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Query: UMLS:C0596263 (carcinogenesis)
 64,820 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Hormonal therapy and chemotherapy play a major role in the management of advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer. Progesterone therapy obtains overall response rates ranging from 11% to 25% in patients with endometrioid-type tumours, and oral medroxyprogesterone acetate 200mg daily appears to be a reasonable therapeutic option for those lesions that are well differentiated and/or have a high progesterone receptor (PgR) content. However, the activity of progestins is often compromised by the down-regulation of PgR within the target tissues, and therefore therapeutic strategies designed to enhance PgR expression are warranted. Little data are currently available about the new aromatase inhibitors and selective estrogen receptor modulators. As for chemotherapy, the combination of doxorubicin [DOX]+cisplatin [CDDP] achieves overall response rates ranging from 34% to 60%, and the addition of paclitaxel (TAX) seems to improve response rates, progression-free survival and overall survival, but to worsen toxicity profile. A phase III study is currently comparing TAX+DOX+CDDP versus the less toxic combination of TAX+carboplatin. Chemotherapy is active against both endometrioid-type carcinoma and uterine serous papillary carcinoma. However, this latter endometrial malignancy is less chemosensitive than the histologically similar high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma. Interesting fields of research are represented by investigational agents directed against specific intracellular signal transduction pathways involved in the proliferation, invasiveness and metastatic spread of endometrial cancer. Mammalian target of the rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors, epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors (gefitinib, erlotinib, lapatinib, the monoclonal antibody cetuximab), imatinib, the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab, and the Clostridium perfrigens enterotoxin are currently under evaluation as molecularly targeted therapies for endometrial cancer. Further investigations addressed to better understand the signal transduction pathways that are disregulated in endometrial carcinogenesis could identify novel biological targets suitable for tailored therapies.
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PMID:Old and new perspectives in the pharmacological treatment of advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer: Hormonal therapy, chemotherapy and molecularly targeted therapies. 1643 30

Endometrial cancer is one of the most common gynecologic malignancies. In patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer survival is greatly diminished. Hormonal therapy and chemotherapy play a major role in the management of advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer. Endocrine therapy provides a 10-20% response rate (RR) and survival of less than 1 year. Combination chemotherapy offers a RR of 40-60%, but the survival is still less than 1 year. The combination of cisplatin plus doxorubicin is the most commonly used regimen, but carboplatin plus paclitaxel represents an efficacious, low toxicity regimen in advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer. The addition of paclitaxel to cisplatin plus doxorubicin appears to improve response rates, progression-free survival and overall survival, but to worsen toxicity profile. At this time the focus of future research should be on the use of novel targeted agents, since it is unlikely that further significant advances could be made with chemotherapy and endocrine therapy. mTOR inhibitors represent a promising therapeutic strategy for endometrial cancer. Anti-HER-2/neu targeted therapy might be a novel and attractive therapeutic option in patients with biologically aggressive variants (uterine serous papillary carcinoma, clear cell carcinoma) of endometrial cancer. Research in better understanding the signal transduction pathways in endometrial carcinogenesis will allow the development of specific and selective molecularly targeted inhibitors.
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PMID:Systemic therapy in metastatic or recurrent endometrial cancer. 1719 49

While early-stage endometrial cancer is often successfully treated with surgical intervention, treatment of advanced endometrial carcinoma can be difficult and prognosis poor, particularly in the context of metastatic or recurrent disease. Standard chemotherapy agents for both adjuvant first-line treatment (for selected patients deemed at high risk of relapse) and recurrent endometrial cancer include doxorubicin, platinum agents and paclitaxel. Investigational options currently being studied in phase II trials include both combined regimens of standard chemotherapeutic agents versus radiation as well as targeted treatments such as epothilones, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors and anti-angiogenic agents. Recent interest in the molecular pathways of carcinogenesis have lead to increased investigation of these novel agents and the hope that they will impact positively on the overall survival of women with endometrial cancer.
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PMID:Medical therapy of endometrial cancer: current status and promising novel treatments. 2243 71