Neoadjuvant Selicrelumab, an Agonist CD40 Antibody, Induces Changes in the Tumor Microenvironment in Patients with Resectable Pancreatic Cancer.

Purpose: CD40 activation is a novel clinical opportunity for cancer immunotherapy. Despite numerous active clinical trials with agonistic CD40 monoclonal antibodies (mAb), biological effects and treatment-related modulation of the tumor microenvironment (TME) remain poorly understood.

Patients And Methods: Here, we performed a neoadjuvant clinical trial of agonistic CD40 mAb (selicrelumab) administered intravenously with or without chemotherapy to 16 patients with resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) before surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy and CD40 mAb.

Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Treatment Trials Accrual: A Closer Look at Participation Rates.

Objectives: Low rates of participation in cancer clinical trials are commonly reported, raising concerns about missed opportunities to engage patients in treatment trials. We reviewed eligibility for and enrollment in pancreatic cancer clinical trials for patients seen at a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer center during 1 year, to calculate participation rates with detailed information to determine the best-case participation rate.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective cohort study used the Abramson Cancer Center Cancer Registry, clinical trial protocols, and electronic medical records (EMRs) to determine eligibility for all available pancreatic cancer clinical trials.

Effect of Gemcitabine and nab-Paclitaxel With or Without Hydroxychloroquine on Patients With Advanced Pancreatic Cancer: A Phase 2 Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Autophagy is a mechanism of treatment resistance to chemotherapy that has a role in the maintenance of pancreatic cancer. Hydroxychloroquine sulfate (HCQ) is an inhibitor of autophagy that inhibits the fusion of the autophagosome to the lysosome.

Objective: To determine whether HCQ improves overall survival at 1 year in combination with gemcitabine hydrochloride and nab-paclitaxel (GA) among patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Combination Paclitaxel and Palbociclib: Results of a Phase I Trial in Advanced Breast Cancer.

Purpose: The CDK 4/6 inhibitor palbociclib rapidly and reversibly inhibits the cell cycle. The goal of this study was to exploit the cell cycle through intermittent, alternating dosing with palbociclib/paclitaxel to enhance efficacy. We determined the combination dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) in patients with Rb protein-expressing, advanced breast cancer.

Combining Machine Learning and Nanofluidic Technology To Diagnose Pancreatic Cancer Using Exosomes.

Circulating exosomes contain a wealth of proteomic and genetic information, presenting an enormous opportunity in cancer diagnostics. While microfluidic approaches have been used to successfully isolate cells from complex samples, scaling these approaches for exosome isolation has been limited by the low throughput and susceptibility to clogging of nanofluidics. Moreover, the analysis of exosomal biomarkers is confounded by substantial heterogeneity between patients and within a tumor itself.

A magnetic micropore chip for rapid (<1 hour) unbiased circulating tumor cell isolation and in situ RNA analysis.

The use of microtechnology for the highly selective isolation and sensitive detection of circulating tumor cells has shown enormous promise. One challenge for this technology is that the small feature sizes - which are the key to this technology's performance - can result in low sample throughput and susceptibility to clogging. Additionally, conventional molecular analysis of CTCs often requires cells to be taken off-chip for sample preparation and purification before analysis, leading to the loss of rare cells.