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.
The immune system is a network of biological systems that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as cancer cells and objects such as wood splinters, distinguishing them from the organism's own healthy tissue. Many species have two major subsystems of the immune system. The innate immune system provides a preconfigured response to broad groups of situations and stimuli. The adaptive immune system provides a tailored response to each stimulus by learning to recognize molecules it has previously encountered. Both use molecules and cells to perform their functions.
Paclitaxel, sold under the brand name Taxol among others, is a chemotherapy medication used to treat ovarian cancer, esophageal cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma, cervical cancer, and pancreatic cancer. It is administered by intravenous injection. There is also an albumin-bound formulation.
Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from that seed, of several tree species of the genus Myristica; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, and mace, from the seed covering. It is also a commercial source of nutmeg essential oil and nutmeg butter. Indonesia is the main producer of nutmeg and mace, and the true nutmeg tree is native to its islands.
The areca nut is the fruit of the areca palm, which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of east Africa. It is also commonly referred to as betel nut, not to be confused with betel leaves that are often used to wrap it.
The cashew tree is a tropical evergreen tree native to South America in the genus Anacardium that produces the cashew seed and the cashew apple accessory fruit. The tree can grow as tall as 14 metres, but the dwarf cultivars, growing up to 6 m (20 ft), prove more profitable, with earlier maturity and greater yields. The cashew seed is commonly considered a snack nut eaten on its own, used in recipes, or processed into cashew cheese or cashew butter. Like the tree, the nut is often simply called a cashew. Cashew allergies are triggered by the proteins found in tree nuts, and cooking often does not remove or change these proteins.
The Anacardiaceae, commonly known as the cashew family or sumac family, are a family of flowering plants, including about 83 genera with about 860 known species. Members of the Anacardiaceae bear fruits that are drupes and in some cases produce urushiol, an irritant. The Anacardiaceae include numerous genera, several of which are economically important, notably cashew, mango, Chinese lacquer tree, yellow mombin, Peruvian pepper, poison ivy, poison oak, sumac, smoke tree, marula and cuachalalate. The genus Pistacia is now included, but was previously placed in its own family, the Pistaciaceae.
Polyphenols are a large family of naturally occurring phenols. They are abundant in plants and structurally diverse. Polyphenols include flavonoids, tannic acid, and ellagitannin, some of which have been used historically as dyes and for tanning garments.
Betel nut chewing, also called betel quid chewing or areca nut chewing, is a practice in which areca nuts are chewed together with slaked lime and betel leaves for their stimulant and narcotic effects, the primary psychoactive compound being arecoline. The practice is widespread in Southeast Asia, Micronesia, Island Melanesia, and South Asia. It is also found among both Han Chinese immigrants and indigenous peoples of Taiwan, Madagascar, and parts of southern China. It was introduced to the Caribbean in colonial times.
Topoisomerase inhibitors are chemical compounds that block the action of topoisomerases, which are broken into two broad subtypes: type I topoisomerases (TopI) and type II topoisomerases (TopII). Topoisomerase plays important roles in cellular reproduction and DNA organization, as they mediate the cleavage of single and double stranded DNA to relax supercoils, untangle catenanes, and condense chromosomes in eukaryotic cells. Topoisomerase inhibitors influence these essential cellular processes. Some topoisomerase inhibitors prevent topoisomerases from performing DNA strand breaks while others, deemed topoisomerase poisons, associate with topoisomerase-DNA complexes and prevent the re-ligation step of the topoisomerase mechanism. These topoisomerase-DNA-inhibitor complexes are cytotoxic agents, as the un-repaired single- and double stranded DNA breaks they cause can lead to apoptosis and cell death. Because of this ability to induce apoptosis, topoisomerase inhibitors have gained interest as therapeutics against infectious and cancerous cells.
Camptothecin (CPT) is a topoisomerase inhibitor. It was discovered in 1966 by M. E. Wall and M. C. Wani in systematic screening of natural products for anticancer drugs. It was isolated from the bark and stem of Camptotheca acuminata, a tree native to China used in traditional Chinese medicine. It has been used clinically more recently in China for the treatment of gastrointestinal tumors. CPT showed anticancer activity in preliminary clinical trials, especially against breast, ovarian, colon, lung, and stomach cancers. However, it has low solubility and adverse effects have been reported when used therapeutically, so synthetic and medicinal chemists have developed numerous syntheses of camptothecin and various derivatives to increase the benefits of the chemical, with good results. Four CPT analogues have been approved and are used in cancer chemotherapy today: topotecan, irinotecan, belotecan, and trastuzumab deruxtecan. Camptothecin has also been found in other plants including Chonemorpha fragrans.
Eric M. Genden, MD, MHCA, FACS is a United States head and neck cancer surgeon at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. where he serves as the Isidore Friesner Professor and Chairman of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and Professor of Neurosurgery and Immunology. According to his biography at Mount Sinai, Genden's professional titles also include Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, He is Executive Vice President of Ambulatory Surgery, and Director of the Head and Neck Institute at the Mount Sinai Health System.
Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of the type genus of the family. Most spurges, such as Euphorbia paralias, are herbs, but some, especially in the tropics, are shrubs or trees, such as Hevea brasiliensis. Some, such as Euphorbia canariensis, are succulent and resemble cacti because of convergent evolution. This family has a cosmopolitan global distribution. The greatest diversity of species is in the tropics; however, the Euphorbiaceae also have many species in nontropical areas of all continents except Antarctica.
Tamanu oil is pressed from nuts of either Calophyllum inophyllum (usually) or Calophyllum tacamahaca (ati), tropical trees belonging to the Calophyllaceae family. The oil originates in Polynesia, where it continues to play an important cultural role.
Helicteres isora, sometimes called the Indian screw tree, is a small tree or large shrub found in southern Asia and northern Oceania. It is usually assigned to the family Malvaceae, but it is sometimes assigned to the family Sterculiaceae. The red flowers are pollinated mainly by sunbirds, butterflies, and Hymenoptera. In the 19th century fibers from the bark were used to make rope and sacks, although nowadays the tree is harvested for the fruits and roots which are used in folk medicine.
Garcinia benthamiana, also known as asashi, is a flowering tree in the family Clusiaceae (Guttiferae). The specific epithet (benthamiana) honors English botanist George Bentham.
June Biedler was an American scientist primarily known for her discovery of proteins that lead to resistance of cancer cells to chemotherapy. Her work has been crucial for an understanding of both the development of drug resistance and also for strategies to circumvent such resistance. In addition, Biedler made important contributions to an understanding of the molecular mechanisms of neuroblastoma development, particularly of the role of the N-myc oncogene in the genesis of neuroblastoma
