The role of Cabazitaxel in Patients With Castration-Resistant and Osseous Metastases Prostate Cancer. A Hellenic Cooperative Oncology Group Phase II Study: Cabazitaxel in mCRPC patients with osseous metastases.

Background: Cabazitaxel is an effective treatment in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients previously exposed to docetaxel and novel hormonal treatments. Understanding the molecular biology of mCRPC disease and taking into account the several approved treatment options, biomarkers are needed to guide decision making including cabazitaxel treatment.

Methods: Cababone was a phase II translational study that attempted to identify predictors of cabazitaxel efficacy.

Investigation of prognostic biomarkers in patients with urothelial carcinoma treated with platinum-based regimens.

Background: Bladder cancer (BC) is a heterogeneous malignancy with dismal outcome.

Patients And Methods: Mutations in genes, altered or linked to platinum sensitivity in BC, were examined in 66 patients' tumors along with tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) density and MMR, PD-L1 and CD8 protein expression, as well as basal and luminal subtypes, defined by protein expression of markers, including CK5/6 and GATA3 or CK20, respectively.

Results: 41 tumors harbored mutations, mainly in TP53 (38%), ARID1A (17%) and the DNA damage response and repair (DDR) genes ERCC2 (17%) and BRCA2 (15%).

Real-world safety and efficacy data of immunotherapy in patients with cancer and autoimmune disease: the experience of the Hellenic Cooperative Oncology Group.

Background: Data on the safety and efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in patients with concurrent autoimmune diseases (AID) are limited.

Methods: We performed a retrospective multicenter review of medical records of patients with cancer and underlying AID who received ICI. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS).

Is there a role of repeat cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in patients with relapse from peritoneal metastatic disease? A survival analysis.

Purpose: We aimed to evaluate the role of repeat cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in the management of patients with recurrent peritoneal metastatic disease (PM) with special consideration to perioperative outcomes and long-term survival outcomes.

Methods: Patients with recurrent PM who underwent CRS and HIPEC for the management of the disease for an interval of 15 years were retrospectively analyzed. Primary tumor location, peritoneal cancer index, completeness of cytoreduction (CC), morbidity, mortality, overall survival (OS), and progression-free survival (PFS) after the 1st and 2nd HIPEC were assessed.

Upfront or intermediate treatment of advanced ovarian cancer patients with cytoreduction plus HIPEC: Results of a retrospective study.

Background: Newly diagnosed advanced-stage ovarian cancer patients are treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, primary or intermediate cytoreductive surgery, and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). The aim of this study is to evaluate the optimal timing of cytoreduction plus HIPEC for advanced ovarian cancer patients.

Methods: Advanced ovarian cancer patients treated with cytoreductive surgery plus HIPEC at three different hospitals between 2005 and 2019 were subgrouped regarding their time of management with cytoreduction plus HIPEC, upfront or intermediate.

Durvalumab alone and durvalumab plus tremelimumab versus chemotherapy in previously untreated patients with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (DANUBE): a randomised, open-label, multicentre, phase 3 trial.

Background: Survival outcomes are poor for patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma who receive standard, first-line, platinum-based chemotherapy. We assessed the overall survival of patients who received durvalumab (a PD-L1 inhibitor), with or without tremelimumab (a CTLA-4 inhibitor), as a first-line treatment for metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

Methods: DANUBE is an open-label, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial in patients with untreated, unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, conducted at 224 academic research centres, hospitals, and oncology clinics in 23 countries.

Evaluation of the prognostic value of CD3, CD8, and FOXP3 mRNA expression in early-stage breast cancer patients treated with anthracycline-based adjuvant chemotherapy.

Background: Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have been shown to be of prognostic value in several cancer types. In early breast cancer, TILs have a prognostic utility, as well, especially in HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancer. TILs presence is broadly associated with improved survival; however, there is controversy regarding TILs subpopulations.

Future perspectives in cancer immunotherapy.

The advent of immunotherapy has transformed the treatment paradigm of several solid tumors and is expected to influence the therapeutic algorithm even more in the future following the results of numerous ongoing clinical trials in a wide range of malignancies. Exploiting the anti-cancer effect of the immune system with the use of vaccines, viral vectors, and more lately with immune check-point inhibitors and chimeric antigen receptor modification, has been proven a successful therapeutic strategy in a broad spectrum of tumors. In particular, immune check-point inhibition in melanoma, non-small-cell lung cancer and renal cancer, peptide vaccination in prostate cancer and glioblastoma, and oncolytic immunotherapy in melanoma are well-established therapeutic modalities that have obtained approval by regulatory authorities and are already in clinical use.

Immunobiology and immunotherapy in genitourinary malignancies.

Immunotherapy has traditionally been a critical component of the cancer treatment armamentarium in genitourinary (GU) cancers. It has an established role in the management of carefully selected patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) [e.g.

A Cytokine Cocktail Augments the Efficacy of Adoptive NK-92 Cell Therapy Against Mouse Xenografts of Human Cancer.

Background/aim: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) activated with immobilized monoclonal antibody against cluster of differentiation 3 (CD3) secrete cytokines in their culture supernatant (termed ACD3S). We examined the antitumor efficacy of ACD3S-activated NK-92 cells in vitro and in vivo.

Materials And Methods: Interleukin (IL) 2-depleted NK-92 cells were reactivated with ACD3S, analyzed for their phenotype and tested for cytotoxicity, and perforin and interferon γ (IFNγ) production.

Ovarian malignant ascites-derived lymphocytes stimulated with prothymosin α or its immunoactive decapeptide lyse autologous tumour cells in vitro and retard tumour growth in SCID mice.

Background: Tumour-associated lymphocytes (TALs) present in effusions of ovarian cancer patients exhibit impaired activities, due to the immunosuppressive environment of the ascites. Means to enhance their cytotoxicity against autologous tumour cells are of clinical importance. The immunomodulator prothymosin alpha (proTα) increases the specific lysis of tumour cells by activated CD8(+) T-lymphocytes and its immunoreactivity is exerted by the carboxy-terminal decapeptide, proTα(100-109).

Association of ERCC1 SNPs with outcome in platinum-treated patients with advanced urothelial cancer: a Hellenic Cooperative Oncology Group study.

Aim: The association between two polymorphisms of ERCC1 and treatment outcomes after platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with advanced urothelial cancer (UC) was examined.

Materials & Methods: Genotyping of 19007C>T and 8092C>A polymorphisms was determined by PCR amplification and RFLP in 113 advanced UC patients, treated with platinum-based chemotherapy.

Results: Seventy eight patients (69%) were carriers of the 19007T polymorphic allele: 51 (45%) heterozygotes and 27 (24%) homozygotes.

Time-dependent cytotoxic drugs selectively cooperate with IL-18 for cancer chemo-immunotherapy.

Background: Time-dependent chemotherapeutic agents can selectively target tumor cells in susceptible phases of the cell cycle however a fraction of tumor cells in non-vulnerable cell cycle phases remain drug-resistant. Immunotherapy represents a promising approach to overcome the limitation of phase-specific drugs and improve their clinical efficacy. Here, we investigated the potential use of anticancer chemotherapeutic drugs in combination with IL-18, a cytokine with strong immunostimulatory properties.

VEGF directly suppresses activation of T cells from ovarian cancer patients and healthy individuals via VEGF receptor Type 2.

The role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in tumor angiogenesis is well characterized; nevertheless, it is also a key element in promoting tumor evasion of the immune system by downregulating dendritic cell maturation and thus T cell activation. We sought to investigate the possible direct effect of VEGF on T cell activation and through which type of VEGF receptor (VEGFR) it exerts this effect. Circulating T cells from healthy donors and ovarian cancer patients were expanded in cultures with anti-CD3 and IL-2 with or without VEGF for 14 days, and the number of T cells was assessed.

Intermittent docetaxel chemotherapy in patients with castrate-resistant prostate cancer.

Objectives: To determine whether intermittent docetaxel might control disease while limiting the toxicity and improving the quality-of-life parameters in patients with advanced, castrate-resistant prostate cancer. Intermittent docetaxel represents an appealing therapeutic approach.

Methods: We reviewed the records of 35 patients with chemotherapy-naive castrate-resistant prostate cancer who had received docetaxel 45 mg/m(2) every 2 weeks, with oral prednisone 5 mg twice daily.

Effects of rosuvastatin and allopurinol on circulating endothelial progenitor cells in patients with congestive heart failure: the impact of inflammatory process and oxidative stress.

Objective: Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) contribute to the maintenance of endothelial integrity and function. We investigated the effects of rosuvastatin and allopurinol on the number of EPCs in patients with heart failure and aimed to provide insight into the molecular inflammatory and oxidative mechanisms that could be responsible for the alterations in EPC levels after treatment.

Methods: Sixty patients with systolic heart failure were randomized to receive rosuvastatin 10mg/d, allopurinol 300mg/d or placebo and followed up for 1 month.

Endometrial cancer: what is new in adjuvant and molecularly targeted therapy?

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynaecological cancer in western countries. Radiotherapy remains the mainstay of postoperative management, but accumulating data show that adjuvant chemotherapy may display promising results after staging surgery. The prognosis of patients with metastatic disease remains disappointing with only one-year survival.

Study of T lymphocytes infiltrating peritoneal metastases in advanced ovarian cancer: associations with vascular endothelial growth factor levels and prognosis in patients receiving platinum-based chemotherapy.

Introduction: The presence of CD3(+) tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) has been found to correlate with improved survival in epithelial ovarian cancer, but the association of TIL subpopulations with clinical outcome remains controversial. We performed a prospective analysis of TIL subpopulations from patients with epithelial ovarian cancer and their activation status and studied their association with prognosis.

Methods: Flow cytometric analysis was performed on TIL subpopulations isolated from 45 fresh ovarian tumor specimens, obtained during surgery, after mechanical dissociation and enzymatic degradation.

The incidence of place of death in Greek patients with cancer in 1995 and 2005.

Purpose: To describe where (home or hospital) patients with cancer die in Greece, in 1995 and 2005.

Methods: We used data from patients with cancer, who died in Greece in 1995 and 2005, and we studied the location changes of death in the 3 major geographical areas of Greece (Macedonia: North Greece, Central Greece, and Crete: South Greece).

Results: In Central Greece and Crete, death incidences for 60 to 69, 70 to 79, and 80+ age groups decreased from 1995 to 2005.

Where do cancer patients die in Greece? A population-based study on the place of death in 1993 and 2003.

Several studies have shown that place of death is affected by many parameters. Our objective was to describe for the first time where patients with cancer die in Greece and what has changed between 1993 and 2003. We acquired data on all deaths that were attributed to cancer in Greece in the years 1993 and 2003, and compared these data to the changes in the location of death in the total population.

Phenoxodiol, an anticancer isoflavene, induces immunomodulatory effects in vitro and in vivo.

Phenoxodiol (PXD) is a synthetic analogue of the plant isoflavone genistein with improved anticancer efficacy. Various properties and mechanisms of action have been attributed to the drug, the most important being its ability to sensitize resistant tumour cells to chemotherapy, which led to its fast track FDA approval for phase II/III clinical trials. In this study, we examined the effects of PXD on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and its potential role in regulating immune responses.

Endovascular stenting for the management of port-a-cath associated superior vena cava syndrome.

Port-a-cath systems are often essential for the administration of long-term chemotherapy in the treatment of malignancies because they improve venous access, but they are associated with complications, mainly thrombosis of central veins. In the present report, we describe a case of right subclavian and superior vena cava port-a-cath-related thrombosis causing superior vena cava syndrome (SVCS) in a patient affected by Hodgkin's disease. The patient underwent percutaneous revascularization with stent positioning, experiencing immediate relief of symptoms.

Correlation of NK T-like CD3+CD56+ cells and CD4+CD25+(hi) regulatory T cells with VEGF and TNFalpha in ascites from advanced ovarian cancer: Association with platinum resistance and prognosis in patients receiving first-line, platinum-based chemotherapy.

Background: Several cytokines have been associated with immune regulation and prognosis in ovarian cancer. CD4+CD25+ Tregs and CD3+CD56+ NK-like T cells are involved in the immune response against the tumor. We have investigated the association of cytokines in the ascites from patients with ovarian cancer with these populations, the platinum resistance and the prognosis of these patients.

Oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate in cancer pain management: a practical application of nanotechnology.

Pain is experienced by most cancer patients and represents an important issue in the clinical setting. Breakthrough pain is a transitory flare of pain that occurs in most cancer patients on a background of otherwise controlled persistent pain. Treatment of breakthrough pain is a challenging phenomenon.