Prediction of response to pemetrexed in non-small-cell lung cancer with immunohistochemical phenotyping based on gene expression profiles.

Background: Palliative pemetrexed-based chemotherapy remains a standard of care treatment for the majority of patients with advanced non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Currently, no predictive markers for pemetrexed treatment are available.

Methods: Resected tumour samples from pemetrexed-naïve NSCLC patients were collected.

Low-dose cyclophosphamide depletes circulating naïve and activated regulatory T cells in malignant pleural mesothelioma patients synergistically treated with dendritic cell-based immunotherapy.

: Regulatory T cells (Treg) play a pivotal role in the immunosuppressive tumor micro-environment in cancer, including mesothelioma. Recently, the combination of autologous tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cells (DC) and metronomic cyclophosphamide (mCTX) was reported as a feasible and well-tolerated treatment in malignant pleural mesothelioma patients and further as a method to reduce circulating Tregs. : The aim of this study was to establish the immunological effects of mCTX alone and in combination with DC-based immunotherapy on circulating Treg and other T cell subsets in mesothelioma patients.

Autologous Dendritic Cells Pulsed with Allogeneic Tumor Cell Lysate in Mesothelioma: From Mouse to Human.

Mesothelioma has been regarded as a nonimmunogenic tumor, which is also shown by the low response rates to treatments targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis. Previously, we demonstrated that autologous tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cell (DC) immunotherapy increased T-cell response toward malignant mesothelioma. However, the use of autologous tumor material hampers implementation in large clinical trials, which might be overcome by using allogeneic tumor cell lines as tumor antigen source.

Depletion of Tumor-Associated Macrophages with a CSF-1R Kinase Inhibitor Enhances Antitumor Immunity and Survival Induced by DC Immunotherapy.

New immunotherapeutic strategies are needed to induce effective antitumor immunity in all cancer patients. Malignant mesothelioma is characterized by a poor prognosis and resistance to conventional therapies. Infiltration of tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) is prominent in mesothelioma and is linked to immune suppression, angiogenesis, and tumor aggressiveness.