Solid Tumour Therapy with Peptide DNA complexes

Abstract

According to a press release by the World Health Organization dated to December 2013, global cancer statistics showed that were 14.1 million new cancer cases and 8.2 million cancer deaths in 2012 (www.iarc.fr). Breast cancer is also the most common cause of cancer death among women (5,22,000 deaths in 2012) and the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women in 140 of 184 countries worldwide (www.iarc.fr.). It now represents one in four of all cancers in women. Curative treatment for breast cancer revolves around surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, hormone therapy or a combination of these forms. Surgery is not feasible in all cases especially when the tumour is large and when the patient is suffering from an underlying systemic disease such as diabetes (Gavhane et al., 2011). Neoadjuvant therapy is then pursued wherein attempts are made to regress tumours using radiation and chemotherapy before surgery is initiated (Sausville and Long, 2005). Radiotherapy is at times ineffective in abolishing malignant cells which grow in hypoxic environments leading to recurrence (Hahn and Glatstein, 2005) of tumour. Chemotherapy comprising of chemical and hormonal compounds are helpless against some cell sects of tumour mass consisting of heterogeneous cell types. Moreover the high doses of the chemotherapeutic agent used cause side effects such as myelosuppression (leading to opportunistic infections), alopecia, nausea and emesis (Sausville and Long, 2005). Thus traditional therapy methods though commonly used suffer from several drawbacks. These loopholes in the conventional treatment methods, have led cancer researchers worldwide to explore biologic therapy for cancer treatment. Biologic therapy is an emerging field in the field of cancer medicine. This therapy involves immunotherapy i.e monoclonal antibodies and nucleic acid therapy.