Inhibition of the CCR6-CCL20 axis prevents regulatory T cell recruitment and sensitizes head and neck squamous cell carcinoma to radiation therapy.

Background:  Radioresistance of HNSCCs remains a major challenge for effective tumor control. Combined radiotherapy (RT) and immunotherapy (IT) treatment improved survival for a subset of patients with inflamed tumors or tumors susceptible to RT-induced inflammation. To overcome radioresistance and improve treatment outcomes, an understanding of factors that suppress anti-tumor immunity is necessary.

The response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy with 5-fluorouracil in locally advanced rectal cancer patients: a predictive proteomic signature.

Background: Colorectal cancer is the third most common and the fourth most lethal cancer in the world. In the majority of cases, patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage or even metastatic, thus explaining the high mortality. The standard treatment for patients with locally advanced non-metastatic rectal cancer is neoadjuvant radio-chemotherapy (NRCT) with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) followed by surgery, but the resistance rate to this treatment remains high with approximately 30% of non-responders.

Radiomics strategies for risk assessment of tumour failure in head-and-neck cancer.

Quantitative extraction of high-dimensional mineable data from medical images is a process known as radiomics. Radiomics is foreseen as an essential prognostic tool for cancer risk assessment and the quantification of intratumoural heterogeneity. In this work, 1615 radiomic features (quantifying tumour image intensity, shape, texture) extracted from pre-treatment FDG-PET and CT images of 300 patients from four different cohorts were analyzed for the risk assessment of locoregional recurrences (LR) and distant metastases (DM) in head-and-neck cancer.

Predictors of severe acute and late toxicities in patients with localized head-and-neck cancer treated with radiation therapy.

Purpose: Radiation therapy (RT) causes acute and late toxicities that affect various organs and functions. In a large cohort of patients treated with RT for localized head and neck cancer (HNC), we prospectively assessed the occurrence of RT-induced acute and late toxicities and identified characteristics that predicted these toxicities.

Methods And Materials: We conducted a randomized trial among 540 patients treated with RT for localized HNC to assess whether vitamin E supplementation could improve disease outcomes.

Influence of smoking and alcohol drinking behaviors on treatment outcomes of patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck.

Purpose: To retrospectively evaluate the prognostic value of smoking and drinking status in patients with head-and-neck squamous cell carcinomas.

Methods And Materials: All patients with all stages and sites were included if complete information was available on baseline smoking and alcohol behavior (never, former, active), disease stage, primary site, radiation dose, sex, and age. Treatment was radiotherapy in 973 patients, postoperative radiotherapy in 469, and chemoradiotherapy in 429.

A comparison of treatment outcomes by radiochemotherapy and postoperative radiotherapy in locally advanced squamous cell carcinomas of head and neck.

Purpose: To investigate the treatment outcomes by concomitant radiochemotherapy (CHEMORAD), and by surgery and postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) in patients with locally advanced head and neck cancers.

Method: A retrospective study included all patients with Stage III and IV (except T1-2 N1) diseases between 1989 and 2002 treated with CHEMORAD (163 patients) or PORT (424 patients) at the L'Hôtel-Dieu de Québec. Chemotherapy was realized with Cisplatin (DDP) 100 mg/m(2), d1, d23, and d45 during radiotherapy or weekly DDP 40 mg/m(2) for 6 weeks in case of patients with poor general condition.

Effect of pretreatment anemia on treatment outcome of concurrent radiochemotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer.

Purpose: To investigate the effect of anemia on outcome of treatment with radiochemotherapy in patients with head-and-neck cancer.

Methods And Materials: The data of 196 patients with Stage II-IV head-and-neck cancer treated with concomitant cisplatin-based radiochemotherapy were retrospectively reviewed. Anemia was defined according to World Health Organization criteria as hemoglobin <130 g/L in men and <120 g/L in women.

[Proteases by reactive stromal cells in cancer: an attractive therapeutic target].

Cancer-associated or reactive stromal cells are composed of endothelial and inflammatory cells as well as of spindle cells such as fibroblasts and myofibroblasts. In addition to participating to the tumor tissue frame, these cells contribute actively to tumor nutrition and progression through neo-angiogenesis and production of a variety of molecules including numerous proteases, of which a number (MMP14, MMP11, FAP and uPA) are almost exclusively produced by reactive stromal cells. Cancer cells interact with reactive stromal cells which involves a large number of proteases.

The influence of MMP-14, TIMP-2 and MMP-2 expression on breast cancer prognosis.

Introduction: Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 is very active at degrading extracellular matrix. It is under the influence of an activator, membrane type 1 MMP (MMP-14), and the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteases (TIMP)-2. We hypothesized that the individual expression of these three markers or their balance may help to predict breast cancer prognosis.

The efficacy and sequencing of a short course of androgen suppression on freedom from biochemical failure when administered with radiation therapy for T2-T3 prostate cancer.

Purpose: We evaluated the benefits and sequencing of androgen suppression (AS) administered with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) in T2-T3 prostate cancers.

Materials And Methods: Between 1990 and 1999, 481 patients were entered in 2 successive, prospective, randomized studies, including 161 in the study 1 and 325 in study 2. Eligible patients had clinical stages T2-T3 prostate cancer.

Stromelysin-3 expression by mammary tumor-associated fibroblasts under in vitro breast cancer cell induction.

To understand better the influence of the host stromal phenotype on stromal expression of stromelysin-3 (ST3) in breast cancer, we have investigated ST3 expression by host stromal cells isolated from 9 different primary breast carcinomas. These tumor-associated fibroblasts were cocultivated with 3 epithelial cancer cell lines of mammary origin (MDA-MB-231, SK-BR-3 and MCF-7), as well as with normal human mammary epithelial cells (NME and 184A1) and keratinocytes, using both direct and indirect coculture systems. ST3 expression was demonstrated by both in situ hybridization and immunocytochemistry.