Remote Patient Monitoring Using Mobile Health Technology in Cancer Care and Research: Patients' Views and Preferences.

Purpose: There is an increasing interest in studying the potential of mobile health (mHealth) technologies, such as smartphone apps and wearables, as monitoring tools for patients with cancer during or after their treatment. However, little research is dedicated to exploring the opinions and concerns of patients regarding the adoption of these technologies. This study aimed to gain insight into patients' perspectives and preferences for participating in mHealth-based monitoring in cancer care.

Combined Osteopontin Blockade and Type 2 Classical Dendritic Cell Vaccination as Effective Synergetic Therapy for Conjunctival Melanoma.

Angiogenesis and immune protection are essential at the onset of tumorigenesis. Angiogenesis serves to nourish the tumor, and prevention of immune defenses, for example, by dendritic cells (DCs), allows tumor growth. In this study, we investigated whether there are factors with dual functions that are both angiogenic and immunomodulatory and represent a therapeutic target.

Smartphone-Based Passive Sensing in Monitoring Patients With Cancer: A Systematic Review.

Purpose: Patients with cancer are prone to frequent unplanned hospital visits because of disease or treatment complications. Smartphone-based passive sensing (SBPS) comprises data collection using smartphone sensors or device usage patterns, which may be an affordable and burdenless technique for remote monitoring of patients with cancer and timely detection of safety events. The aim of this article was to systematically review the published literature to identify the current state of SBPS in oncology care and research.

Time Trends in the Treatment and Survival of 5036 Uveal Melanoma Patients in The Netherlands over a 30-Year Period.

Background: Uveal melanoma (UM) is a rare intraocular tumor with a dismal prognosis once metastasized. This study provides a nationwide overview and time trends of patients diagnosed with primary UM in the Netherlands between 1989 and 2019.

Methods: A retrospective population-based cohort study based on patients with primary UM from the database of the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR), linked with the national population registry Statistics Netherlands on inhabitants' cause of death.

Concordance of emergency department physicians' decisions on HIV post-exposure prophylaxis with national guidelines: results from a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is an effective tool to prevent infection with HIV. Patients seeking PEP after potential HIV exposure usually present to the emergency department (ED). Our study sought to determine the concordance of ED physicians' decisions on HIV-PEP with national guidelines (primary objective) and to assess the clinical relevance of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) between the HIV-PEP regimen and patients' concomitant medication (secondary objective).

Characterization and Quantitation of the Tumor Microenvironment of Uveal Melanoma.

Uveal melanoma (UM) is a highly malignant tumor of the eye. Metastatic spread of UM occurs almost exclusively via blood vessels and is of tremendous interest, as half of the patients with uveal melanoma die of metastasis in the long run. The tumor microenvironment consists of all cellular and non-cellular compounds of a solid tumor, except for the tumor cells.

Current management of uveal melanoma: A review.

Uveal melanoma is the most frequent primary intraocular cancer in adulthood and is mostly localised to the choroid. It can be treated using radiation therapy, laser therapy, local resection and enucleation, with the best results achieved by combining these procedures. However, up to half of patients develop metastatic disease.

White Blood Cell and Platelet Counts Are Not Suitable as Biomarkers in the Differential Diagnostics of Dementia.

Apart from Alzheimer's disease (AD), no biomarkers for the differential diagnosis of dementia have been established to date. Inflammatory processes contribute to the pathogenesis of dementia subtypes, e.g.

Integration of healthy volunteers in early phase clinical trials with immuno-oncological compounds.

Aim: Traditionally, early phase clinical trials in oncology have been performed in patients based on safety risk-benefit assessment. Therapeutic transition to immuno-oncology may open new opportunities for studies in healthy volunteers, which are conducted faster and are less susceptible to confounders. Aim of this study was to investigate to what extent this approach is utilized and whether pharmacodynamic endpoints are evaluated in these early phase trials.

Midkine Promotes Metastasis and Therapeutic Resistance via mTOR/RPS6 in Uveal Melanoma.

Unlabelled: Uveal melanoma is a rare form of melanoma that originates in the eye, exerts widespread therapeutic resistance, and displays an inherent propensity for hepatic metastases. Because metastatic disease is characterized by poor survival, there is an unmet clinical need to identify new therapeutic targets in uveal melanoma. Here, we show that the pleiotropic cytokine midkine is expressed in uveal melanoma.

Safety and immunogenicity of an mRNA-lipid nanoparticle vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 : A phase 1 randomized clinical trial.

Background: We used the RNActive® technology platform (CureVac N.V., Tübingen, Germany) to prepare CVnCoV, a COVID-19 vaccine containing sequence-optimized mRNA coding for a stabilized form of SARS-CoV‑2 spike (S) protein encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles (LNP).

Hydrogen-Peroxide Synthesis and LDL-Uptake Controls Immunosuppressive Properties in Monocyte-Derived Dendritic Cells.

Background And Aims: Induction of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) is a critical step in immune cell evasion by different cancer types, including liver cancer. In the liver, hepatic stromal cells orchestrate induction of MDSCs, employing a mechanism dependent on hydrogen peroxide (HO) depletion. However, the effects on monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) are unknown.

Impaired Transmigration of Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells across Human Sinusoidal Endothelium Is Associated with Decreased Expression of CD13.

Human monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MO-MDSCs) within the hepatic compartment suppress inflammation and impair immune surveillance in liver cancer. It is currently not known whether recruitment of MO-MDSCs from blood via hepatic sinusoidal endothelium (HSEC) contributes to their enrichment within the hepatic compartment. We compared the transmigratory potential of MO-MDSCs and monocytes after adhesion to hepatic endothelial monolayers in flow-based assays that mimic in vivo shear stress in the sinusoids.

[New Therapeutic Approaches in Inflammatory Diseases of the Eye - Targeting Lymphangiogenesis and Cellular Immunity: Research Unit FOR 2240 Presents Itself].

Ophthalmology, principally, is a very successful subdiscipline in medicine. Nonetheless, there are still unmet medical needs which necessitate translational research. The funding instrument of a Research Unit (RU) of the German Research Foundation (DFG) is presented as exemplified by the RU 2240 at the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Cologne.

[Novel Adjuvant Therapy for Ocular Melanoma].

Malignant melanoma is the most common cancer of the eye in adults that originates either in the intra-ocular uveal tract or extra-ocular conjunctiva. Although the primary tumor can be treated successfully, no effective therapy for both metastatic conjunctival and uveal melanoma currently exits. Tumor-associated lymphangiogenesis and immune cell infiltration play a pivotal role in the development and therapeutic targeting of metastases.

The Trojan Horse Tale Revisited: An Eye on Metastatic Spread of Carcinoma Cells.

The metastatic spread of carcinoma cells is not fully understood. Here, we compare the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and intraocular metastatic cells in parotid gland carcinoma with the PBMCs of healthy donors by immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry. We found Ber-EP4 tumor marker-positive carcinoma cells in the aqueous humor of the patient's right eye and a CD45 and Ber-EP4-expressing PBMC population in his blood.

A Novel Model of Metastatic Conjunctival Melanoma in Immune-Competent Mice.

Purpose: Conjunctival melanoma (CM) is an ocular surface tumor that can lead to fatal metastases. Patients developing, tumor-associated lymphangiogenesis have a significantly increased risk of metastatic disease, because tumor spread primarily occurs via lymphatic vessels to the draining lymph node. Here, we describe a novel immune-competent mouse model of CM that displays tumor-associated lymphangiogenesis with development of metastatic tumors.

Comparing the Hem- and Lymphangiogenic Profile of Conjunctival and Uveal Melanoma Cell Lines.

Purpose: Malignant melanomas of the ocular surface (conjunctival melanoma [CM]) and within the eye (uveal melanoma [UM]) show different types of metastatic behavior. While CM has a propensity to spread first to regional lymph nodes, UM metastasizes almost exclusively via the hematogenic route to the liver. We investigated whether these different metastatic patterns might be attributable to differential hem- and lymphangiogenic characteristics of CM and UM cells.

Autocrine impact of VEGF-A on uveal melanoma cells.

Purpose: Tumor-derived VEGF-A, apart from expediting sufficient vascularization, subsequent tumor growth, and metastatic spread, can act on malignant cells themselves provided that VEGF receptors 1 or 2 (VEGF-R1, -R2) are co-expressed. The study goal was to investigate whether such autocrine VEGF-A signaling exists in uveal melanoma (UM).

Methods: Primary (MEL-270, OM-431) and metastatic (OMM-2.

Monitoring dynamic interactions of tumor cells with tissue and immune cells in a lab-on-a-chip.

A complementary cell analysis method has been developed to assess the dynamic interactions of tumor cells with resident tissue and immune cells using optical light scattering and impedance sensing to shed light on tumor cell behavior. The combination of electroanalytical and optical biosensing technologies integrated in a lab-on-a-chip allows for continuous, label-free, and noninvasive probing of dynamic cell-to-cell interactions between adherent and nonadherent cocultures, thus providing real-time insights into tumor cell responses under physiologically relevant conditions. While the study of adherent cocultures is important for the understanding and suppression of metastatic invasion, the analysis of tumor cell interactions with nonadherent immune cells plays a vital role in cancer immunotherapy research.

Time-of-flight magnetic flow cytometry in whole blood with integrated sample preparation.

Rapid and specific rare cell detection for point-of-care testing requires an integration of the sample preparation for flow cytometry. To achieve such a challenging goal we have developed a magnetic flow cytometry technique which applies magnetophoresis to perform cell enrichment, focusing, and background elimination in a single step. Time-of-flight measurements are performed with integrated magnetic sensors to detect specifically cancer cells and cell diameters in whole blood.