval of growth arrest during which a small fraction of apoptotic cells was detected. Binding of ATZ to DNA, as estimated by atomic absorption spectroscopy, was similar for the two cell lines and was almost completely reversed 24 h after drug removal. ATZ also induced DNA strand breakage as well as DNA-protein crosslinking during the initial 12 h period when the bulk of cell death was evident. However, neither the extent of DNA strand breakage nor that of DNA protein crosslinking was sufficient to explain the different drug sensitivity in the two cell lines. At 24 and 48 h after exposure of MCF-7 cells to high concentrations of ATZ, the formation of DNA-topoisomerase I complexes is detected, coincident with a high degree of apoptosis. These studies suggest that ATZ has the capacity to interfere with topoisomerase I in the tumor cell, a function not evident in cis-platinum-based drugs.
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PMID:Cytotoxicity, DNA strand breakage and DNA-protein crosslinking by a novel transplatinum compound in human A2780 ovarian and MCF-7 breast carcinoma cells. 1529 48