Exploiting antitumor immunity to overcome relapse and improve remission duration.

Cancer survivors often relapse due to evolving drug-resistant clones and repopulating tumor stem cells. Our preclinical study demonstrated that terminal cancer patient's lymphocytes can be converted from tolerant bystanders in vivo into effective cytotoxic T-lymphocytes in vitro killing patient's own tumor cells containing drug-resistant clones and tumor stem cells. We designed a clinical trial combining peginterferon α-2b with imatinib for treatment of stage III/IV gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) with the rational that peginterferon α-2b serves as danger signals to promote antitumor immunity while imatinib's effective tumor killing undermines tumor-induced tolerance and supply tumor-specific antigens in vivo without leukopenia, thus allowing for proper dendritic cell and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte differentiation toward Th1 response.

Epidermal growth factor receptor gene amplification and protein expression in glioblastoma multiforme: prognostic significance and relationship to other prognostic factors.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) overexpression occurs in a significant percentage of cases of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), and amplification has been found in approximately 40% of these neoplasms. Controversy exists as to the prognostic significance of EGFR gene amplification: some reports have indicated that amplification is associated with a poor prognosis, while other authors have reported no relationship between gene amplification and prognosis. Some reports have found a poor prognosis to be associated with amplification of the EGFR gene in patients of all ages with GBM, while other authors have found EGFR amplification to be an independent predictor of prolonged survival in patients with GBM who are older than 60 years of age.

A c-kit-negative gastrointestinal stromal tumor with a platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha mutation.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are well-recognized mesenchymal neoplasms of the intestinal tract. A diagnosis of GIST is not always possible using IHC techniques for detection of c-kit. The authors describe a 64-year-old man who presented with an upper abdominal quadrant mass.

Correlation of HER2 gene amplification with immunohistochemistry in breast cancer as determined by a novel monoplex polymerase chain reaction assay.

Amplification of the HER2 oncogene in breast cancer identifies patients who are likely to respond to anti-HER2 mAb therapy. Current clinical practice dictates that all breast cancers first undergo HER2 screening by IHC. Strongly positive (3+ on a 0-to-3+ scale) IHC cases are considered as HER2-amplified tumors and are not evaluated further because of the strong correlation between HER2 gene amplification as measured by FISH and 3+ IHC.

Detection of c-kit-activating mutations in gastrointestinal stromal tumors by high-resolution amplicon melting analysis.

High-resolution amplicon melting analysis was used to scan for c-kit-activating mutations in exons 9, 11, 13, and 17 in 29 neoplasms diagnosed as gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). Immunohistochemically, 7 of 29 did not show strong CD 17 positivity and might represent true smooth muscle tumors or c-kit-negative GISTs. No c-kit-activating mutations were detected in the 7 CD117- cases by high-resolution amplicon melting analysis or direct DNA sequencing.