Reviews & Analysis

The molecular revolution has paved the way for the development of diagnostic technologies and predictors of response to treatment. This review describes how gene expression profiling using DNA microarrays are emerging as diagnostic tool, and advances in the application of gene expression profiling can help predict response to chemotherapy in breast cancer.

Survivors of childhood cancers are at an increased risk of adverse heath outcomes. Large-scale studies of mortality of cancer survivors beyond 5 years demonstrate that the majority of deaths are caused by recurrent tumors, second malignant neoplasms, cardiac and pulmonary deaths. This comprehensive review quantifies progress achieved in childhood cancer as well as the long term-side-effects of therapies.

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEFG) stimulates tumor-associated angiogenesis, thereby making it a prime target for the development of anti-VEGF compounds. One such anti-VEGF drug, bevacizumab, has improved survival rates in some cancer trials. The key clinical trial data and reasons for some of the contrasting results seen in different patient studies are discussed.

With less than 10% of patients with metastatic renal cell cancer (RCC) surviving beyond 5 years, the management of this disease remains a therapeutic challenge. Conventional immune-based treatments are moderately successful, but complete disease remission has been observed using allogeneic stem-cell transplantation. Newer innovative approaches to maximize the graft-versus-tumor effect using this approach show promise in treating RCC.