Masters Degrees (Nuclear Medicine)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Nuclear Medicine) by Author "Hamid, Mogammad Baahith"

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    Radiosensitisation of low HER-2 expressing human breast cancer cell lines
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2015-04) Hamid, Mogammad Baahith; Akudugu, John M.; Serafin, Antonio M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Health Sciences. Dept. of Medical Imaging and Clinical Oncology. Nuclear Medicine.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Breast Cancer remains one of the world’s leading causes of cancer related deaths amongst women. Its treatment has evolved from invasive, highly toxic therapies to treatments that possess a higher specificity and a lower toxicity. Despite improvements in overall survival, many patients do not benefit from these agents because of acquired and/or inherent tumour resistance, which could hinder treatment efficacy. Novel treatment strategies are, therefore, warranted to address these challenges and to significantly improve patient responses. Inhibiting components of the HER-2 signalling pathway can significantly sensitise breast cancer cells to low doses of ionising radiation. The objective of this study was to inhibit key molecular targets of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) signalling pathway and expose breast cancer cell lines to doses of radiation, so as to establish potential therapeutic targets that may be amenable to combined modality therapy, and formulate a cocktail of inhibitors to evaluate its radiosensitising capability. This study found that pre-treatment of two breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7) with a HER-2 inhibitor (TAK-165) had little or no effect on radiosensitivity. However, a radiation enhancement was observed when these cells were pre-treated either with BEZ235, a dual inhibitor of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) and mammalian target for rapamycin (mTOR), or a cocktail of TAK-165 and BEZ235. These findings suggest that concurrent inhibition of HER-2, PI3K and mTOR during radiotherapy might improve treatment response of breast cancer patients.