Chemotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherapy may be given with a curative intent, or it may aim to prolong life or to reduce symptoms. Chemotherapy is one of the major categories of the medical discipline specifically devoted to pharmacotherapy for cancer, which is called medical oncology.
Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Radiation therapy may be curative in a number of types of cancer if they are localized to one area of the body. It may also be used as part of adjuvant therapy, to prevent tumor recurrence after surgery to remove a primary malignant tumor. Radiation therapy is synergistic with chemotherapy, and has been used before, during, and after chemotherapy in susceptible cancers. The subspecialty of oncology concerned with radiotherapy is called radiation oncology. A physician who practices in this subspecialty is a radiation oncologist.
Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, are metastases (mets). It is generally distinguished from cancer invasion, which is the direct extension and penetration by cancer cells into neighboring tissues.
A teratoma is a tumor made up of several different types of tissue, such as hair, muscle, teeth, or bone. Teratomata typically form in the ovary, testicle, or coccyx.
Methylcholanthrene is a highly carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon produced by burning organic compounds at very high temperatures. Methylcholanthrene is also known as 3-methylcholanthrene, 20-methylcholanthrene or the IUPAC name 3-methyl-1,2-dyhydrobenzo[j]aceanthrylene. The short notation often used is 3-MC or MCA. This compound forms pale yellow solid crystals when crystallized from benzene and ether. It has a melting point around 180 °C and its boiling point is around 280 °C at a pressure of 80 mmHg. Methylcholanthrene is used in laboratory studies of chemical carcinogenesis. It is an alkylated derivative of benz[a]anthracene and has a similar UV spectrum. The most common isomer is 3-methylcholanthrene, although the methyl group can occur in other places.
An oncovirus or oncogenic virus is a virus that can cause cancer. This term originated from studies of acutely transforming retroviruses in the 1950–60s, when the term "oncornaviruses" was used to denote their RNA virus origin. With the letters "RNA" removed, it now refers to any virus with a DNA or RNA genome causing cancer and is synonymous with "tumor virus" or "cancer virus". The vast majority of human and animal viruses do not cause cancer, probably because of longstanding co-evolution between the virus and its host. Oncoviruses have been important not only in epidemiology, but also in investigations of cell cycle control mechanisms such as the retinoblastoma protein.
Cyclophosphamide (CP), also known as cytophosphane among other names, is a medication used as chemotherapy and to suppress the immune system. As chemotherapy it is used to treat lymphoma, multiple myeloma, leukemia, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, small cell lung cancer, neuroblastoma, and sarcoma. As an immune suppressor it is used in nephrotic syndrome, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and following organ transplant, among other conditions. It is taken by mouth or injection into a vein.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are cancer cells that possess characteristics associated with normal stem cells, specifically the ability to give rise to all cell types found in a particular cancer sample. CSCs are therefore tumorigenic (tumor-forming), perhaps in contrast to other non-tumorigenic cancer cells. CSCs may generate tumors through the stem cell processes of self-renewal and differentiation into multiple cell types. Such cells are hypothesized to persist in tumors as a distinct population and cause relapse and metastasis by giving rise to new tumors. Therefore, development of specific therapies targeted at CSCs holds hope for improvement of survival and quality of life of cancer patients, especially for patients with metastatic disease.
A transmissible cancer is a cancer cell or cluster of cancer cells that can be transferred between individuals without the involvement of an infectious agent, such as an oncovirus. Transmission of cancer between humans is rare. The evolution of transmissible cancer has occurred naturally in other animal species, but—similarly to human cancer transmission—is rare.
In molecular genetics, a DNA adduct is a segment of DNA bound to a cancer-causing chemical. This process could be the start of a cancerous cell, or carcinogenesis. DNA adducts in scientific experiments are used as biomarkers of exposure and as such are themselves measured to reflect quantitatively, for comparison, the amount of carcinogen exposure to the subject organism, for example rats or other living animals.[citation needed] Under experimental conditions for study, such DNA adducts are induced by known carcinogens, of which commonly used is DMBA. For example, the term "DMBA-DNA adduct" in a scientific journal refers to a piece of DNA that has DMBA attached to it. The presence of such an adduct indicates prior exposure to a potential carcinogen, but does not by itself indicate the presence of cancer in the subject animal.
Risk factors for breast cancer may be divided into preventable and non-preventable. Their study belongs in the field of epidemiology. Breast cancer, like other forms of cancer, can result from multiple environmental and hereditary risk factors. The term "environmental", as used by cancer researchers, means any risk factor that is not genetically inherited.
Checkpoint kinase 1, commonly referred to as Chk1, is a serine/threonine-specific protein kinase that, in humans, is encoded by the CHEK1 gene. Chk1 coordinates the DNA damage response (DDR) and cell cycle checkpoint response. Activation of Chk1 results in the initiation of cell cycle checkpoints, cell cycle arrest, DNA repair and cell death to prevent damaged cells from progressing through the cell cycle.
Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is a transmembrane glycoprotein mediating Ca2+-independent homotypic cell–cell adhesion in epithelia. EpCAM is also involved in cell signaling, migration, proliferation, and differentiation. Additionally, EpCAM has oncogenic potential via its capacity to upregulate c-myc, e-fabp, and cyclins A & E. Since EpCAM is expressed exclusively in epithelia and epithelial-derived neoplasms, EpCAM can be used as diagnostic marker for various cancers. It appears to play a role in tumorigenesis and metastasis of carcinomas, so it can also act as a potential prognostic marker and as a potential target for immunotherapeutic strategies.
Anticancer genes are genes that, when ectopically overexpressed, specifically destroy tumour cells without harming normal, untransformed cells. This cellular destruction can be due to a variety of mechanisms, such as apoptosis, mitotic catastrophe followed by apoptosis or necrosis, and autophagy. Anticancer genes emerged from studies on cancer cells in the late 1990s. Currently, there have been 291 anticancer genes discovered in the human genome. In order to be classified as an anticancer gene, the gene must have base substitutions leading to missense amino-acid changes, deletions, or insertions leading to frameshifts that alter the protein the gene codes for, increases and decreases in copy-number increases, or gene rearrangements leading to their deregulation.
Isopimpinellin is a natural product synthesized by numerous plant species, especially species in the carrot family Apiaceae. The compound can be found in celery, garden angelica, parsnip, fruits and in the rind and pulp of limes. Several studies have looked into the effects of isopimpinellin and other furanocoumarins as anticarcinogens. These studies have shown possible inhibition of 7,12-Dimethylbenz(a)anthracene, which are initiators of skin tumors. Evidence has also been reported that links these compounds to the inhibition of breast cancers.
The tumor microenvironment (TME) is the environment around a tumor, including the surrounding blood vessels, immune cells, fibroblasts, signaling molecules and the extracellular matrix (ECM). The tumor and the surrounding microenvironment are closely related and interact constantly. Tumors can influence the microenvironment by releasing extracellular signals, promoting tumor angiogenesis and inducing peripheral immune tolerance, while the immune cells in the microenvironment can affect the growth and evolution of cancerous cells.
Breast cancer metastatic mouse models are experimental approaches in which mice are genetically manipulated to develop a mammary tumor leading to distant focal lesions of mammary epithelium created by metastasis. Mammary cancers in mice can be caused by genetic mutations that have been identified in human cancer. This means models can be generated based upon molecular lesions consistent with the human disease.
Ethinylestriol (EE3), or 17α-ethynylestriol, also known as 17α-ethynylestra-1,3,5(10)-triene-3,16α,17β-triol, is a synthetic estrogen which was never marketed. Nilestriol, the 3-cyclopentyl ether of ethinylestriol, is a prodrug of ethinylestriol, and is a more potent estrogen in comparison, but, in contrast to ethinylestriol, has been marketed. Ethinylestriol has been found to reduce the risk of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA)-induced mammary cancer when given as a prophylactic in animal models, while other estrogens like ethinylestradiol and diethylstilbestrol were ineffective.
Fluoromedroxyprogesterone acetate is a synthetic steroid medication which was under development by Meiji Dairies Corporation in the 1990s and 2000s for the potential treatment of cancers but was never marketed. It is described as an antiangiogenic agent, with about two orders of magnitude greater potency for inhibition of angiogenesis than its parent compound medroxyprogesterone acetate. FMPA showed about the same affinities for the progesterone and glucocorticoid receptors as MPA. It reached the preclinical phase of research prior to the discontinuation of its development.
verify (what is 
?)