がんの科学と治療

The hypothesis of immune responses is predicted on theory of immune system that is capable of eliminating foreign antigens including tumor specific antigens in the process, immunosurveillance. To defense against tumors immune system activates cell mediated and humoral immune responses, cell mediated immune system protects the body from itself by controlling cancerous cells, this includes activation of Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes, Natural Killer cells, Macrophages, Dendritic Cells, Lymphokines, etc., where as humoral immune system recognizes foreign particles. These cells play important role in defending as well as in diagnostic processes. Here I discussed about the cell mediated and humoral mediated immuno mechanisms involved in the defense mechanism against tumors.

Melanoma is the most dreadful form of skin cancer that begins in melanocytes. It is the leading cause of death from skin disease. It can occur in any part of the body that contains melanocytes. Several internal and external risk factors of the body may contribute to the development of many cancer melanomas such as unexpected exposure to UV radiation, weakened immune system, family history etc. Melanoma diagnosed at early stages is typically cured by surgical excision, but advanced stages are often deadly. Cancer stem cells (CSC) are recently proposed to be the cancer initiating cells responsible for tumorigenesis and contribute to cancer resistance. In the present review I have discussed about melanoma incidence, detection with various modes of treatment.

Abrikossoff tumor or Granular cell tumor usually present as unencapsulated, small, firm white mass, usually less than 2 cm with infiltrative borders. The histogenesis seems to be neural and most likely Schwann cell in origin. The lesion will present as an asymptomatic mass usually in the submucosa. Usually it behaves as a benign lesion; however, about 2% of the cases can present a malignant course. Here we report a case of large diffused painful swelling in the palate in a 9 year old boy. This was diagnosed as benign granular cell tumor on histopathologically, but had malignant clinical characteristics.

It is known that oxidative stress leads to aging and pathogenesis of many ailments. Antioxidants are considered to be one of the effective solutions for the oxidative stress and are used in the prevention and treatment of numerous diseases including inflammatory and infectious diseases, pre and post cancer therapy. In one of the authors’ previous experimental study, potent antioxidant activities were observed from dendritic antioxidant (zero generation -G0) derived from syringaldehyde [1]. In this study, we also designed its analogs derived from vanillin and 5-iodovanillin. The aim of our present study was to characterize and understand the molecular interaction of the dendritic antioxidants with pBR322 plasmid DNA using computer simulations, in the hope that only the chemical structures with promising results would be synthesized in the laboratory experiments for further investigation. Towards this undertaking, we investigated the effects of various non-covalent interactions of the dendritic antioxidants with double stranded (dsDNA) 20- and 80-base pairs of pBR322 and compared with those of commonly used small antioxidant molecules, like quercetin, and vitamins C. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation has been adopted to generate binding site of the compound with pBR322 DNA after the conformational search. This study revealed that the nature of the diverse binding free energy components obtained via computational methodology. Based on interaction and binding energy, syringaldehyde-derivatized G0 dendrimer was found to be the most favorable entity for pBR322 DNA, followed by quercetin.

The purpose of this work was to study the efficiency of photodynamic therapy with boronated chlorin as a photosensitizer for treating experimental tumors such as ?-1 sarcoma and ?-16 melanoma. PDT of ?-1 sarcoma with laser radiation energy density of 300 J/cm2 and power density of 0.42 W/cm2 resulted in complete tumor regression at all three doses of the photosensitizer. Photodynamic therapy of ?-16 melanoma appeared to be the most effective when boronated chlorin at a dose of 10.0 mg/kg and laser radiation energy density of 150 J/cm2 and power density of 0.25 W/cm2 were used. A satisfactory effect of PDT on the tumor was achieved when a dose of 5.0 mg/kg, energy density of 300 J/cm2 and power density of 0.25 W/cm2 were used. At 10 - 21 days after PDT with use of other studied parameters, some animals showed continued tumor growth. Nevertheless, by the end of observation (at day 21), no lung metastases were found in animals. In control, they were detected in up to 43.4 % of cases.

Granular cell tumor (GCT) is an uncommon entity which occurs in all organs and tissues and is most frequently found in the tongue and skin. Within the gastrointestinal system, granular cell tumor occurs most frequently within the esophagus. The clinical presentation and imaging features of esophageal GCT overlap with leiomyoma in many aspects, making it difficult to separate these entities on a purely clinical basis. Therefore, the definitive diagnosis of granular cell tumor relies upon pathological examination. GCT of the esophagus is benign and surgical excision is usually curative. Here we report a case of a large, submucosal GCT of the distal esophagus, mimicking leiomyoma in clinical presentation and on esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) imaging. Surgical resection resulted in apparent cure, with no recurrence after 3 years of follow-up. Pathologic examination of the lesion showed a typical granular cell tumor.