Assessment of Predictive Genomic Biomarkers for Response to Cisplatin-based Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Bladder Cancer

Cisplatin-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) followed by radical cystectomy is recommended for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). It has been shown that somatic deleterious mutations in ERCC2, gain-of-function mutations in ERBB2, and alterations in ATM, RB1, and FANCC are correlated with pathological response to NAC in...

Modelling Breast Cancer Treatment: Mechanically Coupled Reaction-Diffusion model to predict tumour response in HER2+ patients

HER2+ breast cancer patients suffer from aggressive tumours that often respond well to treatment compared to HER2- patients. Currently, patients are all treated with the same number of anti-tumour treatments, although the required number to eradicate all tumour cells varies between patients. The goal is thus to have an individualised model based...

Ultrasound-Mediated Drug Delivery With a Clinical Ultrasound System: In Vitro Evaluation

Chemotherapy efficacy is often reduced by insufficient drug uptake in tumor cells. The combination of ultrasound and microbubbles (USMB) has been shown to improve drug delivery and to enhance the efficacy of several drugs in vitro and in vivo, through effects collectively known as sonopermeation. However, clinical translation of USMB therapy...

Effect of genetic variation in CYP450 on Gonadal impairment in a European cohort of female childhood cancer survivors, based on a candidate gene approach: Results from the pancareLIFE study

Background: Female childhood cancer survivors (CCSs) carry a risk of therapy-related gonadal dysfunction. Alkylating agents (AA) are well-established risk factors, yet inter-individual variability in ovarian function is observed. Polymorphisms in CYP450 enzymes may explain this variability in AA-induced ovarian damage. We aimed to evaluate...

Mn(III) porphyrins as potential MRI contrast agents for diagnosis and MRI-guided therapy

Mn(III) porphyrins have great potential as Gd-free MRI contrast agents because both the cation and the ligand have interesting properties. The redox properties of the Mn(III)-ion can be exploited for the preparation of reactive oxygen species for therapy. Moreover, the porphyrin ligand allows these complexes to have a high affinity for tumor...

Optimal control of combined chemo-radiation therapy treatments for improving cancer care

Combined chemo-radiation treatments are often used to enhance tumor cell kill, with respect to their separate treatments. Currently, chemo-radiation therapy treatments are prescribed as a separately optimized radiotherapy treatment with the addition of a generic chemotherapy regimen. The dosing of the combined therapies is mostly based on...

Influence of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on diffuse reflectance spectra of tissue in breast surgery specimens

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) can discriminate different tissue types based on optical characteristics. Since this technology has the ability to detect tumor tissue, several groups have proposed to use DRS for margin assessment during breast-conserving surgery for breast cancer. Nowadays, an increasing number of patients with breast...

Nanocarrier-Mediated Photochemotherapy and Photoradiotherapy

Photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) both utilize light to induce a therapeutic effect. These therapies are rapidly gaining importance due to the noninvasiveness of light and the limited adverse effect associated with these treatments. However, most preclinical studies show that complete elimination of tumors is rarely...

The Buddy: A fun new way of moving for children who are recieving chemotherapy

The Buddy is especially designed for children of the Princess Máxima Centre, this is the new child oncology centrum in the Netherlands. The Buddy can also be used in other children hospitals. The main focus of the Buddy is the use of children who are receiving. Since the children are bounded to an IV pole, they are less flexible than normally....

Colorectal cancer intrinsic subtypes predict chemotherapy benefit, deficient mismatch repair and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition

In most colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, outcome cannot be predicted because tumors with similar clinicopathological features can have differences in disease progression and treatment response. Therefore, a better understanding of the CRC biology is required to identify those patients who will benefit from chemotherapy and to find a more...