Elevated HERV-K Expression in Soft Tissue Sarcoma Is Associated with Worsened Relapse-Free Survival.

A wide variety of endogenous retroviral sequences has been demonstrated in the human genome so far, divided into several different families according to the sequence homology to viral strains. While increased expression of human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) elements has already been linked to unfavorable prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma, breast cancer, and ovarian carcinoma yet less is known about the impact of the expression of different HERV elements on sarcomagenesis in general as well as the outcome of soft tissue sarcoma (STS) patients. Therefore, in this study the association between expression of HERV-K and HERV-F and the clinicopathological characteristics in a cohort of STSs as well as the patients' prognosis was evaluated.

Increased proportion of mature NK cells is associated with successful imatinib discontinuation in chronic myeloid leukemia.

Recent studies suggest that a proportion of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients in deep molecular remission can discontinue the tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment without disease relapse. In this multi-center, prospective clinical trial (EURO-SKI, NCT01596114) we analyzed the function and phenotype of T and NK cells and their relation to successful TKI cessation. Lymphocyte subclasses were measured from 100 imatinib-treated patients at baseline and 1 month after the discontinuation, and functional characterization of NK and T cells was done from 45 patients.

Cardiovascular Events Associated With Use of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Background: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have increased survival dramatically for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), but continuous administration of these drugs may elicit long-term toxicity.

Objective: To investigate the incidence of vascular events in patients with CML treated with first- and second-generation TKIs.

Design: Retrospective cohort study using nationwide population-based registries.

Real-world cost-effectiveness in chronic myeloid leukemia: the price of success during four decades of development from non-targeted treatment to imatinib.

Imatinib has revolutionized the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). We evaluated clinical outcome and cost-effectiveness, using Swedish registry data based on patients with CML diagnosed 1973-2008. Outcome from three time periods (I: 1973-1979; II: 1991-1997; III: 2002-2008) associated with symptomatic treatment, interferon-α/stem cell transplant and implementation of imatinib, respectively, were compared and a lifetime cost-effectiveness model developed.

Dasatinib induces fast and deep responses in newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukaemia patients in chronic phase: clinical results from a randomised phase-2 study (NordCML006).

We randomised 46 newly diagnosed patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia (median age 56) to receive dasatinib 100 mg QD or imatinib 400 mg QD and report outcome as an intention-to-treat analysis with 36 months follow-up. Early cytogenetic and molecular responses were superior in the dasatinib group, with a tendency that imatinib patients caught up with time. For instance, MR(3.