Disease relevance of Biological Therapy

• Recombinant interleukin 10 for the treatment of active Crohn's disease: lessons in biologic therapy [1].
• Interleukin-2-based regimens of biological therapy have shown some clinical promise for the treatment of kidney cancer in humans, although the mechanisms responsible for tumor regression occurring in these patients remain unclear [2].
• CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows the safety and biological activity of Etanercept in breast cancer and provides data to assess pharmacodynamic endpoints of different schedules of Etanercept and combinations with chemotherapy or other biological therapies [3].
• CONCLUSIONS: Use of T cell-directed biological therapies for RA has been disappointing, as a result of both lack of efficacy and serious toxicity [4].
• The development of highly effective biological therapies directed against T cells in several animal models of autoimmune disease has prompted trials of similar approaches in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) [5].

High impact information on Biological Therapy

• Biologic therapy for rheumatoid arthritis [6].
• CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that Ln-5 and TGF-beta1 cooperatively induce EMT in HCC, suggesting the microenvironment as a potential target for new biological therapies [7].
• To gain a more comprehensive picture of the response to an approved biological therapy, we studied alfacept, which is a CD2 binding fusion protein [8].
• The concept of using PSA slope profiles in assessing early treatment effects in biological therapies such as vaccines awaits further validation in phase II and III trials [9].
• The implications of biologic therapy in ankylosing spondylitis: comment on the articles by Brandt et al and Braun et al [10].

Chemical compound and disease context of Biological Therapy

• CONCLUSIONS: Interrupted androgen deprivation may be a useful tool for modulating prostate cancer bioactivity in clinical trials developing novel biologic therapies [11].
• Although combinations of 5-FU and biological therapies such as alpha 2a-interferon appear to be very promising, they will require extensive phase II and III testing to define their clinical utility and toxicity [12].

Biological context of Biological Therapy

• Antitumor therapy has expanded beyond the previous notions of cytotoxic or biologic therapy to now include agents that induce differentiation (e.g. all trans-retinoic acid for induction of complete remission in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia [23]) or apoptosis [91] [13].
• This information broadens the previous view of the central role played by IFN-alpha in autoimmunity and tumor rejection by including and/or excluding an array of related factors likely to be heterogeneously expressed by distinct sub-populations of individuals in sickness or in response to biological therapy [14].
• Prostate cancer, biological therapy, signal transduction inhibitors and anti-angiogenesis agents [15].

Anatomical context of Biological Therapy

• Human recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) was used in an effort to find effective biological therapy against the murine B-cell leukemia (BCL1), a spontaneous, nonimmunogenic, highly lethal leukemia of Balb/c origin [16].
• Although the application of biological therapy for solid tumors with cytokines and adoptively transferred activated lymphocytes has received substantial attention, this approach has not been actively explored in treatment of hematopoietic neoplasms [17].
• Several novel biologic therapies for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are emerging that target aspects of the immune system other than tumor necrosis factor (TNF) [18].
• Biological therapy for the inner ear has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of sensorineural hearing loss, the most common form of deafness [19].
• Our understanding of the molecular pathogenic mechanisms of NF1 tumors should be transferable to sporadic peripheral nerve tumors, and allow development of biological therapies directed against relevant targets such as Ras [20].

Associations of Biological Therapy with chemical compounds

• METHODS: Patients (n = 949) with active RA that had not responded to at least 2 disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) including methotrexate, in whom biologic therapy was being initiated, were included in a structured clinical followup protocol [21].
• Parenteral methotrexate should be given before biological therapy [22].
• Those related to: the role of T cells in the pathogenesis of RA; to biological therapy directed against cell surface markers specific to T cell populations implicated in RA; and to treatment of RA with cyclosporin A and leflunomide, pharmacological agents known to interfere with the T cell response to antigens [4].
• Several combinations are used routinely, including the two-drug combination of etoposide with cisplatin or carboplatin, which is used most frequently in the United States. There is no proven role for any type of maintenance therapy, for intensive chemotherapy, or for biological therapies [23].
• MTX failure may identify a subgroup of patients who are less likely to respond to other DMARD and therefore could be considered as candidates for biological therapies [24].

Gene context of Biological Therapy

• CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide a possible additional rationale for combined biological therapy using drugs that target both erbB-2/HER2 and VEGF and also suggest the potential value of combining less toxic metronomic chemotherapy regimens not only with targeted antiangiogenic agents but also with other types of drug such as trastuzumab [25].
• Combined biological therapy of breast cancer using monoclonal antibodies directed against HER2/neu protein and vascular endothelial growth factor [26].
• New directions for biological therapy in rheumatoid arthritis [27].
• Biological therapy using inhibitors/antagonists of angiogenesis and EGFR seems to be safe and well tolerated [28].
• These new biological therapies blocking TNF-alpha undoubtedly constitute a considerable advance in the management of RA, but careful evaluation at the initiation of the treatment and long-term surveillance of the patients receiving such drugs remains necessary [29].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Biological Therapy

• Clinical trials suggest that interferon and interleukin-2 may have an expanding role in metastatic kidney cancer both as single agents and in combination outpatient biologic therapy [30].
• Investigational drug programs currently are exploring a number of promising treatment options, including biologic therapy (alpha interferon and interleukin-2) and immunotherapy [31].
• As exemplified by the clinical results with the monoclonal antibody to HER-2 for antigen-specific passive immunotherapy, biological therapies for breast carcinoma hold substantial promise [32].
• With the advent of a specific biological therapy for ALS there is an increasing imperative for early diagnosis [33].
• Further adjuvant studies are testing the benefit of the addition of biologic therapies to oxaliplatin and irinotecan-based combination chemotherapy [34].

References