Behavioral Counseling for Skin Cancer Prevention: Evidence Report and Systematic Review for the US Preventive Services Task Force.

Importance: Exposure to UV radiation, especially in childhood, increases skin cancer risk.

Objective: To systematically review the evidence on the benefits and harms of behavioral counseling for skin cancer prevention to inform the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).

Data Sources: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, and PubMed were searched for studies published from January 2009 to March 31, 2016, for skin cancer prevention and from August 2005 to March 31, 2016, for skin self-examination.

T-Cell Therapy Using Interleukin-21-Primed Cytotoxic T-Cell Lymphocytes Combined With Cytotoxic T-Cell Lymphocyte Antigen-4 Blockade Results in Long-Term Cell Persistence and Durable Tumor Regression.

Purpose Peripheral blood-derived antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) provide a readily available source of effector cells that can be administered with minimal toxicity in an outpatient setting. In metastatic melanoma, this approach results in measurable albeit modest clinical responses in patients resistant to conventional therapy. We reasoned that concurrent cytotoxic T-cell lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) checkpoint blockade might enhance the antitumor activity of adoptively transferred CTLs.

Tetramer guided, cell sorter assisted production of clinical grade autologous NY-ESO-1 specific CD8(+) T cells.

Background: Adoptive T cell therapy represents an attractive modality for the treatment of patients with cancer. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells have been used as a source of antigen specific T cells but the very low frequency of T cells recognizing commonly expressed antigens such as NY-ESO-1 limit the applicability of this approach to other solid tumors. To overcome this, we tested a strategy combining IL-21 modulation during in vitro stimulation with first-in-class use of tetramer-guided cell sorting to generate NY-ESO-1 specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL).

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma contains an effector and regulatory immune cell infiltrate that is altered by multimodal neoadjuvant treatment.

Objective: The immune response to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) may play a role in defining its uniquely aggressive biology; therefore, we sought to clearly define the adaptive immune infiltrate in PDA.

Design: We used immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry to characterize the immune infiltrate in human PDA and compared our findings to the patients' peripheral blood.

Results: In contrast to the myeloid cell predominant infiltrate seen in murine models, T cells comprised the majority of the hematopoietic cell component of the tumor stroma in human PDA.

Regression of metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma following transfer of polyomavirus-specific T cells and therapies capable of re-inducing HLA class-I.

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive skin cancer that typically requires the persistent expression of Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) oncoproteins that can serve as ideal immunotherapeutic targets. Several immune evasion mechanisms are active in MCC including down-regulation of HLA class-I expression on tumor cells and dysfunctional endogenous MCPyV-specific CD8 T cell responses. To overcome these obstacles, we combined local and systemic immune therapies in a 67-year-old man, who developed metastatic MCPyV-expressing MCC.