Effect of Midtreatment PET/CT-Adapted Radiation Therapy With Concurrent Chemotherapy in Patients With Locally Advanced Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: A Phase 2 Clinical Trial.

Importance: Our previous studies demonstrated that tumors significantly decrease in size and metabolic activity after delivery of 45 Gy of fractionated radiatiotherapy (RT), and that metabolic shrinkage is greater than anatomic shrinkage. This study aimed to determine whether 18F-fludeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) acquired during the course of treatment provides an opportunity to deliver higher-dose radiation to the more aggressive areas of the tumor to improve local tumor control without increasing RT-induced lung toxicity (RILT), and possibly improve survival.

Objective: To determine whether adaptive RT can target high-dose radiation to the FDG-avid tumor on midtreatment FDG-PET to improve local tumor control of locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Clinical Determinants of Durable Clinical Benefit of Pembrolizumab in Veterans With Advanced Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.

Background: Because of the prevalence of smoking in the veteran population, non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. The objectives of our study were to evaluate the extent of durable clinical benefit (DCB) to pembrolizumab in veterans with metastatic NSCLC and to identify clinical determinants of DCB.

Materials And Methods: Prospective clinical data on veterans receiving pembrolizumab were collected.

Impact of Staging With Positron-emission Tomography (PET) and Comorbidities on Management and Survival of American Veterans With Stage I-III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Objectives: The extent of whether staging by fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography (PET) impacts outcomes in American Veterans with stage I-III non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is unknown. We investigated impact of fluorodeoxyglucose PET staging and age-adjusted comorbidities (AACs) on management and survival of NSCLC in this group.

Materials And Methods: We performed a retrospective review to identify with NSCLC who underwent initial PET scan and received care at the Ann Arbor Veterans Hospital between 2005 and 2010.

Anthrax vaccine recipients lack antibody against the loop neutralizing determinant: A protective neutralizing epitope from Bacillus anthracis protective antigen.

Background: Epitope-focused immunogens can elicit antibody against the loop neutralizing determinant (LND), a neutralizing epitope found within the 2β2-2β3 loop of protective antigen (PA), which can protect rabbits from high-dose inhalation challenge with Bacillus anthracis Ames strain. Interestingly, data suggests that this epitope is relatively immunosilent in rabbits and non-human primates immunized with full length PA.

Methods: To determine whether the LND is immunosilent among humans vaccinated with PA, we screened antisera from AVA- or placebo-vaccinees from a clinical trial for antibody reactive with the LND.

Identification and validation of a linear protective neutralizing epitope in the β-pore domain of alpha toxin.

The plethora of virulence factors associated with Staphylococcus aureus make this bacterium an attractive candidate for a molecularly-designed epitope-focused vaccine. This approach, which necessitates the identification of neutralizing epitopes for incorporation into a vaccine construct, is being evaluated for pathogens where conventional approaches have failed to elicit protective humoral responses, like HIV-1 and malaria, but may also hold promise for pathogens like S. aureus, where the elicitation of humoral immunity against multiple virulence factors may be required for development of an effective vaccine.