New Mechanisms For Anti Cancer Drugs

Cancer is the second leading cause of death. Every year, many anticancer drug candidates are discovered and synthesized, but the major challenge lies in identifying, characterizing and evaluating their efficacy. The aim of this Research Topic, "New Mechanisms for Anti-Cancer Drugs" is to collect a group of publications focused on novel chemical compounds exhibiting new modes of actions and/or new target proteins to fulfill their cytotoxic activity on cancer cells. In this context, we will also be pleased to consider studies on drug repurposing, including approved, discontinued, and shelved drugs, when anti-cancer activity results from an unexpected mode of action.

This book explains how current medicines against cancer work and how we find new ones. It provides an easy-to-understand overview of current options to treat patients with cancer, which includes Surgery, Radiation therapy, Chemotherapy, Targeted therapy and Immunotherapy. The efficiency of all these treatments is limited by the capacity of cancer cells to escape therapy. This book explains the mechanisms of anti-cancer drug resistance and strategies to overcome it. The discovery and development process of a new drug is detailed beginning with the identification and validation of a therapeutic target, the identification of an inhibitor of the target and its subsequent preclinical and clinical development until its approval by regulatory authorities. Particular emphasis has been given to specific aspects of the development process including lead generation and optimization, pharmacokinetics, ADME analysis, pharmacodynamics, toxicity and efficacy assessment, investigational new drug (IND) and new drug application (NDA) and the design of clinical trial and their phases. The book covers many aspects of modern personalized oncology and discusses economic aspects of our current system of developing new medicines and its impact on our societies and on future drug research. The author of this book, Dr. Link counts with more than 20 years of experience in biomedical research reflected in numerous publications, patents and key note and plenary presentations at international conferences. Interested readers, students and teachers should read this book as it provides a unique way to learn/teach about basic concepts in oncology and anti-cancer drug research.

The reader will discover a comprehensive and multifaceted overview of the history of the development of anticancer drugs deeply influenced by the cell concept of cancer and future directions for the development of new anticancer drugs. First, this book documents the scientific progress in biological science over the last 70 years and the influence this progress had in cancer research. Summaries and charts of important discoveries complete this overview. Furthermore, this book outlines the process of anticancer drug development with a focus on the characteristic drug groups of each era, related to advancements of chemistry and biological sciences. This book also provides brief mechanism of action of drugs, illustrated by comprehensive timelines and conceptual cartoons. This book finally sums up the limitations of the current anticancer drug development and seeks new directions for anticancer drug discovery, considering under the systemic view of cancer.

Most of the anti-cancer drugs in use today were discovered by happy accident rather than design, yet the rational design of better anti-cancer drugs remains a cherished goal, and one of the most important challenges facing medical science. This book represents a compilation of views and progress reports which illustrate the diversity of approaches to the problem. Recent research has confirmed the belief that critical genetic changes are at work in cancer cells. The genome, then (DNA in biochemical terms), surely represents a critical target for specific chemotherapy of cancer, and several chapters address the issue of attacking DNA, gene targetting, and the like. Others deal with principles of rational design, exploitation of novel modalities and targets, or the nuts and bolts of antitumour drug testing. While no attempt has been made to provide a comprehensive coverage of this wide-ranging and vitally important subject, the present volume in the series will provide much food for thought.

The importance of drug resistance in cancer chemotherapy cannot be over stated. The 500,000 patients who die every year from cancer in the United States have, in most cases, been treated with chemotherapy. Many of these patients responded initially to chemotherapy, but death resulted from the development of drug-resistant tumors. In the first volume in the series. Drug Resistance in Chemotherapy the results of comprehensive laboratory studies aimed at understanding the mechanisms for resistance to individual agents and to the development of broad cross-resistance were described. In the past 2 years there has been substantial progress in understanding the molecular biology associated with these mechanisms of drug resistance. For the first time we are starting to understand which mechanisms are playing an im portant role in human tumors, and even more importantly, clinical trials have recently been initiated in an effort to reverse specific forms of drug resistance. The purpose of this volume is to describe the new advances, both at the molecular level and in the clinic regarding mechanisms of drug resistance and potential ways this resistance can be circumvented. This volume is focused upon mechanisms of resistance associated with two major classes of anticancer drugs: alkylating agents (including cisplatin) and the natural products (e. g. , adriamycin and vinblastine). The first section of the book describes new insights into the genetic mechanisms associated with drug resistance.

While drug therapies developed in the last 50 years have markedly improved the management of some types of cancers, treatment outcomes, and drug side-effects for the most common types remain unacceptable. However, recent technological advances are leading to improved therapies based on targeting distinct biological pathways in cancer cells.

This book explains how current medicines against cancer work and how we find new ones. It provides an easy-to-understand overview of current options to treat patients with cancer, which includes Surgery, Radiation therapy, Chemotherapy, Targeted therapy and Immunotherapy. The efficiency of all these treatments is limited by the capacity of cancer cells to escape therapy. This book explains the mechanisms of anti-cancer drug resistance and strategies to overcome it. The discovery and development process of a new drug is detailed beginning with the identification and validation of a therapeutic target, the identification of an inhibitor of the target and its subsequent preclinical and clinical development until its approval by regulatory authorities. Particular emphasis has been given to specific aspects of the development process including lead generation and optimization, pharmacokinetics, ADME analysis, pharmacodynamics, toxicity and efficacy assessment, investigational new drug (IND) and new drug application (NDA) and the design of clinical trial and their phases. The book covers many aspects of modern personalized oncology and discusses economic aspects of our current system of developing new medicines and its impact on our societies and on future drug research. The author of this book, Dr. Link counts with more than 20 years of experience in biomedical research reflected in numerous publications, patents and key note and plenary presentations at international conferences. Interested readers, students and teachers should read this book as it provides a unique way to learn/teach about basic concepts in oncology and anti-cancer drug research.