Dinosaurs and ancient civilizations: reflections on the treatment of cancer

Ancient Diseases in Vertebrates: Tumours through the Ages

Paleo-oncology studies neoplastic diseases in fossilised animals, including human remains. Recent advancements have enabled more accurate diagnoses of ancient pathologies despite the inherent challenges in identifying tumours in fossils-such as the rarity of well-preserved specimens, the predominance of bone remains, and the difficulty in distinguishing neoplastic from non-neoplastic lesions. This study compiles reports of tumours in fossilised animals, highlighting that neoplasms are present in a wide range of vertebrates and drawing comparisons to modern instances of similar diseases. The findings underscore the multifactorial aetiology of tumours, which involves genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors, and suggest that tumours have been around for at least 350 million years.

Chemopreventive Activity of 80% Methanol Leaf Extract of Vernonia auriculifera Hiern (Asteraceae) Against Dimethylhydrazine-Induced Colorectal Carcinogenesis in Rats

Background

Vernonia auriculifera Hiern (Asteraceae) is among Ethiopian herbal medicines that are traditionally used to treat skin and gastrointestinal cancers. In this study, the chemopreventive potential of Vernonia auriculifera leaf extract in dimethylhydrazine (DMH)-induced colorectal carcinogenesis in rats was investigated.

Methods

Rats were assigned to nine groups (normal, positive, and negative control groups, and three pre- and three post-initiation groups). Except for the normal control group (administered with 1 mL/100 g distilled water), the remaining eight groups were given DMH (20 mg/kg) intraperitoneally (ip) for 15 consecutive weeks to induce colorectal tumours. The extract was given orally to the pre-initiation and post-initiation groups at doses of 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg before and after the induction of cancer, respectively. The positive control group was treated with aspirin (60 mg/kg/day) orally for the whole experimental period. Parameters including body weight, average tumour number, size, progression, incidence, total cholesterol, serum total protein, and triglyceride levels were determined. The cytotoxic activity of the extract in Caco-2 cells was evaluated using the MTT assay, and the antioxidant activity of the extract was also assessed using 2.2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazine (DPPH) and reducing power methods. Moreover, total phenol and flavonoid contents were determined using appropriate methods.

Results

Rats treated with the extract showed a lower incidence of up to 50% in the pre-initiation higher dose, average number (p<0.05),and size (p<0.05) of tumours compared to untreated rats. It also inhibited colorectal cancer-associated increases in serum total cholesterol and triglycerides. The extract's IC50 value in the MTT assay was found to be higher than 200 µg/mL. The extract had an IC50 of 74.88 ± 0.86 µg/mL and 84.69 ± 2.02 µg/mL in the reducing power and DPPH assays, respectively. Total flavonoid and phenol contents were 14.51 ± 0.41 mg quercetin acid equivalent/gm and 47.37 ± 0.72 mg gallic acid equivalent/gm of the crude extract, respectively.

Conclusion

The findings collectively indicated that the leaves of V. auriculifera possess chemopreventive activity, probably mediated through antioxidant mechanisms, which supports the traditional claim.

Building Modern Cancer Care Services in Sub-Saharan Africa Based on a Clinical-Research Care Model

Cancer is as old as humankind; there are examples of cancer treatment in ancient Egyptian civilizations. Globally, there has been rapid evolution of oncologic practices over many decades using different modalities, their complexities notwithstanding. These developments have resulted in visible improvements in outcomes for a complex medical condition.

The occurrence of cancer in vertebrates: a mini review

Neoplasia is a multilevel condition caused by irregularities over the genome, which can lead to a fatal result. To fully understand this phenomenon, an evolutionary challenge has risen during the last decades, away from human limits, driving the scientific quest into the wild life. The study of wild vertebrate populations in their natural habitats has shown that cancer is rather prominent. Thus, the diversity of vertebrates reported with some form of neoplasia is quite scattered through a variety of habitats. However, some species constitute exceptions by exhibiting cancer-protective features, driven by certain loci in their DNA. It is obvious that from an evolutionary standpoint, the incidence of cancer in different taxa is nowadays studied by seeking for patterns and their roots. The main purpose of the evolutionary approach is no other than to answer a fundamental question: Could cancer be ultimately regarded as another evolutionary force conducive to the formation or shaping-up of species?

Omics-based molecular techniques in oral pathology centred cancer: prospect and challenges in Africa

BACKGROUND

The completion of the human genome project and the accomplished milestones in the human proteome project; as well as the progress made so far in computational bioinformatics and "big data" processing have contributed immensely to individualized/personalized medicine in the developed world.

MAIN BODY

At the dawn of precision medicine, various omics-based therapies and bioengineering can now be applied accurately for the diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and risk stratification of cancer in a manner that was hitherto not thought possible. The widespread introduction of genomics and other omics-based approaches into the postgraduate training curriculum of diverse medical and dental specialties, including pathology has improved the proficiency of practitioners in the use of novel molecular signatures in patient management. In addition, intricate details about disease disparity among different human populations are beginning to emerge. This would facilitate the use of tailor-made novel theranostic methods based on emerging molecular evidences.

CONCLUSION

In this review, we examined the challenges and prospects of using currently available omics-based technologies vis-à-vis oral pathology as well as prompt cancer diagnosis and treatment in a resource limited setting.

Overcoming intratumor heterogeneity of polygenic cancer drug resistance with improved biomarker integration

Improvements in technology and resources are helping to advance our understanding of cancer-initiating events as well as factors involved with tumor progression, adaptation, and evasion of therapy. Tumors are well known to contain diverse cell populations and intratumor heterogeneity affords neoplasms with a diverse set of biologic characteristics that can be used to evolve and adapt. Intratumor heterogeneity has emerged as a major hindrance to improving cancer patient care. Polygenic cancer drug resistance necessitates reconsidering drug designs to include polypharmacology in pursuit of novel combinatorial agents having multitarget activity to overcome the diverse and compensatory signaling pathways in which cancer cells use to survive and evade therapy. Advances will require integration of different biomarkers such as genomics and imaging to provide for more adequate elucidation of the spatially varying location, type, and extent of diverse intratumor signaling molecules to provide for a rationale-based personalized cancer medicine strategy.

Mitochondria malfunctions as mediators of stem-cells' related carcinogenesis: a hypothesis that supports the highly conserved profile of carcinogenesis

Cancer development is an evolutionary process that has been highly conserved among centuries within organisms. Based on this, the interest in cancer research focuses on cells, organelles and genes that possess a genetic conservatism from yeasts to human. Towards this thought, mitochondria, the highly conserved and responsible for the cellular bioenergetic activity organelles, might play crucial role in carcinogenesis. Interestingly, tumors with low bioenergetic signature have worse prognosis and show a decreased expression of ATPase protein. Furthermore, according to the stem-cell theory of carcinogenesis, aggressive tumors are characterized by an increase number of malignant stem-like cell population and their resistance to chemotherapy has been found to be mitochondrially driven. The above considerations triggered us to hypothesize that mitochondrial bioenergetic processes in stem-like cancer cells plays a crucial role in the highly conserved process of carcinogenesis. Specifically, we support that mitochondrial and/or nuclear DNA alterations that control stem cells' ATP production drive stem cells to "immortalization" (Otto Warburg theory) that mediates cancer initiation and progression. Substantiation of our hypothesis requires evidence that: (1) alterations in mitochondria bioenergetic metabolites and enzymes encoded either from the mtDNA or the nuclear DNA are linked to human cancer and (2) mitochondrial functions are regulated by highly conserved genes involved in cancer-related cellular processes such as apoptosis, aging and autophagy. Experimental approach on how this hypothesis might be tested and promising strategies in cancer therapeutics are also discussed. In case the hypothesis of stem-cell bioenergetic malformations' related carcinogenesis proves to be correct, it would contribute to the development of new prognostic, diagnostic and even more effective therapeutic interventions against various types of cancer.

The interconnectedness of cancer cell signaling

The elegance of fundamental and applied research activities have begun to reveal a myriad of spatial and temporal alterations in downstream signaling networks affected by cell surface receptor stimulation including G protein-coupled receptors and receptor tyrosine kinases. Interconnected biochemical pathways serve to integrate and distribute the signaling information throughout the cell by orchestration of complex biochemical circuits consisting of protein interactions and covalent modification processes. It is clear that scientific literature summarizing results from both fundamental and applied scientific research activities has served to provide a broad foundational biologic database that has been instrumental in advancing our continued understanding of underlying cancer biology. This article reflects on historical advances and the role of innovation in the competitive world of grant-sponsored research.

Discovering neurosurgery: new frontiers

Over the centuries, discoveries of lands unknown, treasures lost and buried, and formulas to delineate physicochemical processes have led to advancements in our understanding of how the world is structured and governed. In science and medicine, discoveries are frequently made following deliberate periods of observation and experimentation to test hypotheses. However, in some instances, discoveries may arise either following a "eureka moment" that transcends rigorous scientific experimentation or following a serendipitous observation. In many instances, scientific discoveries will lead to new inventions that are aimed at improving the manner in which tasks or operations are performed. In this address, some of the key discoveries in science and medicine that have impacted significantly on the field of neurosurgery are described. Some of these include discoveries in neuroanatomy, anesthesiology, infectious diseases, antisepsis, and radiology. Discoveries in the field of molecular science, from the discovery of DNA to next-generation DNA sequencing, which have helped improve the diagnosis and prognosis of neurosurgical patients with conditions such as brain tumors, are also described. In the end, these discoveries have led us to new frontiers in the subspecialty practice of neurosurgery. Navigating our way through these new frontiers will undoubtedly lead to additional discoveries that are unimaginable at present but bound to improve the future care of neurosurgical patients.