Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
5
pubmed:dateCreated
2005-10-7
pubmed:abstractText
Significant progress has been made in the clinical management of hematologic malignancies; nevertheless, a proportion of patients still remains unresponsive to available therapeutic options. Furthermore, patients who respond to specific therapeutic regimens may still require additional treatment to eradicate minimal residual disease. In this scenario, novel immunotherapeutic strategies may significantly impact on the clinical course of hematopoietic tumors in different clinical stages of disease. Among immunotherapeutic approaches under development, promising clinical results are being obtained with vaccination of patients with solid malignancies against cancer testis antigens (CTA), which belong to a growing family of methylation-regulated tumor-associated antigens (TAA) shared among human malignancies of different histologies. Based on these notions, the emerging preclinical and clinical evidence suggest that an immunomodulatory role for epigenetic drugs is highly relevant; in fact, by interfering with DNA methylation, these compounds induce or upregulate the constitutive expression of CTA on actively proliferating neoplastic cells. This novel activity of epigenetic drugs combines with their well-known cytotoxic, pro-apoptotic and differentiating activities in hematopoietic tumors that are extensively described in other chapters of this issue. This review will focus on the expression of CTA in hematopoietic malignancies, on their epigenetic regulation, and on the foreseeable immunotherapeutic implications of DNA hypometylating drugs to design new CTA-based chemo-immunotherapeutic approaches in patients with hematopoietic tumors.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Oct
pubmed:issn
0093-7754
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
32
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
503-10
pubmed:dateRevised
2006-11-15
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Antigens, Neoplasm, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Apoptosis, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Cell Differentiation, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-DNA Methylation, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Epigenesis, Genetic, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Hematologic Neoplasms, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Hodgkin Disease, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Humans, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Immunotherapy, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Lymphoma, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Membrane Proteins, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Multiple Myeloma, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Myeloproliferative Disorders, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Neoplasms, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, pubmed-meshheading:16210091-Time Factors
pubmed:year
2005
pubmed:articleTitle
Epigenetic immunomodulation of hematopoietic malignancies.
pubmed:affiliation
Clinical and Experimental Hematology Research Unit, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, IRCCS, Aviano, Italy.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Review, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't