Oncology research

Chemotherapeutics, radiation, targeted therapeutics and immunotherapeutics each demonstrate clinical benefits for a small subset of patients with solid malignancies. Immune cells infiltrating the tumor and the surrounding stroma play a critical role in shaping cancer progression and modulating therapy response. They do this by interacting with the other cellular and molecular components of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Spatial multi-OMICs technologies are rapidly evolving. Currently, such technologies allow high-throughput RNA and protein profiling and retain geographical information about the TME cellular architecture and the functional phenotype of tumor, immune and stromal cells...

PURPOSE: Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in cancer care is increasing. What remains unclear is how best to design patient-facing systems that communicate AI output. With oncologist input, we designed an interface that presents patient-specific, machine learning-based 6-month survival prognosis information designed to aid oncology providers in preparing for and discussing prognosis with patients with advanced solid tumors and their caregivers. The primary purpose of this study was to assess patient and caregiver perceptions and identify enhancements of the interface for communicating 6-month survival and other prognosis information when making treatment decisions concerning anticancer and supportive therapy...

Tumor mutation burden (TMB) has profound implications for personalized cancer therapy, particularly immunotherapy. However, the size of the panel and the cutoff values for an accurate determination of TMB are still controversial. In this study, a pan-cancer analysis was performed on 22 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas. The efficiency of gene panels of different sizes and the effect of cutoff values in accurate TMB determination was assessed on a large cohort using Whole Exome Sequencing data ( n  = 9929 patients) as the gold standard...

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play a pivotal role in cancer progression. This study aimed to explore the roles of CAFs-derived Fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9) and Neuro-oncological ventral antigen 1 (NOVA1) in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) progression. MDA-MB-231 and BT-549 cells were cocultured with CAF conditioned-medium (CAF-CM) or normal fibroblasts conditioned-medium (NF-CM). MTT, EdU, colony formation, wound healing, transwell migration, and invasion assays were employed to determine cell proliferation, migration and invasion, respectively...

Background: Transitioning from active cancer treatment to survivorship represents a vulnerable yet underresearched phase for adolescents and their families. Knowledge of their support needs, the challenges they experience, and how they manage them are useful to inform tailored follow-up care. Thus, we aimed to explore their transition experiences. Method: We interviewed 15 adolescents (12-19 years) who had transitioned off of treatment 1 to 47 months prior at Oslo University Hospital's Department of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology and their biological parents ( n  = 16)...

PURPOSE: The receptor-interacting protein kinase (RIPK4) has an oncogenic function in melanoma, regulates NF-κB and Wnt/β-catenin pathways, and is sensitive to the BRAF inhibitors: vemurafenib and dabrafenib which lead to its decreased level. As its role in melanoma remains not fully understood, we examined the effects of its downregulation on the transcriptomic profile of melanoma. METHODS: Applying RNA-seq, we revealed global alterations in the transcriptome of WM266...

Providers oftentimes need to have difficult conversations with patients facing a poor prognosis. Research indicates that providers generally feel ill prepared for these conversations and that bad conversations may lead to more anxiety for patients. Communication skills development training programs have shown improvement in providers' skills. Our cancer center embarked on skills development training to help providers improve their skills and comfort in having serious illness conversations. During our phased approach, about 500 physicians and advanced practice providers in the Division of Oncology were trained for over a year...

Myeloid neoplasms are a group of bone marrow diseases distinguished by disruptions in the molecular pathways that regulate the balance between hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) self-renewal and the generation of specialized cells. Cytokines and chemokines, two important components of the inflammatory process, also influence hematological differentiation. In this scenario, immunological dysregulation plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of bone marrow neoplasms. The STING pathway recognizes DNA fragments in the cell cytoplasm and triggers an immune response by type I interferons...

PURPOSE: Gastric cancer (GC) is prevalent as one of the most common malignant tumors globally, with a particularly high incidence in China. The role of UBE2L3 in the initiation and progression of various cancers has been well documented, but its specific significance in GC is not yet fully elucidated. The objective of this study is to examine the expression and importance of UBE2L3 in human gastric cancer tissues. METHODS: Immunohistochemical staining and survival analysis were conducted on 125 cases of GC...

Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) based therapies are becoming increasingly important in treating patients. CAR-T cells have been shown to be highly effective in the treatment of hematological malignancies. However, harmful therapeutic barriers have been identified, such as the potential for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), neurotoxicity, and cytokine release syndrome (CRS). As a result, CAR NK-cell therapy is expected to be a new therapeutic option. NK cells act as cytotoxic lymphocytes, supporting the innate immune response against autoimmune diseases and cancer cells by precisely detecting and eliminating malignant cells...

Introduction: The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has reshaped oncology practice, but the impact of anti-angiogenic drugs on the severity of COVID-19 in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains unclear. Patients and Methods: We carried out a retrospective study involving 166 consecutive patients with NSCLC who were positive for COVID-19, aiming to determine the effects of anti-angiogenic drugs on disease severity, as defined by severe/critical symptoms, intensive care unit (ICU) admission/intubation, and mortality outcomes...

Current clinical guidelines recommend mismatch repair (MMR) protein immunohistochemistry (IHC) or molecular microsatellite instability (MSI) tests as predictive markers of immunotherapies. Most of the pathological guidelines consider MMR protein IHC as the gold standard test to identify cancers with MMR deficiency and recommend molecular MSI tests only in special circumstances or to screen for Lynch syndrome. However, there are data in the literature which suggest that the two test types may not be equal. For example, molecular epidemiology studies reported different rates of deficient MMR (dMMR) and MSI in various cancer types...

FLASH-radiotherapy delivers a radiation beam a thousand times faster compared to conventional radiotherapy, reducing radiation damage in healthy tissues with an equivalent tumor response. Although not completely understood, this radiobiological phenomenon has been proved in several animal models with a spectrum of all kinds of particles currently used in contemporary radiotherapy, especially electrons. However, all the research teams have performed FLASH preclinical studies using industrial linear accelerator or LINAC commonly employed in conventional radiotherapy and modified for the delivery of ultra-high-dose-rate (UHDRs)...

BACKGROUND: Radiotherapy, a primary treatment for malignant cancer, presents significant clinical challenges globally due to its associated adverse effects, especially with the increased survival rates of cancer patients. Radiation induced heart disease (RIHD) significantly impacts the long-term survival and quality of life of cancer survivors as one of the most devastating consequences. Quite a few studies have been conducted on preclinical and clinical trials of RIHD, showing promising success to some extent...

Tumors are genetic changes that develop in an organism as a result of many internal and external causes. They affect the biological behavior of cells, cause them to grow independently, and give rise to new, perpetually proliferating organisms. Recent research has supported the critical function of tumor-associated macrophages in the development, progression, and metastasis of tumors through efferocytosis. Yet, there is still much to learn about the mechanisms behind their contribution to tumor pathological processes...

Minimization of intra-operative opioid use is an area of ongoing research interest with several potential benefits to the patient. Pre-emptive analgesia, defined as the administration of an analgesic before surgery to prevent establishment of central sensitization of pain, is one avenue that has been explored to achieve this. A retrospective observational study was undertaken to examine the effect of pre-emptive paracetamol on intra-operative opioid requirements. The medical and operative data of 156 patients who underwent day-case wide local excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy with and without regional block surgery at our center between October 2019 and May 2022 was carried out...

This is a response to the letter to the editor from Dr. Ali et al. from Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: Surgical stress response in colorectal surgery consists of a neurohormonal and an immunological response and influences oncological outcomes. The intensity of surgical trauma influences mortality, morbidity, and metastasis' occurrence in colorectal neoplasia. Energy expenditure (EE) stands for the body's energy consumed to keep its homeostasis and can be either calculated or measured by direct or indirect calorimetry. AIM: The present study attempted to evaluate surgical stress response using EE measurement and compare it to the postoperative cortisol dynamic...

Background and objective Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common malignancy of the skin. Reconstruction of post-excisional defects in BCC should follow the subunit principle for better outcomes. The location of BCC of the face is determined based on facial units; however, very few studies have described the involvement of multiple units and multiple subunits in BCC. In this study, we aimed to provide valuable insights into the management of BCC involving various facial units and subunits, thereby contributing to improved patient care and outcomes...

Endovascular management of intracranial aneurysms has become the mainstay of treatment in recent years; however, retreatment rates remain as high as 1 in 5. High-frequency optical coherence tomography (HF-OCT) is an emerging imaging modality for the assessment, treatment and follow-up of cerebral aneurysms. EMBASE and SCOPUS databases were searched for studies relating to the management of intracranial aneurysm with OCT. A combination of keywords were used including 'cerebral aneurysm', 'intracranial aneurysm', 'high-frequency optical coherence tomography', 'optical coherence tomography', and 'optical frequency domain imaging'...