Publications by authors named "M Gualco"

Immunotherapy based on anti PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors is the new standard of advanced non-small cell lung cancers. Pembrolizumab, nivolumab and atezolizumab are used in clinical practice. The strict eligibility criteria of clinical trials do not allow researchers to fully represent treatment effects in the patients that will ultimately use these drugs.

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Uveal melanoma (UM) is a rare tumor of the eye that leads to deadly metastases in about half of the patients. ADAM10 correlates with c-Met expression in UM and high levels of both molecules are related to the development of metastases. MiR122 and miR144 modulate and expression in different settings.

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The expression of the immune checkpoint molecule CTLA-4 has been almost exclusively studied in the T cell lineage, but increasing evidence has shown its expression on tumors with implications for immunotherapy. To date, the degree of expression of CTLA-4 on tumor cells as a predictive biomarker of response to immune checkpoint inhibitors has not been studied. In this report, we analyzed this issue in melanoma patients treated with CTLA-4 inhibitor Ipilimumab (IPI).

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Article Synopsis
  • Immune checkpoint inhibitors like ipilimumab (IPI) show effectiveness in only a small number of melanoma patients, prompting the search for predictive biomarkers.
  • In this study, researchers examined tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) specifically focusing on the CTLA-4 subset across 40 melanoma samples from 17 patients treated with IPI.
  • The study found that higher densities of certain TILs, particularly CTLA-4, CD3, and CD8 T cells at the invasive margins of tumors, were significantly linked to better patient responses to IPI, suggesting CTLA-4 TILs could potentially serve as predictive markers, pending further validation.
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Paraffin embedding of small, thin tissue samples requires specific expertise for optimal orientation before tissue sectioning. This study evaluates the real-life utility of the agar pre-embedding technique for small skin biopsies with regards to lengthening of work times, problems in orientation (re-embedding) and ancillary techniques (immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridisation) between two high work flow pathology laboratories, one of which routinely uses the agar pre-embedding technique and one which does not. The mean time required for pre-embedding in agar was 30.

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