Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0242379 (lung cancer)
 71,905 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Reports of tumor regression after infection date back as far as 1550 bc. In the twentieth century, Dr. William Coley, witnessing regression of a malignant tumor in one of his patients after a bacterial infection, developed the first cancer treatment vaccine derived from killed bacteria, with some reported success. However, despite decades of research, no specific, active tumor vaccine has been approved for the treatment of cancer. In lung cancer, initial attempts to modulate the immune system with nonspecific therapies were unsuccessful. However, more sophisticated specific vaccines have now been developed, and an increasing number are being evaluated in randomized phase 3 trials, raising hopes that vaccines may be an additional novel therapy for patients with lung cancer. This article reviews the following seven vaccines, which have entered randomized trials: L-BLP25 (Stimuvax), BEC-2, 1E10, PF-3512676 (Promune), melanoma-associated antigen A3 immunotherapeutic, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor-transduced allogeneic cancer cellular immunotherapy, and belagenpumatucel-L (Lucanix).
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PMID:Immunotherapy for lung cancer. 1852 Mar 4

It has been quite challenging to demonstrate significant improvements in survival for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) over the past decade, but targeted therapies such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors and angiogenesis inhibitors have been associated with benefits sufficient to alter our treatment standards. In addition to variations within these classes and combinations of such agents, several novel targeted therapy strategies have been introduced and are now emerging with encouraging results in early clinical trials for patients with advanced NSCLC. Immunotherapies targeting the MUC1 protein, MAGE-A3, and EGFR have shown early evidence of clinical benefits. Belagenpumatucel-L is a nonspecific allogeneic vaccine derived from multiple lung cancer cell lines, and the agent talactoferrin alfa might improve clinical outcomes based on broad immune system activation and stimulation. Other approaches that inhibit insulin-like growth factor receptor or heat-shock protein, both involved with multiple pathways involved with cell growth and survival, have shown activity in early trials and are moving forward in trials that specifically focus on patients with advanced NSCLC. This article reviews current data and future directions for each of these approaches.
Clin Lung Cancer 2009 Mar
PMID:Novel targeted agents for lung cancer. 1936 46