Oncology Clinical Trials in Greece: Progress in the Past Decade.

Cancer is established as a major contributor to global burden as millions of deaths are reported every year. Advances in molecular, epidemiologic and clinical research have led to significant improvements in prevention, screening and treatment of tumors. The purpose of the study is to describe the progress of oncology clinical trials performed in Greece during the past decade and the obstacles that still need to be addressed in cancer research. A search was conducted in the public database EU Clinical Trials Register using the algorithm 'cancer AND Greece'. Results included relevant trials approved between 2010 and 2020. A total of 480 trials were approved for conduct in Greece from 2010 to 2020. The majority are multinational, phase III trials, exploring the efficacy and safety of agents in the management of lung cancer and multiple myeloma. A variety of small-molecules and monoclonal antibodies has and is being tested against key binding targets. Based on their promising effects on patients' responses and outcomes, many have been marketed for the treatment of several cancer types and are considered milestones in cancer discovery. It goes without saying that oncology research has made tremendous steps towards the development of potent and tolerable anticancer agents, with Greece having an active role. Current efforts focus on the use of alternative designs and tools aiming at further improving patients' survival and quality of life, while globalization of clinical research is also a matter of high importance.

Olive oil intake and cancer risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Research evidence has established the beneficial effects of diet in cancer prevention; various epidemiological studies have suggested that olive oil component could play a role in decreasing cancer risk. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to investigate the association between olive oil consumption, cancer risk and prognosis. METHODS: A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE and Google Scholar databases (end-of-search: May 10, 2020). Pooled relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were estimated with random-effects (DerSimonian-Laird) models. Subgroup analyses, sensitivity analyses and meta-regression analysis were also performed. RESULTS: 45 studies were included in the meta-analysis; 37 were case-control (17,369 cases and 28,294 controls) and 8 were cohort studies (12,461 incident cases in a total cohort of 929,771 subjects). Highest olive oil consumption was associated with 31% lower likelihood of any cancer (pooled RR = 0.69, 95%CI: 0.62-0.77), breast (RR = 0.67, 95%CI: 0.52-0.86), gastrointestinal (RR = 0.77, 95%CI: 0.66-0.89), upper aerodigestive (RR = 0.74, 95%CI: 0.60-0.91) and urinary tract cancer (RR = 0.46, 95%CI: 0.29-0.72). Significant overall effects spanned both Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean participants, studies presenting a multivariate and a univariate analysis and all subgroups by study quality. CONCLUSIONS: Olive oil consumption seems to exert beneficial actions in terms of cancer prevention. Additional prospective cohort studies on various cancer types and survivors, as well as large randomized trials, seem desirable.

Aqueous oxidative Heck reaction as a protein-labeling strategy.

An increasing number of chemical reactions are being employed for bio-orthogonal ligation of detection labels to protein-bound functional groups. Several of these strategies, however, are limited in their application to pure proteins and are ineffective in complex biological samples such as cell lysates. Here we present the palladium-catalyzed oxidative Heck reaction as a new and robust bio-orthogonal strategy for linking functionalized arylboronic acids to protein-bound alkenes in high yields and with excellent chemoselectivity even in the presence of complex protein mixtures from living cells. Advantageously, this reaction proceeds under aerobic conditions, whereas most other metal-catalyzed reactions require inert atmosphere.