This volume, which includes contributions from leading scientists and clinicians in the field, provides definitive, state-of-the-art information on STAT inhibitors in a biological and clinical context. It gives an overview of the biology of the STAT family of transcription factors and their role in cancer etiology. Additionally, it describes the raft of therapeutic approaches being used to inhibit STATs in the context of various cancers, covering the full spectrum of therapeutic approaches to inhibiting STATs, and presenting emerging data from clinical trials.

Every minute, 34 new patients are diagnosed with cancer globally. Although over the past 50 years treatments have improved and survival rates have increased dramatically for several types of cancers, many remain incurable. Several aggressive types of blood and solid cancers form when mutations occur in a critical cellular signaling pathway, the JAK-STAT pathway; (Janus Kinase-Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription). Currently, there are no clinically available drugs that target the oncogenic STAT3/5 proteins in particular or their Gain of Function hyperactive mutant products. Here, we summarize targeting approaches on STAT3/5, as the field moves towards clinical applications as well as we illuminate on upstream or downstream JAK-STAT pathway interference with kinase inhibitors, heat shock protein blockers or changing nuclear import/export processes. We cover the design paradigms and medicinal chemistry approaches to illuminate progress and challenges in understanding the pleiotropic role of STAT3 and STAT5 in oncogenesis, the microenvironment, the immune system in particular, all culminating in a complex interplay towards cancer progression.

Protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) deregulation contributes to growth of cancer and many other diseases. The development of small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that target the deregulated PTKs, such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and Bcr-ABL in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), has revolutionized disease management. In this book, we examine a few aspects of PTKs and cancer, considering efficacy, predictive markers to therapeutic response, limitations, and future directions in TKI treatment. In this rapidly evolving field, overcoming therapeutic resistance is most challenging, and multi-targeting directs the next-generation TKIs and combination therapy as ongoing strategies in cancer treatment.

Resistance to therapies, both targeted and systemic, and metastases to distant organs are the underlying causes of breast cancer-associated mortality. The second edition of Breast Cancer Metastasis and Drug Resistance brings together some of the leading experts to comprehensively understand breast cancer: the factors that make it lethal, and current research and clinical progress. This volume covers the following core topics: basic understanding of breast cancer (statistics, epidemiology, racial disparity and heterogeneity), metastasis and drug resistance (bone metastasis, trastuzumab resistance, tamoxifen resistance and novel therapeutic targets, including non-coding RNAs, inflammatory cytokines, cancer stem cells, ubiquitin ligases, tumor microenvironment and signaling pathways such as TRAIL, JAK-STAT and mTOR) and recent developments in the field (epigenetic regulation, microRNAs-mediated regulation, novel therapies and the clinically relevant 3D models). Experts also discuss the advances in laboratory research along with their translational and clinical implications with an overarching goal to improve the diagnosis and prognosis, particularly that of breast cancer patients with advanced disease.

Cutting-edge investigators review the current status of the entire field, from the biology of MMPs through the current clinical studies. The authors include many leading scientists from pharmaceutical companies who present all the latest concepts and results on the preferred design strategies for MMP inhibitors, their molecular mechanisms, and their substrates. In addition, they fully describe their personal research on specific MMP inhibitors, detailing vanguard design strategies, their in vitro activity, the outcome of animal model studies and, where available, their toxicology, safety, efficacy in human clinical trials. Comprehensive and state-of-the-art, Matrix Metalloproteinase Inhibitors in Cancer Therapy offers basic and clinical investigators alike a richly informative summary of all the latest research on these powerful new drugs, and their high promise as emerging cancer therapeutics.

The first edition of Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry was published in 1990 and was very well received. Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry II is much more than a simple updating of the contents of the first edition. Completely revised and expanded, this new edition has been refocused to reflect the significant developments and changes over the past decade in genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, combinatorial chemistry, high-throughput screening and pharmacology, and more. The content comprises the most up-to-date, authoritative and comprehensive reference text on contemporary medicinal chemistry and drug research, covering major therapeutic classes and targets, research strategy and organisation, high-throughput technologies, computer-assisted design, ADME and selected case histories. It is this coverage of the strategy, technologies, principles and applications of medicinal chemistry in a single work that will make Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry II a unique work of reference and a single point of entry to the literature for pharmaceutical and biotechnology scientists of all disciplines and for many industry executives as well. Also available online via ScienceDirect (2006) - featuring extensive browsing, searching, and internal cross-referencing between articles in the work, plus dynamic linking to journal articles and abstract databases, making navigation flexible and easy. For more information, pricing options and availability visit www.info.sciencedirect.com. Comprehensively reviews - the strategies, technologies, principles and applications of modern medicinal chemistry Provides a global and current perspective of today's drug discovery process and discusses the major therapeutic classes and targets Includes a unique collection of case studies and personal assays reviewing the discovery and development of key drugs

This book contextualizes translational research and provides an up to date progress report on therapies that are currently being targeted in lung cancer. It is now well established that there is tremendous heterogeneity among cancer cells both at the inter- and intra-tumoral level. Further, a growing body of work highlights the importance of targeted therapies and personalized medicine in treating cancer patients. In contrast to conventional therapies that are typically administered to the average patient regardless of the patient’s genotype, targeted therapies are tailored to patients with specific traits. Nonetheless, such genetic changes can be disease-specific and/or target specific; thus, the book addresses these issues manifested in the somatically acquired genetic changes of the targeted gene. Each chapter is written by a leading medical oncologist who specializes in thoracic oncology and is devoted to a particular target in a specific indication. Contributors provide an in-depth review of the literature covering the mechanisms underlying signaling, potential cross talk between the target and downstream signaling, and potential emergence of drug resistance.

In Antifolate Drugs in Cancer Therapy, Ann Jackman and a panel of highly regarded researchers comprehensively review the current status of novel antifolates, an important class of anticancer drugs. The distinguished contributors discuss the preclinical and clinical pharmacology of methotrexate, other dihydrofolate reductase inhibitors, 5-fluorouracil, and the new generation of antifolates-the thymidylate synthase and glycinamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase inhibitors. In addition, they review in depth the modulation of antifolate drugs, folate and antifolate transport mechanisms, polyglutamation, resistance, and drug combinations, as well as pharmacogenomics, pharmacodynamics, regulation of gene expression, and mechanisms of cell death. The wide and progressive scope of Antifolate Drugs in Cancer Therapy provides entré to exciting new avenues for future research, and constitutes a new standard reference for all basic scientists and clinicians engaged in cancer therapeutics.

Protein kinases are fascinating enzymes that maintain the proper function of nearly every task performed by the cells of the human body. By extracting a phosphate from the energy molecule ATP and linking it to another protein, protein kinases alter the structure and ultimate function of other proteins. In this way, protein kinases help monitor the extracellular environment and integrate signaling cues that, for the most part, are beneficial for human health and survival. However, protein kinases are often dysregulated and responsible for the initiation and progression of many types of cancers, inflammatory disorders, and other diseases. Thus, decades of research have revealed much about how protein kinases are regulated and approaches to inhibit these enzymes to treat disease. However, nearly 30 years since the identification of the first clinically beneficial small molecule protein kinase inhibitor, there are only a few examples where these drugs provide sustained and durable patient responses. The goal of this book is to provide biomedical scientists, graduate, and professional degree students insight into different approaches using small molecules to block specific protein kinase functions that promote disease.