Publications by authors named "Jurgen C Becker"
Article Synopsis
- The study compares the effectiveness and safety of combined CTLA-4 and PD-1 blockade therapy to anti-PD-1 monotherapy in treating metastatic melanoma patients.
- Results indicate no overall survival difference between the two treatments for the entire cohort, but combined therapy showed better results for patients with multi-organ metastasis, while monotherapy was more beneficial for those with oligo-organ metastasis.
- Patients receiving combination therapy also faced significantly higher hospitalization rates from adverse immune-related events when they had oligo-organ metastasis, highlighting the need for careful treatment selection.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the effects of primary tumor (PT) on the immune activity and metastatic status of sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) in melanoma patients.
- It finds that SLNs removed shortly after PT (IM-SLNs) show a higher incidence of micrometastases and lower immune activity compared to those removed later (DEL-SLNs).
- Higher immune activity and the presence of specific immune cells in DEL-SLNs suggest that the timing of SLN removal influences prognosis, with DEL-SLNs indicating a worse outcome due to the melanoma's ability to evade immune responses.
Article Synopsis
- Researchers studied patients with advanced skin cancer (melanoma) to see how well they responded to a special treatment called immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI).
- They found that only about 8% of patients responded quickly to the treatment, while others had slower responses or did not respond at all.
- Despite the quick responders showing some improvement, they didn’t live longer or have better outcomes than those who responded later to the treatment.
Article Synopsis
- Mycosis fungoides (MF) is a common type of skin cancer that makes it hard to tell harmful T cells from normal ones.
- Researchers used single-cell RNA and T-cell receptor sequencing on skin samples from 12 MF patients, analyzing 18,630 T cells from 9 of them to distinguish between malignant and reactive cells.
- The study found unique gene signatures in malignant T cells that could help differentiate them from reactive T cells, revealing significant variations in cell characteristics among patients.
Introduction: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive skin cancer with a poor prognosis, which only improved with the introduction of immunotherapies. An MCC prediction model with high diagnostic accuracy is lacking. The aim was to develop an MCC prognostic score (MCC-PS) based on combinations of previously proposed risk factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The study investigates 16 primary cutaneous carcinomas with mutations in genes that activate the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, noting that these tumors lack matrical differentiation, which is typically associated with such mutations.
- The tumors predominantly affected elderly patients, with a median age of 80, and were mainly located on the head, neck, and upper limbs, leading to metastatic cases in some patients.
- Key findings include poor differentiation in tumor structure, distinct immunohistochemical profiles, and recurrent mutations in APC and CTNNB1, indicating that these tumors represent a unique group apart from other established skin tumor types.
Article Synopsis
- - Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive skin cancer often linked to the Merkel cell polyomavirus, with a rare subtype presenting as combined MCCs featuring an additional tumor component, typically squamous cell carcinoma.
- - This study reports two new cases of combined MCCs with neuroblastic differentiation, characterized by a unique tumor structure involving both a poorly differentiated carcinoma and a neuroblastic component, observed in elderly men with symptoms of isolated inguinal adenopathy.
- - The research utilized various analyses, revealing shared mutations between the tumor components and suggesting that neuroblastic differentiation might occur due to loss of viral protein expression in certain MCC cells, indicating a potential link in their cellular origins.
Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a highly aggressive skin cancer associated with integration of Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV). MCPyV-encoded T-antigens (TAs) are pivotal for sustaining MCC's oncogenic phenotype, i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: To date, only a few population-representative studies have been carried out on the rare Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). We provide incidence and survival estimates of MCC, including the conditional relative survival.
Methods: We analyzed data from the cancer registry of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 2008-2021, covering a population of 18 million.
Article Synopsis
- - Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive skin cancer, primarily affecting older and immunocompromised individuals, prompting increased attention to immunotherapy and vaccines as treatment options.
- - Recent research includes identifying 10 articles and 9 ongoing clinical trials focused on vaccines for MCC, with most studies being in early phases of development.
- - Various vaccine strategies are being explored, including DNA, synthetic peptide vaccines, RNA-based vaccines, oncolytic viruses, and combinations with immunotherapy, though it may take time for a vaccine to be approved for clinical use.
In patients with COVID-19, broad panels of immune checkpoint molecules (ICPMs) and the purinergic signaling have not been studied in parallel. We aimed to perform in-depth immunophenotyping of major cell subsets present in human peripheral blood of COVID-19 patients and controls using PD1, TIM3, LAG3, TIGIT, and CD200R, as well as CD39, as markers for the purinergic signaling pathway. We studied 76 COVID-19 patients and 12 healthy controls using peripheral blood mononuclear cells on flow cytometry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Porocarcinoma is a malignant sweat gland tumor that can develop from benign poromas, and recent studies have identified specific genetic fusions like PAK1/2/3 in some cases.
- In a study of 12 porocarcinoma patients, most were older males with tumors located on various parts of the body, and some patients developed distant metastases.
- The research indicates that PAK1/2/3 fusions might drive cancer development in porocarcinomas that do not have YAP1 rearrangements, highlighting a potential target for treatment.
Article Synopsis
- * These tumors can be aggressive, often recurring and metastasizing, especially periocular ones (up to 15%), while extraocular cases have a lower metastasis rate (up to 2%).
- * The main treatment is complete micrographically controlled surgery, with additional options like radiotherapy, while advanced cases may require individualized treatment plans from a tumor board due to a lack of standard therapies.
Article Synopsis
- Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive skin cancer linked to the Merkel cell polyomavirus or ultraviolet (UV) exposure, which increases immune system recognition due to viral proteins or neoantigens.
- Historical treatments for advanced MCC were limited to conventional chemotherapy, offering a short median response duration of about 3 months.
- Since 2017, immune checkpoint inhibitors like avelumab, pembrolizumab, and nivolumab have shown promising results, with immunotherapy providing comparable or better response rates than chemotherapy, particularly nivolumab in the adjuvant setting.
Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a highly immunogenic skin cancer primarily induced by Merkel cell polyomavirus, which is driven by the expression of the oncogenic T antigens (T-Ags). Blockade of the programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) pathway has shown remarkable response rates, but evidence for therapy-associated T-Ag-specific immune response and therapeutic strategies for the nonresponding fraction are both limited. We tracked T-Ag-reactive CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood of 26 MCC patients under anti-PD1 therapy, using DNA-barcoded pMHC multimers, displaying all peptides from the predicted HLA ligandome of the oncoproteins, covering 33 class I haplotypes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Recent evidence suggests additional immunomodulatory properties of RANKL inhibition possibly boosting the clinical efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI).
Methods: We conducted a prospective, multicentre clinical trial in unresectable stage IV melanoma patients with bone metastases who received denosumab in parallel with dual ICI (BONEMET) and performed comprehensive immune monitoring at baseline and 4, 12, and 24 weeks after initiation of therapy. Secondary endpoints included tolerability and efficacy.
Intratumoural as well as systemic inflammation in melanoma has thoroughly been studied in the context of patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors but not with BRAF/MEK inhibitors (BRAFi/MEKi). We aimed to study whether parameters of intratumoral and systemic inflammation correlate with clinical outcome in patients with BRAF-mutant metastatic melanoma treated with BRAFi/MEKi. We studied 51 CM patients with unresectable stage III or IV who had the indication for BRAFi/MEKi treatment based on confirmed BRAF mutation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF