Publications by authors named "Lukas Balsevicius"
Objective: This clinical trial investigated the safety and efficacy of single-cycle pembrolizumab in patients with localized deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) colon cancer.
Background: Neoadjuvant immunotherapy has induced remarkable rates of pathological complete response in patients with dMMR colon cancer. However, the optimal length and type of treatment are yet to be determined.
Background: Surgical stress may lead to postsurgical hypercoagulability, endothelial dysfunction and systemic inflammation, which can impact on patient recovery. Remote ischaemic preconditioning is a procedure that activates the body's endogenous defences against ischaemia and reperfusion injury. Studies have suggested that remote ischaemic preconditioning has antithrombotic, antioxidative and anti-inflammatory effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Surgery induces a temporal change in the immune system, which might be modified by regional anesthesia. Applying a bilateral preoperative anterior quadratus lumborum block has proven to be a safe and effective technique in pain management after abdominal and retroperitoneal surgery, but the effect on the immune response is not thoroughly investigated.
Methods: This study is a substudy of a randomized, controlled, double-blinded trial of patients undergoing laparoscopic hemicolectomy due to colon cancer.
Purpose: In this study, we aim to investigate gene expression changes in tumor samples obtained from patients with esophageal cancer treated with calcium electroporation. Previously, local treatment with calcium electroporation has been shown to induce gene expression alterations, potentially contributing to a more tumor-hostile microenvironment.
Methods: In this sub-study of a phase I clinical trial, we included five patients with esophageal cancer treated with calcium electroporation.
Article Synopsis
- The study focused on patients with non-metastasizing sigmoid or rectal cancer to determine if an endoscopic intratumoral influenza vaccine could promote immune response, particularly CD8+ T-cell infiltration, in proficient mismatch repair tumors.
- Conducting a phase 1/2 trial with 10 patients, the results showed that the vaccine was safe and did not cause any adverse events, allowing all patients to proceed with planned surgeries.
- Post-treatment analysis indicated a significant increase in CD8+ T-cells within the tumors and changes in gene expression, suggesting the vaccine effectively enhanced local immune activity against the tumors.
Background: Robotic-assisted hysterectomy is an alternative to laparoscopic surgery as part of a minimal invasive regimen. Several treatment strategies are followed to improve the overall outcome and minimize surgical stress. Glucocorticoids provide significant analgesic and antiemetic effects but their role in reducing inflammatory stress in a fast-track, multi-modal setting in patients undergoing minimally invasive surgery remains to be investigated in details.
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