Extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer in patients receiving atezolizumab plus carboplatin-etoposide: stratification of outcome based on a composite score that combines gene expression profiling and immune characterization of microenvironment.

Purpose: Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive disease with a dismal prognosis. The addition of immune checkpoints inhibitors to standard platinum-based chemotherapy in first-line setting achieves a durable benefit only in a patient subgroup. Thus, the identification of predictive biomarkers is an urgent unmet medical need.

Tissue and circulating biomarkers of benefit to immunotherapy in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer patients.

Extensive stage-Small-Cell Lung Cancer (ES-SCLC) is an aggressive cancer with dismal prognosis. The addition of immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) to platinum-based chemotherapy have been consistently demonstrated to improve outcomes and survival, becoming the new standard in first - line treatment of ES-SCLC patients. However, despite positive results reported in the pivotal trials, longer benefit appears evident only for a selected group of patients.

Morphologic-Molecular Transformation of Oncogene Addicted Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Patients with non-small cell lung cancer, especially adenocarcinomas, harbour at least one oncogenic driver mutation that can potentially be a target for therapy. Treatments of these oncogene-addicted tumours, such as the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) of mutated epidermal growth factor receptor, have dramatically improved the outcome of patients. However, some patients may acquire resistance to treatment early on after starting a targeted therapy.

Increased Levels of Endothelin-1 in Cerebrospinal Fluid Are a Marker of Poor Visual Recovery after Optic Neuritis in Multiple Sclerosis Patients.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic inflammatory and degenerative disease of the central nervous system, typically features immune-mediated focal demyelination and secondary axonal degeneration. Cerebral hypoperfusion of the normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) has been reported in MS patients and may be mediated by elevated levels of endothelin-1 (ET-1), a most potent vasoconstrictive peptide released from reactive astrocytes in MS focal lesions. Optic neuritis (ON) is one of the most frequent manifestations of MS and also shows peripapillary vascular hypoperfusion in combination with disc swelling.