Book description
Explores current and emerging applications of microbes as
cancer-fighting agents
Today, treatment options for cancer patients typically include
surgery, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy. While
these therapies have saved lives and reduced pain and suffering,
cancer still takes millions of lives every year around the world. In
recent years, researchers have been working on a new strategy:
developing microbes and microbial products that specifically attack
cancer cells.
This book breaks new ground in emerging cancer treatment modalities
by presenting recent advances in the use of microorganisms and viruses
as well as their products in cancer therapy. Seventeen chapters review
the application of live microorganisms, high and low molecular weight
products derived from microorganisms, and microbial products fused to
cancer-targeting molecules. In addition, the book highlights the
benefits of a multi-target approach to destroy cancer cells. Readers
will not only discover the results and significance of basic and
clinical research, but also encouraging results from clinical trials.
Emerging Cancer Therapy is divided into three sections:
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Section 1: Live/Attenuated Bacteria and Viruses as
Anticancer Agents
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Section 2: Bacterial Products as Anticancer Agents
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Section 3: Patents on Bacteria/Bacterial Products as
Anticancer Agents
With chapters written by leading pioneers in microbial, biotech, and
cancer research, Emerging Cancer Therapy is recommended for
biotechnologists, microbiologists, clinical oncologists, medicinal
chemists, and biochemists. Readers will not only learn the tremendous
potential of microbial and biotechnological approaches to cancer
therapy, but also discover new directions of research for effective
drug discovery and development.
ARSÉNIO FIALHO, PhD, is Associate Professor in the
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Principal
Investigator for the Institute of Biotechnology and Bioengineering in
the Instituto Superior Técnico at the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa,
Portugal. His current scientific interests are focused on the study of
bacterial proteins, such as azurin and Laz, as novel multi-targeted
drug candidates with anticancer activities. He is the author or
coauthor of more than fifty papers in peer-reviewed scientific
journals and, during the last four years, became the holder of five U.
S. patents. Dr. Fialho teaches courses in biochemistry, molecular
biology, and bioinformatics.
ANANDA CHAKRABARTY, PhD, is Distinguished University Professor
in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of
Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. In addition to more than 250
research publications, he has secured nine U. S. patents during the
last four years on azurin and Laz, two bacterial proteins with
anticancer, anti-viral and anti-parasitic activities. He also is the
recipient of a patent on the first life form, a genetically
manipulated pseudomonad designed to degrade multiple hydrocarbons
present in crude oil, as decided by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1980 in
the celebrated court case Diamond v. Chakrabarty.
