The dismal prognosis of recurrent/metastatic (R/M) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) prompted recent advances in the field of therapeutic approaches beyond cytotoxic cancer therapy. In recent years, the deeper and increasing knowledge on the genomic landscape and the upcoming new data on immunotherapy enacted by HNSCCs have led to successful therapeutic targeting of the immune system. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have changed state of the art in R/M patients and could have a potential role even in early disease. The purpose of this work is to summarize the role of immunotherapy for R/M HNSCC in clinical practice, with insights about future perspectives. Updated immunotherapy results in other R/M head and neck cancers such as thyroid, salivary glands, nasopharynx, sinonasal cancers, and nuclear protein in testis (NUT) are presented.

Proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) are a class of small molecules designed to target proteins for degradation. Their novel and unique modes of action provide PROTACs with the potential for their application in the management of both solid and hematologic malignancies. Since its initial discovery, the technology of targeted protein degradation, especially in the form of PROTACs, has had significant advances. A number of PROTACs have entered a late stage of preclinical development. Several of them are either in phase 1/2 clinical trials or approaching approval for initial clinical evaluation. This article discusses the preclinical and clinical findings of PROTACs of clinically relevant protein targets in cancer.

Breast cancer (BC) is a highly heterogeneous neoplasm of the mammary tissue, causing the deaths of a large number of women worldwide. Nearly 70% and 20% of BC cases are estrogen receptor alpha positive (ERα+) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+), respectively; therefore, ER and HER2 targeted therapies have been employed in BC treatment. However, resistance to these therapies has been reported, indicating a need for developing novel therapeutic strategies. Proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) are new, promising therapeutic tools designed with a bimodular structure: one module allows specific binding to target proteins, and the other module allows efficient degradation of these target proteins. In this paper, PROTACs and their potential in controlling the progression of ERα and HER2+ BC are discussed.

Patients with unresectable biliary tract carcinomas (BTCs) have a poor prognosis with a median overall survival of fewer than 12 months following systemic chemotherapy. In recent years, the identification of distinct molecular alterations with corresponding targeted therapies is modifying this therapeutic algorithm. The aim of this review is to present an overview of targeted therapy for BTCs, describing published available data and potential future challenges in ongoing trials. From clinicaltrials.gov online database all ongoing trials for BTCs (any stage) was examinated in July 2021, and data regarding study design, disease characteristics and type of treatments were registered. Oncogenic-driven therapy (targeted therapy) was investigated in 67 trials. According to research, 15 ongoing trials (22.4%) are investigating fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptor (FGFR)-inhibitors in BTCs. Three (18.7%) are open-label randomized multicenter phase 3 trials, 8 (50%) are single-arm phase two trials, and 4 (25%) are phase one studies. Twelve (17.9%) clinical trials dealt with isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) 1/2 targeting therapy either in combination with cisplatin (Cis) and gemcitabine (Gem) as first-line treatment for BTCs or in monotherapy in patients with IDH1 mutant advanced malignancies, including cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Nine (13.4%) clinical trials tested human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER) 2 targeting therapy. Four (44.4%) studies are phase I trials, two (22.2%) are phase I/II trials, and three (33.3%) phase II trials. Rare molecular alterations in BTCs, such as anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), c-ros oncogene1 receptor tyrosine kinase (ROS1), and v-RAF murine sarcoma viral oncogene homologue B1 (BRAF), are also under investigation in a few trials. Forty-four clinical trials (17.2%) are investigating not oncogenic-driven multitarget therapy like multireceptor tyrosin kinase inhibitors and antiangiogenetic agents. In conclusion, this review shows that BTCs management is experiencing important innovations, especially in biomarker-based patient selection and in the new emerging therapeutic approach. Many ongoing trials could answer questions regarding the role of molecular inhibitors leading to new therapeutic frontiers for molecular subcategories of BTCs.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignant proliferative disease of monoclonal plasma cells (PCs) and is characterized by uncontrolled proliferation of PCs and excessive production of specific types of immunoglobulins. Since PCs are terminally differentiated B cells, the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies MM as lymphoproliferative B-cell disease. The incidence of MM is 6–7 cases per 100,000 people in the world every year and the second most common cancer in the blood system. Due to the effects of drug resistance and malignant regeneration of MM cells in the microenvironment, all current treatment methods can prolong both overall and symptom-free survival rates of patients with MM but cannot cure MM. Both basic and clinical studies have proven that targeted therapy leads to a clear and significant prolongation of the survival of patients with MM, but when the disease recurs again, resistance to the previous treatment will occur. Therefore, the discovery of new targets and treatment methods plays a vital role in the treatment of MM. This article introduces and summarizes targeted MM therapy, potential new targets, and future precision medicine in MM.

Adjuvant hormonal therapy is one of the most important treatments of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer and includes selective estrogen receptor modulators, aromatase inhibitors, and luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone analogs. In patients receiving these drugs, a progressive recession of frontal-temporal hairlines is often observed, such as a certain grade of hair miniaturization in the same areas and the central scalp area, producing a pseudo-female androgenic alopecia, which has to be considered oncotherapy-induced alopecia. The aim of this work, is to describe the clinical aspects and pathogenesis of this type of alopecia and to analyze the different drugs which have been proposed until now. The authors concude that topical hormones should not be considered as a therapeutic approach because of their direct or indirect oncogenic potential. A therapeutic approach that could be both safe and effective is proposed.

Biliary tract cancers (BTCs) are aggressive tumors arising from different portions of the biliary tree and classified according to the anatomical location in intrahepatic (i) cholangiocarcinoma (CCA, iCCA), perihilar CCA (pCCA), and distal CCA (dCCA), gallbladder cancer (GBC), and ampulla of Vater cancer (AVC). Due to their silent behavior, BTCs are frequently diagnosed at advanced stages when the prognosis is poor. The available chemotherapeutic options are palliative and unfortunately, most patients will die from their disease between 6 and 18 months from diagnosis. However, over the last decade, amounting interest has been posed on the genomic landscape of BTCs and deep-sequencing studies have identified different potentially actionable driver mutations. Hence, the promising results of the early phase clinical studies with targeted agents against isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) 1 mutation or fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptor (FGFR) 2 aberrations inintrahepatic tumors, and other agents against humanepidermal growth factor receptor (HER) 2 overexpression/mutations, neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) fusions or B-type Raf kinase (BRAF) mutations across different subtypes of BTCs, have paved the way for a “precision medicine” strategy for BTCs. Moreover, despite the modest results when used as monotherapy, beyond microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) tumors, immune checkpoint inhibitors are being evaluated in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy, possibly further expanding the therapeutic landscape of advanced BTCs. This review aims to provide an overview of the approved systemic therapies, the promising results, and the ongoing studies to explore the current and future directions of advanced BTC systemic treatment.

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a disease with a very poor prognosis and limited treatment options. Although targeted therapies directed towards specific mutations found in CCA are becoming available and are showing great potential, many tumors do not carry actionable mutations and, in those that do, the emergence of drug resistance is a likely consequence of treatment. Therapeutic targeting of enzymes and other proteins that show elevated activity in CCA cells but which are not altered by mutation is a potential strategy for the treatment of target negative and drug-resistant disease. Protein kinase CK2 (CK2) is a ubiquitously expressed kinase that has increased expression and increased activity in a variety of cancer types including CCA. Several potent CK2 inhibitors are in pre-clinical development or under assessment in a variety of clinical trials often in combination with drugs that induce DNA damage. This review outlines the importance of CK2 in CCA and assesses the progress that has been made in the evaluation of CK2 inhibition as a treatment strategy in this disease. Targeting CK2 based on the expression levels or activity of this protein and/or in combination with drugs that induce DNA damage or inhibit cell cycle progression, could be a viable option for tumors that lack actionable mutations, or for tumors that develop resistance to targeted treatments.

Cancer is an aging-associated disease and caused by genomic instability that is driven by the accumulation of mutations and epimutations in the aging process. Although Ca²⁺ signaling, reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, DNA damage response (DDR) and senescence inflammation response (SIR) are processed during genomic instability, the underlying mechanism for the cause of genomic instability and cancer development is still poorly understood and needs to be investigated. Nociceptive transient receptor potential (TRP) channels, which firstly respond to environmental stimuli, such as microbes, chemicals or physical injuries, potentiate regulation of the aging process by Ca²⁺ signaling. In this review, the authors provide an explanation of the dual role of nociceptive TRP channels in regulating cancer progression, initiating cancer progression by aging-induced genomic instability, and promoting malignancy by epigenetic regulation. Thus, therapeutically targeting nociceptive TRP channels seems to be a novel strategy for treating cancers.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most ubiquitous cancer in women. Approximately 70–80% of BC diagnoses are positive for estrogen receptor (ER) alpha (ERα). The steroid hormone estrogen [17β-estradiol (E2)] plays a vital role both in the initiation and progression of BC. The E2-ERα mediated actions involve genomic signaling and non-genomic signaling. The specificity and magnitude of ERα signaling are mediated by interactions between ERα and several coregulator proteins called coactivators or corepressors. Alterations in the levels of coregulators are common during BC progression and they enhance ligand-dependent and ligand-independent ERα signaling which drives BC growth, progression, and endocrine therapy resistance. Many ERα coregulator proteins function as scaffolding proteins and some have intrinsic or associated enzymatic activities, thus the targeting of coregulators for blocking BC progression is a challenging task. Emerging data from in vitro and in vivo studies suggest that targeting coregulators to inhibit BC progression to therapy resistance is feasible. This review explores the current state of ERα coregulator signaling and the utility of targeting the ERα coregulator axis in treating advanced BC.

In spite of the immense advancement in the diagnostic and treatment modalities, cancer continues to be one of the leading causes of mortality across the globe, responsible for the death of around 10 million patients every year. The foremost challenges faced in the treatment of this disease are chemoresistance, adverse effects of the drugs, and the high cost of treatment. Though scientific studies over the past few decades have foreseen and are focusing on the cancer-preventive and therapeutic potential of natural products and their underlying mechanism of action, many more of these agents are not still explored. Piperlongumine (PL), or piplartine, is one such alkaloid isolated from Piper longum Linn., which is shown to be safe and has significant potential in the prevention and therapy of cancer. Numerous shreds of evidence have established the ability of this alkaloid and its analogs and nanoformulations in modulating various complex molecular pathways such as phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin, nuclear factor-kappa B, Janus kinases/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3, etc. and inhibit different hallmarks of cancer such as cell survival, proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis, epithelial-mesenchymal-transition, metastases, etc. In addition, PL was also shown to inhibit radioresistance and chemoresistance and sensitize the cancer cells to the standard chemotherapeutic agents. Therefore, this compound has high potential as a drug candidate for the prevention and treatment of different cancers. The current review briefly reiterates the anti-cancer properties of PL against different types of cancer, which permits further investigation by conducting clinical studies.

The treatment landscape for multiple myeloma (MM) has dramatically changed over the last three decades, moving from no US Food and Drug Administration approvals and two active drug classes to over 19 drug approvals and at least eight different active classes. The advances seen in MM therapy have relied on both a structured approach to obtaining new labels and cautious off-label drug use. Although there are country and regional differences in drug approval processes, many of the basic principles behind off-label drug use in MM can be summarized into four main categories: 1) use of a therapy prior to the current approval regulations; 2) widespread use of a therapy following the release of promising clinical trial results but prior to drug approval; 3) use of a cheap therapy supported by clinical safety and efficacy data but without commercial backing; and 4) niche therapies for small well-defined patient populations where large clinical trials with sufficient power may be difficult to perform. This review takes a historical approach to discuss how off-label drug use has helped to shape the current treatment approach for MM.

The gut microbiome is a novel player in the pathogenesis and treatment of breast cancer. The term “microbiome” is used to describe the diverse community of micro-organisms existing within the gastrointestinal tract. The gut microbiome plays an important role in oestrogen metabolism through its ability to deconjugate oestrogens within the gut resulting in their reabsorption. Therefore, it is not unsurprising that “dysbiosis”, the disruption of normal gut microbiota composition, is now thought to play a role in the development of the disease, as women with breast cancer have been shown to have altered gut microbiota and this has been correlated with tumour characteristics. There is emerging evidence to suggest that the gut microbiota may also impact on breast cancer treatment, by mediating both drug efficacy and toxicity. The present review will discuss the influence of the gut microbiota on systemic treatments for breast cancer, including chemotherapy, anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) therapy, endocrine therapy and immunotherapy as well as other targeted treatments.

Phosphorylation of cytoskeletal proteins regulates the dynamics of polymerization, stability, and disassembly of the different types of cytoskeletal polymers. These control the ability of cells to migrate and divide. Mutations and alterations of the expression levels of multiple protein kinases are hallmarks of most forms of cancer. Thus, altered phosphorylation of cytoskeletal proteins is observed in most cancer cells. These alterations potentially control the ability of cancer cells to divide, invade and form distal metastasis. This review highlights the emergent role of phosphorylation in the control of the function of the different cytoskeletal polymers in cancer cells. It also addresses the potential effect of targeted inhibitors in the normalization of cytoskeletal function.

Metastasis is still the primary cause of cancer-related mortality. However, the underlying mechanisms of cancer metastasis are not yet fully understood. Currently, the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, metabolic remodeling, cancer cell intercommunication and the tumor microenvironment including diverse stromal cells, are reported to affect the metastatic process of cancer cells. Calcium ions (Ca²⁺) are ubiquitous second messengers that manipulate cancer metastasis by affecting signaling pathways. Diverse transporter/pump/channel-mediated Ca²⁺ currents form Ca²⁺ oscillations that can be decoded by Ca²⁺-binding proteins, which are promising prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets of cancer metastasis. This paper presents a review of the advances in research on the mechanisms underlying cancer metastasis and the roles of Ca²⁺-related signals in these events.

Lynch syndrome is a hereditary cancer predisposition syndrome caused by germline alterations in mismatch repair (MMR) genes leading to increased risk of colon cancer as well as other cancer types. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is not among typical Lynch syndrome-associated tumors: pembrolizumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, is actually approved for the treatment of NSCLC patients and represents a promising treatment option for patients with advanced metastatic MMR-deficient cancer, regardless of tumor origin. This case report describes the clinical presentation and management of a 74-year-old female with a history of rectal adenocarcinoma and ovarian cancer, who has a documented frameshift pathogenic variant in the exon 8 of MSH6 gene and an intronic variant in the BRCA2 gene (classified as a variant of uncertain significance), affected by NSCLC with brain metastases. Despite these premises, the patient was treated with pembrolizumab and she did not benefit from this kind of treatment.

Intracellular Ca²⁺ ions that are thought to be one of the most important second messengers for cellular signaling, have a substantial diversity of roles in regulating a plethora of fundamental cellular physiology such as gene expression, cell division, cell motility and apoptosis. It has been suggestive of the Ca²⁺ signaling-dependent cellular processes to be tightly regulated by the numerous types of Ca²⁺ channels, pumps, exchangers and sensing receptors. Consequently, dysregulated Ca²⁺ homeostasis leads to a series of events connected to elevated malignant phenotypes including uncontrolled proliferation, migration, invasion and metastasis, all of which are frequently observed in advanced stage lung cancer cells. The incidence of bone metastasis in patients with advanced stage lung cancer is estimated in a range of 30% to 40%, bringing about a significant negative impact on both morbidity and survival. This review dissects and summarizes the important roles of Ca²⁺ signaling transduction in contributing to lung cancer progression, and address the question: if and how Ca²⁺ signaling might have been engaged in metastatic lung cancer with bone metastasis, thereby potentially providing the multifaceted and promising solutions for therapeutic intervention.

Lung cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. To date, tissue biopsy has been the gold standard for the diagnosis and the identification of specific molecular mutations, to guide choice of therapy. However, this procedure has several limitations. Liquid biopsy could represent a solution to the intrinsic limits of traditional biopsy. It can detect cancer markers such as circulating tumor DNA or RNA (ctDNA, ctRNA), and circulating tumor cells, in plasma, serum or other biological fluids. This procedure is minimally invasive, reproducible and can be used repeatedly. The main clinical applications of liquid biopsy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients are the early diagnosis, stratification of the risk of relapse, identification of mutations to guide application of targeted therapy and the evaluation of the minimum residual disease. In this review, the current role of liquid biopsy and associated markers in the management of NSCLC patients was analyzed, with emphasis on ctDNA and CTCs, and radiotherapy.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 inhibitors, programmed cell death 1 inhibitors and programmed cell death-ligand 1 inhibitors, have recently emerged as novel drugs in the anti-cancer therapy. Their use in different types of advanced cancer has shown good results and an increase in survival rates. However, immune-related adverse events (irAEs) are frequent and often require special care. IrAEs may affect all the organs, but they are most commonly seen in skin, lungs, endocrine glands and in the gastrointestinal tract where small bowel, colon, the liver and/or the pancreas can be involved. Despite being usually mild and self-resolving, irAEs may present in severe and life-threatening forms, causing the withdrawal of anti-cancer therapy. IrAEs, therefore, represent a challenging condition to manage that often requires the cooperation between the oncologists and the gastroenterologists in order to identify and treat them adequately.

About 15–20% of all breast cancers (BCs) are defined human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive, based on the overexpression of HER2 protein and/or amplification of ERBB2 gene. Such alterations lead to a more aggressive behavior of the disease, but also predict response to treatments targeting HER2. Indeed, several anti-HER2 compounds have been developed and approved in the last two decades, significantly improving our ability to cure patients in the early setting, and greatly extending their survival in the advanced setting. However, recent evolutions in this field promise to improve outcomes even further, through advancements in established HER2-targeting strategies, as well as the exploration of novel strategies. In particular, the engineering of new antibody-drug conjugates, with higher drug-to-antibody ratios (DARs) and cleavable linkers, has already led to the development of a highly effective drug, namely trastuzumab deruxtecan, recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of advanced HER2-positive (HER2⁺) BC, and currently in study in the early setting. Moreover, the novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor tucatinib was recently approved by FDA and EMA, showing to improve survival of HER2⁺ advanced BC patients, particularly in those with brain metastasis. Immunotherapy is also being investigated in the HER2⁺ subtype, through immune-checkpoint inhibition, cancer vaccines and adoptive-cell therapies. Overall, the enlarging arsenal of promising anti-HER2 compounds is expected to deliver significant improvements in the prognosis of both early and advanced HER2⁺ BC in the years to come. Moreover, some of such agents are showing encouraging activity in the much wider population of HER2-low advanced BC patients, challenging current BC classifications. If confirmed, this new paradigm would potentially expand the population deriving benefit from HER2-targeted treatments to up to 70% of all advanced BC patients, leading to a revolution in current treatment algorithms, and possibly to a redefinition of HER2 classification.

Fungal compounds have long been used for centuries as food supplements. β-glucans have been identified as the most interesting molecules with beneficial effects in several chronic diseases. In vitro studies have shown that they are able to elicit the immune cells maturation and activation with the result of an increased release of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines and a stimulation of anti-bacterial activity of macrophages and neutrophils. As β-glucans enhance pathogen elimination through non-self antigens identification, they can also direct immune response against tumor cells. These compounds also stimulate the activity on adaptive immune cells and they have been regarded as biological response modifiers. In this way, β-glucans can be exploited as adjuvant cancer therapy, in particular by a synergic action with chemotherapy or immunotherapy. In the immuno-oncology era, the need is to identify innovative drugs that can simultaneously target and inhibit different biological processes relevant for cancer cells survivors. Recent clinical studies showed promising results about the combination of β-glucans and immune checkpoint inhibitors for patients affected by different solid tumors. This review aims to investigate molecular mechanisms of action of β-glucans and is focused on their application in clinical practice as immune-adjuvants for treatment of cancer patients.

Multiple myeloma (MM), the second most common hematologic cancer, is caused by accumulation of aberrant plasma cells in the bone marrow. Its molecular causes are not fully understood and its great heterogeneity among patients complicates therapeutic decision-making. In the past decades, development of new therapies and drugs have significantly improved survival of MM patients. However, resistance to drugs and relapse remain the most common causes of mortality and are the major challenges to overcome. The advent of high throughput omics technologies capable of analyzing big amount of clinical and biological data has changed the way to diagnose and treat MM. Integration of omics data (gene mutations, gene expression, epigenetic information, and protein and metabolite levels) with clinical histories of thousands of patients allows to build scores to stratify the risk at diagnosis and predict the response to treatment, helping clinicians to make better educated decisions for each particular case. There is no doubt that the future of MM treatment relies on personalized therapies based on predictive models built from omics studies. This review summarizes the current treatments and the use of omics technologies in MM, and their importance in the implementation of personalized medicine.

The goal of an efficacious cancer therapy is to specifically target diseased cells at high accuracy while sparing normal, healthy cells. Over the past three decades, immunotherapy, based on the use of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) directed against tumor-associated antigens, to inhibit their oncogenic function, or against immune checkpoints, to modulate specific T cell responses against cancer, has proven to be an important strategy for cancer therapy. Nevertheless, the number of mAbs approved for clinical use is still limited because of significant drawbacks to their applicability. Oligonucleotide aptamers, similarly to antibodies, form high-affinity bonds with their specific protein targets, thus representing an effective tool for active cancer targeting. Compared to antibodies, aptamers’ use as therapeutic agents benefits from their low size, low/no immunogenicity, simple synthesis and design flexibility for improving efficacy and stability. This review intends to highlight recently emerged applications of aptamers as recognition elements, from biomarker discovery to targeted drug delivery and targeted treatment, showing aptamers’ potential to work in conjunction with antibodies for attacking cancer from multiple flanks.

Immunotherapy has changed the natural history of several malignancies that, a decade ago, had a very poor prognosis, such as lung cancer and melanoma. Consequently, many attempts have been done to expand the indications of immunotherapy agents, predominantly immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), in other cancers, including gynecological malignancies. Alongside promising results in cervical and endometrial neoplasms, there are not clear data on the benefit of ICIs as single agent or in combination with antiangiogenic agents in ovarian cancer (OC) and ongoing trials are focusing on combining ICIs with standard chemotherapy or PARP inhibitors. This chapter summarized the evidences of ICIs in gynecological malignancies and report the ongoing trials in cervical, endometrial and OC.

The occurrence of phenotype switch from an epithelial to a mesenchymal cell state during the activation of the epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) program in cancer cells has been closely associated with the generation of invasive tumor cells that contribute to metastatic dissemination and treatment failure. Liquid biopsy represents an emergent non-invasive tool that may improve our understanding of the molecular events leading to cancer progression and initiating the metastatic cascade through the dynamic analysis of tumor-derived components isolated from body fluids. The present review will primarily focus on the applications of liquid biopsy in lung cancer patients for identifying EMT signature, elucidating molecular mechanisms underlying the acquisition of an invasive phenotype and detecting new targets for therapy.

Transcription factors (TFs) are modular protein groups that preferably bind to DNA sequences and guide genomic expression through transcription. Among these key regulators, “pioneer factors” are an emerging class of TFs that specifically interact with nucleosomal DNA and facilitate accessible genomic binding sites for the additional TFs. There is growing evidence of these specialized modulators in particular malignancies, as highlighted by agents’ clinical efficacy, specifically targeting nuclear hormone receptors. They have been implicated in multiple cancers more recently, with a high proportion inculpating on hormone influential cancers. Moreover, extended crosstalk and cooperation between ERα pioneering factors in estrogen-dependent breast cancer (BC) remain elucidated. This review discusses on the recent advances in our understanding of pioneer TFs in cancer, especially highlighting its potentiality to modulate chromatin condensation to permit ERα recruitment in BC cells. Through the study it was concluded that the highly prospected pioneer TFs in BC, including FOXA1, TLE1, PBX1, and GATA3, possess the potential therapeutic significance and further innovations in the field could yield targeted therapy in cancer treatment.

The introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in non-oncogene addicted non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has revolutionized the treatment scenario and led to a meaningful improvement in patient prognosis. Disappointingly, the success of ICI therapy in NSCLC has not been fully replicated in other thoracic malignancies as small cell lung cancer (SCLC), malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), and thymic epithelial tumors (TETs), due to the peculiar biological features of these disease and to the difficulties in the conduction of well-designed, biomarker-driven clinical trials. Therefore, combination strategies of ICIs plus conventional therapies (either chemotherapy, alternative ICIs or targeted agents) have been implemented. Although first approvals of ICI therapy have been recently granted in SCLC and MPM (in combination with chemotherapy and different ICIs), results remain somewhat modest and limited to a small proportion of patients. This work reviews the trial results of ICI therapy in mesothelioma, SCLC, and TETs and discusses the potential of combining ICIs with old drugs.

Hyperprogressive disease (HPD) is a novel pattern of response during immunotherapy treatment. Several retrospective studies have evaluated its prevalence among various cancer types and, in particular, in non-small cell lung cancer patients, based on different definition criteria. If HPD is a just a typical phenomenon of immunotherapy is still an unsolved concern. This paper summarized the available data about HPD in other cancer treatments.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive tumor strictly connected to asbestos exposure. Prognosis is dismal as diagnosis commonly occurs in advanced stage. Radiological screenings have not proven to be effective and also pathological diagnosis may be challenging. In the era of precision oncology, validation of robust non-invasive biomarkers for screening of asbestos-exposed individuals, assessment of prognosis and prediction of response to treatments remains an important unmet clinical need. This review provides an overview on current understanding and possible applications of liquid biopsy in MPM, mostly focused on the utility as diagnostic and prognostic test.

Although breast cancer is not traditionally considered an immunogenic type of tumor, the combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy has recently emerged as a novel treatment option in triple-negative subtype in the advanced setting and other similar combinations of immune checkpoint inhibitors with chemotherapy are expected to become part of the neoadjuvant management in the near future. In addition, encouraging results have been observed with the combination of immune checkpoint blockade with diverse biological agents, including anti-HER2 agents, CDK 4/6 inhibitors, PARP-inhibitors. The present review summarized the available evidence coming from clinical trials on the role of immune checkpoint inhibitors in the management of breast cancer, both in advanced and early setting.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality, contributing to 9.6 million deaths globally in 2018 alone. Although several cancer treatments exist, they are often associated with severe side effects and high toxicities, leaving room for significant advancements to be made in the field. In recent years, several phytochemicals from plants and natural bioresources have been extracted and tested against various human malignancies using both in vitro and in vivo preclinical model systems. Cardamonin, a chalcone extracted from the Alpinia species, is an example of a natural therapeutic agent that has anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects against human cancer cell lines, including breast, lung, colon, and gastric, in both in vitro culture systems as well as xenograft mouse models. Earlier, cardamonin was used as a natural medicine against stomach related issues, diarrhea, insulin resistance, nephroprotection against cisplatin treatment, vasorelaxant and antinociceptive. The compound is well-known to inhibit proliferation, migration, invasion, and induce apoptosis, through the involvement of Wnt/β-catenin, NF-κB, and PI3K/Akt pathways. The good biosafety and pharmacokinetic profiling of cardamonin satisfy it as an attractive molecule for the development of an anticancer agent. The present review has summarized the chemo-preventive ability of cardamonin as an anticancer agent against numerous human malignancies.

Cancer drug discovery is currently dominated by clinical trials or clinical research. Several potential drug candidates have been brought into the pipeline of drug discovery after showing very promising results at the pre-clinical level and are waiting to be tested in human clinical trials. Interestingly, among the potential drug candidates, a few of them have targeted transcription factors highlighting the fundamental undruggable nature of these molecules. However, using advanced technologies, researchers were recently successful in partly unlocking this undruggable nature, which was considered as a ‘grey area’ in the early days of drug discovery, and as a result, several potential candidates have emerged recently. The purpose of the review is to highlight some of the recently reported studies of targeting transcription factors in cancer and their promising outcomes.

Liquid biopsy has emerged as a minimally invasive alternative to tumor tissue analysis for the management of lung cancer patients, especially for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) oncogene addicted tumor. In these patients, despite the clear benefits of tyrosine kinase inhibitors therapy, the development of acquired resistance and progressive disease is inevitable in most cases and liquid biopsy is important for molecular characterization at resistance and, being non-invasive, may be useful for disease monitoring. In this review, the authors will focus on the applications of liquid biopsy in EGFR-mutated non small cells lung cancer at diagnosis, during treatment and at progression, describing available data and possible future scenarios.

Proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) represent a promising class of hetero-bivalent molecules that facilitate ubiquitination of a target protein by simultaneously binding and bringing together both the E3 enzyme and the target. These compounds consist of three structural components: two ligands one of which binds the protein of interest (POI) while the other binds an E3 ubiquitin ligase to promote POI ubiquitination, and a linker connecting both moieties. Recent developments in the field highlight the fact that linker composition and length play a crucial role in achieving optimal PROTAC properties, modulate binding kinetics and substantially impacts the potency and selectivity. In this review, the authors briefly discuss the recent findings in PROTAC design approaches with focus on the linker. For each PROTAC such linker parameters as chemical nature, length, hydrophilicity and rigidity have to be optimized to achieve improved stability, bioavailability cell membrane permeability and suitable spatial orientation between the target POI and the E3 ubiquitin ligase. Thus rational linker design with respect to composition, length and attachment sites is essential for the development of potent PROTAC compounds. Computer-aided design and novel innovative linker strategies, such as PROTAC shortening, photo-switchable PROTACs, in-cell click-formed CLIPTACs, “click chemistry” approaches are also discussed in the review.

Cancer is one of the most dreadful diseases in the world with a mortality of 9.6 million annually. Despite the advances in diagnosis and treatment during the last couple of decades, it still remains a serious concern due to the limitations associated with currently available cancer management strategies. Therefore, alternative strategies are highly required to overcome these glitches. The importance of medicinal plants as primary healthcare has been well-known from time immemorial against various human diseases, including cancer. Commiphora wightii that belongs to Burseraceae family is one such plant which has been used to cure various ailments in traditional systems of medicine. This plant has diverse pharmacological properties such as antioxidant, antibacterial, antimutagenic, and antitumor which mostly owes to the presence of its active compound guggulsterone (GS) that exists in the form of Z- and E-isomers. Mounting evidence suggests that this compound has promising anticancer activities and was shown to suppress several cancer signaling pathways such as NF-κB/ERK/MAPK/AKT/STAT and modulate the expression of numerous signaling molecules such as the farnesoid X receptor, cyclin D1, survivin, caspases, HIF-1α, MMP-9, EMT proteins, tumor suppressor proteins, angiogenic proteins, and apoptotic proteins. The current review is an attempt to summarize the biological activities and diverse anticancer activities (both in vitro and in vivo) of the compound GS and its derivatives, along with its associated mechanism against various cancers.

Immunotherapy dramatically changed the management of several malignancies including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Since immune checkpoint inhibitors have a different mechanism of action from cytotoxic agents or small molecules against NSCLC, also tumor response may present with atypical features. Pseudoprogression (PP) is a distinct response pattern defined by a transient enlargement of the tumor burden, sustained by inflammatory cells and usually not associated with worsening of performance status (PS). Here the authors describe the case of a lung adenocarcinoma patient treated with pembrolizumab, who developed an early symptomatic PP with a dramatic global worsening of PS. Subsequently an improvement in general condition and a brilliant tumor response were observed. Tumor re-biopsy was collected after the treatment in order to support the identification of PP and to describe microenvironment modifications induce by immunotherapy.

PROteolysis TArgeting Chimeras (PROTACs) are heterobifunctional molecules consisting of two ligands; an “anchor” to bind to an E3 ubiquitin ligase and a “warhead” to bind to a protein of interest, connected by a chemical linker. Targeted protein degradation by PROTACs has emerged as a new modality for the knock down of a range of proteins, with the first agents now reaching clinical evaluation. It has become increasingly clear that the length and composition of the linker play critical roles on the physicochemical properties and bioactivity of PROTACs. While linker design has historically received limited attention, the PROTAC field is evolving rapidly and currently undergoing an important shift from synthetically tractable alkyl and polyethylene glycol to more sophisticated functional linkers. This promises to unlock a wealth of novel PROTAC agents with enhanced bioactivity for therapeutic intervention. Here, the authors provide a timely overview of the diverse linker classes in the published literature, along with their underlying design principles and overall influence on the properties and bioactivity of the associated PROTACs. Finally, the authors provide a critical analysis of current strategies for PROTAC assembly. The authors highlight important limitations associated with the traditional “trial and error” approach around linker design and selection, and suggest potential future avenues to further inform rational linker design and accelerate the identification of optimised PROTACs. In particular, the authors believe that advances in computational and structural methods will play an essential role to gain a better understanding of the structure and dynamics of PROTAC ternary complexes, and will be essential to address the current gaps in knowledge associated with PROTAC design.

Lung cancer is still one of the main causes of cancer-related death, together with prostate and colorectal cancers in males and breast and colorectal cancers in females. The prognosis for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is strictly dependent on feasibility of a complete surgical resection of the tumor at diagnosis. Since surgery is indicated only in early stages tumors, it is necessary to anticipate the timing of diagnosis in clinical practice. In the diagnostic and therapeutic pathway for NSCLC, sampling of neoplastic tissue is usually obtained using invasive methods that are not free from disadvantages and complications. A valid alternative to the standard biopsy is the liquid biopsy (LB), that is, the analysis of samples from peripheral blood, urine, and other biological fluids, with a simple and non-invasive collection. In particular, it is possible to detect in the blood different tumor derivatives, such as cell-free DNA (cfDNA) with its subtype circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), cell-free RNA (cfRNA), and circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Plasma-based testing seems to have several advantages over tumor tissue biopsy; firstly, it reduces medical costs, risk of complications related to invasive procedures, and turnaround times; moreover, the analysis of genes alteration, such as EGFR, ALK, ROS1, and BRAF is faster and safer with this method, compared to tissue biopsy. Despite all these advantages, the evidences in literatures indicate that assays performed on liquid biopsies have a low sensitivity, making them unsuitable for screening in lung cancer at the current state. This is caused by lack of standardization in sampling and preparation of specimen and by the low concentration of biomarkers in the bloodstream. Instead, routinely use of LB should be preferred in revaluation of patients with advanced NSCLC resistant to chemotherapy, due to onset of new mutations.

Cancer is the second death causing disease worldwide after cardiovascular abnormalities. The difficulty in treating tumor cells with more precise targeted interventions and recurrence of cancer after treatment may pose great difficulty in developing sustainable therapeutic regimens. These limitations have prompted the need to explore several compounds with ability to cease tumor growth while at the same time induce apoptosis of tumor cells. Several studies have emphasized the use of natural compounds as antitumor agents due to their high efficacy against cancer cells and low toxicity in normal cells. Salvianolic acid B (SAB), a naturally occurring phenolic compound extracted from the radix of Chinese herb Salvia miltiorrhiza can induce apoptosis in different types of tumor cells. It can be used to treat cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders, hepatic fibrosis, and cancers. Several studies have shown that SAB can mitigate tumorigenesis by modulating MAPK, PI3K/AKT, and NF-ĸB signaling pathways. It also sensitizes the tumor cells to different anti-cancer agents by reversing the multi-drug resistance mechanisms found in tumor cells. This review summarizes the studies showing antitumor potential of SAB in different types of cancer cell lines, animal models and highlights the possible mechanisms through which SAB can induce apoptosis, inhibit growth and metastasis in tumor cells. Moreover, the possible role of nano-technological approaches to induce targeted delivery of SAB to eradicate tumor cells has been also discussed.

BCL-X_L is an anti-apoptotic protein that plays an important role in tumorigenesis, metastasis, and intrinsic or therapy-induced cancer drug resistance. More recently, BCL-X_L has also been identified as a key survival factor in senescent cells. Accumulation of senescent cells has been indicated as a causal factor of aging and many age-related diseases and contributes to tumor relapse and metastasis. Thus, inhibition of BCL-X_L is an attractive strategy for the treatment of cancer and extension of healthspan. However, development of BCL-X_L inhibitors such as navitoclax for clinical use has been challenging because human platelets depend on BCL-X_L for survival. In this review, the authors discuss how BCL-X_L-targeted proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) afford a novel approach to mitigate the on-target thrombocytopenia associated with BCL-X_L inhibition. The authors summarize the progress in the development of BCL-X_L PROTACs. The authors highlight the in vitro and in vivo data supporting that by hijacking the ubiquitin protein ligase (E3) that are poorly expressed in human platelets, BCL-X_L PROTACs can significantly improve the therapeutic window compared to conventional BCL-X_L inhibitors. These findings demonstrated the potentially broad utility of PROTAC technology to achieve tissue selectivity through recruiting differentially expressed E3 ligases and to reduce on-target toxicity.

Lung cancer represents the world’s most common cause of cancer death. In recent years, we moved from a generic therapeutic strategy to a personalized approach, based on the molecular characterization of the tumor. In this view, liquid biopsy is becoming an important tool for assessing the progress or onset of lung disease. Liquid biopsy is a non-invasive procedure able to isolate circulating tumor cells, tumor educated platelets, exosomes and free circulating tumor DNA from body fluids. The characterization of these liquid biomarkers can help to choose the therapeutic strategy for each different case. In this review, the authors will analyze the main aspects of lung cancer and the applications currently in use focusing on the benefits associated with this approach for predicting the prognosis and monitoring the clinical conditions of lung cancer disease.

Cancer remains the second leading cause of mortality globally. In combating cancer, conventional chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy are administered as first-line therapy. However, these are usually accompanied with adverse side effects that decrease the quality of patient’s lives. As such, natural bioactive compounds have gained an attraction in the scientific and medical community as evidence of their anticancer properties and attenuation of side effects mounted. In particular, quassinoids have been found to exhibit a plethora of inhibitory activities such as anti-proliferative effects on tumor development and metastasis. Recently, bruceine D, a quassinoid isolated from the shrub Brucea javanica (L.) Merr. (Simaroubaceae), has come under immense investigation on its antineoplastic properties in various human cancers including pancreas, breast, lung, blood, bone, and liver. In this review, we have highlighted the antineoplastic effects of bruceine D and its mode of actions in different tumor models.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is a common form of leukemia and is dependent on growth-promoting signaling via the B-cell receptor. The Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) is an important mediator of B-cell receptor signaling and the irreversible BTK inhibitor ibrutinib can trigger dramatic clinical responses in treated patients. However, emergence of resistance and toxicity are major limitations which lead to treatment discontinuation. There remains, therefore, a clear need for new therapeutic options. In this review, we discuss recent progress in the development of BTK-targeted proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) describing how such agents may provide advantages over ibrutinib and highlighting features of PROTACs that are important for the development of effective BTK degrading agents. Overall, PROTACs appear to be an exciting new approach to target BTK. However, development is at a very early stage and considerable progress is required to refine these agents and optimize their drug-like properties before progression to clinical testing.

Tanshinone is a herbal medicinal compound described in Chinese medicine, extracted from the roots of Salvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen). This family of compounds, including Tanshinone IIA and Tanshinone I, have shown remarkable potential as anti-cancer molecules, especially against breast, cervical, colorectal, gastric, lung, and prostate cancer cell lines, as well as leukaemia, melanoma, and hepatocellular carcinoma among others. Recent data has indicated that Tanshinones can modulate multiple molecular pathways such as PI3K/Akt, MAPK and JAK/STAT3, and exert their pharmacological effects against different malignancies. In addition, preclinical and clinical data, together with the safety profile of Tanshinones, encourage further applications of these compounds in cancer therapeutics. In this review article, the effect of Tanshinones on different cancers, challenges in their pharmacological development, and opportunities to harness their clinical potential have been documented.

Immunotherapy has shifted the therapeutic landscape in thoracic cancers. However, assessment of biomarkers for patient selection and disease monitoring remain challenging, especially considering the lack of tissue sample availability for clinical and research purposes. In this scenario, liquid biopsy (LB), defined as the study and characterization of biomarkers in body fluids, represents a useful alternative strategy. In other malignancies such as colorectal cancer, breast cancer or melanoma, the potential of LB has been more extensively explored for monitoring minimal residual disease or response to treatment, and to investigate mechanisms of resistance to targeted agents. Even if various experiences have already been published about the applications of LB in immunotherapy in thoracic cancers, the standardization of methodology and assessment of its clinical utility is still pending. In this review, the authors will focus on the applications of LB in immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer, and malignant pleural mesothelioma, describing available data and future perspectives.

Poly-ADP-ribose polymerase inhibitors (PARP-I) represent one of the most attractive and promising class of biological agents studied both in relapsed ovarian cancer (OC) and in the advanced setting. The availability of this new class of drugs has changed the clinical management of OC ensuring an unprecedented advance in such an aggressive cancer. Three oral PARP-I are currently available: olaparib, niraparib and rucaparib. Another two are in active clinical exploration: veliparib and talazoparib. Here the authors report clinical data with PARP-I with a particular emphasis on the phase II and III trials that support PARP-I approval by regulatory agencies in OC patients.

All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) induces complete remission in a high proportion of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Nevertheless it is be associated with adverse drug reactions that might be life-threatening including differentiation syndrome, myocarditis, myositis, Sweet’s syndrome and ulcers. We describe a case of APL who during induction therapy developed ATRA syndrome, cardiac arrhythmia and multiple episodes of intestinal necrosis that required surgery. In particular, we report here for the first intestinal necrosis attributable to ATRA treatment in the absence of histological evidence of promyelocytes infiltration or leukocytoclastic vasculitis.

Several preclinical studies suggested a potential benefit from combined treatment with inhibitors of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and angiogenesis, both effective in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In pretreated patients with advanced EGFR wild type NSCLC, bevacizumab plus erlotinib improved progression-free survival as second-line therapy in the BeTa study and as maintenance therapy in the ATLAS trial, although the benefit was modest and did not translate into an advantage in overall survival. Disappointing results were reported with oral VEGF inhibitors plus erlotinib in pretreated patients with EGFR wild type NSCLC. On the contrary, erlotinib plus bevacizumab or ramucirumab showed a clinically relevant improvement of progression-free survival in naïve patients with EGFR mutations, leading to the approval of these two regimens as first-line treatment of NSCLC patients with EGFR mutant tumors. Several clinical studies are evaluating the feasibility and activity of osimertinib plus bevacizumab or ramucirumab. However, limits that could affect its use in clinical practice are the need of an intravenous infusion for angiogenesis inhibitors, the increased incidence of treatment associated adverse events, the exclusion of patients with tumors located in central position or at risk of hemorrhage. The identification of predictive biomarkers is an important goal of research to optimize the combined use of these agents.

Dysregulation of cellular pH is frequent in solid tumours and provides potential opportunities for therapeutic intervention. The acidic microenvironment within a tumour can promote migration, invasion and metastasis of cancer cells through a variety of mechanisms. Pathways associated with the control of intracellular pH that are under consideration for intervention include carbonic anhydrase IX, the monocarboxylate transporters (MCT, MCT1 and MCT4), the vacuolar-type H⁺-ATPase proton pump, and the sodium-hydrogen exchanger 1. This review will describe progress in the development of inhibitors to these targets.

Cancer development is frequently associated with dysregulation of mRNA translation to enhance both increased global protein synthesis and translation of specific mRNAs encoding oncoproteins. Thus, targeted inhibition of mRNA translation is viewed as a promising new approach for cancer therapy. In this article we review current progress in investigating dysregulation of mRNA translation initiation in mature B-cell neoplasms, focusing on chronic lymphocytic leukemia, follicular lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. We discuss mechanisms and regulation of mRNA translation, potential pathways by which genetic alterations and the tumor microenvironment alters mRNA translation in malignant B cells, preclinical evaluation of drugs targeted against specific eukaryotic initiation factors and current progress towards clinical development. Overall, inhibition of mRNA translation initiation factors is an exciting and promising area for development of novel targeted anti-tumor drugs.

The Fanconi anaemia (FA) pathway is an important mechanism for cellular DNA damage repair, which functions to remove toxic DNA interstrand crosslinks. This is particularly relevant in the context of ovarian and other cancers which rely extensively on interstrand cross-link generating platinum chemotherapy as standard of care treatment. These cancers often respond well to initial treatment, but reoccur with resistant disease and upregulation of DNA damage repair pathways. The FA pathway is therefore of great interest as a target for therapies that aim to improve the efficacy of platinum chemotherapies, and reverse tumour resistance to these. In this review, we discuss recent advances in understanding the mechanism of interstrand cross-link repair by the FA pathway, and the potential of the component parts as targets for therapeutic agents. We then focus on the current state of play of inhibitor development, covering both the characterisation of broad spectrum inhibitors and high throughput screening approaches to identify novel small molecule inhibitors. We also consider synthetic lethality between the FA pathway and other DNA damage repair pathways as a therapeutic approach.

Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is an heterogeneous disease in which different genetic alterations play a role in its pathogenesis and progression and offer potential for therapeutic intervention. The research on predictive biomarkers in metastatic CRC (mCRC) mainly focused on the identification of biomarkers of response or resistance to anti-epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibodies. In this respect, international guidelines suggest testing mCRC patients only for KRAS, NRAS and BRAF mutations and for microsatellite instability. However, the use of novel testing methods is raising relevant issue related to these biomarkers, such as the presence of sub-clonal RAS mutations or the clinical interpretation of rare no-V600 BRAF variants. In addition, a number of novel biomarkers is emerging from recent studies including amplification of ERBB2, mutations in ERBB2, MAP2K1 and NF1 and rearrangements of ALK, ROS1, NTRK and RET. Mutations in POLE and the levels of tumor mutation burden also appear as possible biomarkers of response to immunotherapy in CRC. Finally, the consensus molecular subtypes classification of CRC based on gene expression profiling has prognostic and predictive implications. Integration of all these information will be likely necessary in the next future in order to improve precision/personalized medicine in mCRC patients.