Preety Priya

Abstract

`Cancer Biotherapy' - as opposed to cancer chemotherapy- is the use of macromolecular, biological agents instead of organic chemicals or drugs to treat cancer. Biotherapy is a treatment modality that blocks the growth of cancer cells by interfering with specific, targeted molecules needed for carcinogenesis and tumor growth instead of simply interfering with rapidly dividing cells as in chemotherapy1. In light to the much higher selectivity of biological agents than chemical agents for cancer cells over normal cells, there is a much less toxic side effect in biotherapy as compared to chemotherapy. As solid tumor cancer continues to be analyzed as a chronic condition, there is an absolute need for long-term treatment with minimal side effects. The International Society for Biological Therapy of Cancer, being the only available information database for cancer biotherapy, lacks some crucial information about various cancer biotherapy regimens and the information presented seemed unorganized and unsystematic making it difficult to search for results. With the increasing rate of cancer deaths across the world and biotherapy studies, it is acutely necessary to have a comprehensive curetted cancer biotherapy database. The database accessible to cancer patients and also should be a sounding board for scientific ideas by cancer researchers. The database/web server has information about main families of cancer biotherapy regimens to date, namely, 1.) Protein Kinase Inhibitors, 2.) Ras Pathway Inhibitors, 3.) Cell-Cycle Active Agents, 4.) MAbs (monoclonal antibodies), 5.) ADEPT (Antibody-Directed Enzyme Pro-Drug Therapy), 6.) Cytokines (interferons, interleukins, etc.), 7.) Anti-Angiogenesis Agents, 8.) Cancer Vaccines (peptides, proteins, DNA), 9.) Cell-based Immunotherapeutics, 10.) Gene Therapy, 11.) Hematopoietic Growth Factors, and 12.) Retinoids 13.) CAAT. For each biotherapy regimen, we will extract the following attributes in populating the database: (a.) Cancer type, (b.) Gene/s and gene product/s involved, (c.) Gene sequence (GenBank ID), (d.) Organs affected (e.) Chemo treatment, (f.) Reference papers, (g.) Clinical phase/stage, (h.) Survival rate (chemo. Vs. biother.), (i.) Clinical test center locations, (j.) Cost, (k.) Patient blog, (l.) Researcher blog, (m.) Future work. The database accessible to public through a website and had FAQs for making it understandable to the laymen and discussion page for researchers to express their views and ideas. In addition to information about the biotherapy regimens, the website is linked to other biologically significant databases like structural proteomics, metabolomics, glycomics, and lipidomics web servers. Also, the websites presented the news in the field of biotherapy and other links which are relevant from biotherapy point of view. The database attributes would be regularly updated for novel attributes as discoveries would be made.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Cancer--Treatment--Databases--Design; Antineoplastic agents--Development--Databases--Design; Biological response modifiers--Therapeutic use--Databases--Design

Publication Date

8-13-2012

Document Type

Thesis

Department, Program, or Center

Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences (COS)

Advisor

Evans, Irene

Advisor/Committee Member

Leone, Jim

Advisor/Committee Member

Osier, Michael

Comments

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: RC271.B53 P74 2012

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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