Ioana Zinuca Pavel

By Danciu Corina, Soica Codruta, Antal Diana, Alexandra Popescu, Roxana Ghiulai, Ioana Zinuca Pavel, Stefana Avram, Minda Daliana and Cristina Dehelean

The chapter includes a brief presentation of the types of skin cancer. The most aggressive type of skin cancer, melanoma, is discussed from the point of view of incidence, molecular, and immunohistochemical mechanism along with the most important biomarkers for identification. Recent studies containing active phytocompounds with chemopreventive activity pointing toward phytochemicals used for melanoma prevention and therapy are reviewed. Modern physicochemical formulations for the enhancement of bioavailability of some active phytochemicals with chemopreventive activity for malignant melanoma are discussed.

Part of the book: Natural Products and Cancer Drug Discovery

By Stefana Avram, Roxana Ghiulai, Ioana Zinuca Pavel, Marius Mioc, Roxana Babuta, Mirela Voicu, Dorina Coricovac, Corina Danciu, Cristina Dehelean and Codruta Soica

Cancer is the second cause of mortality worldwide. Angiogenesis is an important process involved in the growth of primary tumors and metastasis. New approaches for controlling the cancer progression and invasiveness can be addressed by limiting the angiogenesis process. An increasingly large number of natural compounds are evaluated as angiogenesis inhibitors. The chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay represents an in vivo attractive experimental model for cancer and angiogenesis studies as prescreening to the murine models. Since the discovery of tumor angiogenesis, the CAM has been intensively used in cancer research. The advantages of this in vivo technique are in terms of low time-consuming, costs, and a lower number of sacrificed animals. Currently, a great number of natural compounds are being investigated for their effectiveness in controlling tumor angiogenesis. Potential reducing of angiogenesis has been investigated by our group for pentacyclic triterpenes, in various formulations, and differences in their mechanism were registered. This chapter aims to give an overview on a number of phytocompounds investigated using in vitro, murine models and the chorioallantoic membrane assay as well as to emphasize the use of CAM assay in the study of natural compounds with potential effects in malignancies.

Part of the book: Natural Products and Cancer Drug Discovery