Ovarian cancer is usually detected in the advanced stages. Existing treatments for high grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) are not adequate and approximately fifty percent of patients succumb to this disease and die within five years after diagnosis. We conducted pre-clinical studies in a mouse model of ovarian cancer to evaluate disease outcome in response to treatment with the multi-kinase inhibitor cabozantinib.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: High-grade serous ovarian cancer is a lethal gynecologic disease. Conventional therapies, such as platinum-based chemotherapy, are rendered inadequate for disease management as most advanced disease patients develop resistance to this therapy and soon relapse, leading to poor prognosis. Novel immunotherapy and targeted therapy are currently under investigation as treatment options for ovarian cancer, but so far with little success.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOvarian cancer generally escapes diagnosis until the advanced stages. High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) is the most frequently occurring form of this malaise and is a disease which has the highest mortality rate of gynecologic cancers. Over recent years it has been revealed that the course of such cancers can be significantly influenced by the nature of immune cells in tumors at the time of diagnosis and by immune cells induced by therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis review provides an update on the current use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in female gynecologic cancers, and it addresses the potential of these agents to provide therapy options for disease management and long-term remission in advanced disease patients, where surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation fail to meet this goal. The topic of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) blocking cytotoxic T lymphocyte associated protein-4 (CTLA-4) and the programmed death-1 (PD-1) axis has come to the forefront of translational medicine over the last decade for several malignancies. The text will focus primarily on a discussion of ovarian cancer, which is the most frequent cause of death of gynecologic cancers; endometrial cancer, which is the most often diagnosed gynecologic cancer; and cervical cancer, which is the third most common female gynecologic malignancy, all of which unfavorably alter the lives of many women.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancers (Basel)
September 2018
It is estimated that in the United States in 2018 there will be 22,240 new cases of ovarian cancer and 14,070 deaths due to this malignancy. The most common subgroup of this disease is high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), which is known for its aggressiveness, high recurrence rate, metastasis to other sites, and the development of resistance to conventional therapy. It is important to understand the ovarian cancer tumor microenvironment (TME) from the viewpoint of the function of pre-existing immune cells, as immunocompetent cells are crucial to mounting robust antitumor responses to prevent visible tumor lesions, disease progression, or recurrence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Ovarian cancer is the major cause of death among gynecologic cancers with 75% of patients diagnosed with advanced disease, and only 20% of these patients having a survival duration of five years. Treatments blocking immune checkpoint molecules, programmed cell death (PD-1) or its ligand PD-ligand- I (PD-L1) have produced a beneficial and prolonged effect in a subgroup of these patients. However, there is debate in the literature concerning the prognostic value of the expression of these molecules in tumors, with immunotherapy responsiveness, and survival.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Approximately eighty percent of patients with ovarian cancer are diagnosed with advanced disease. Even with cutting edge surgical techniques and the best regimens of standard therapies most patients relapse and die of drug resistant disease within five years of diagnosis. Dendritic cell (DC) immunotherapy can induce anti-tumor T cell immunity in patients and holds great potential in the era of modern anti-cancer treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite improved methods of cancer detection and disease management over the last few decades, cancer remains a major public health problem in many societies. Conventional therapies, such as chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, are not usually sufficient to prevent disease recurrence. Therefore, efforts have been focused on developing novel therapies to manage metastatic disease and to prolong disease-free and overall survival, by modulating the immune system to alleviate immunosuppression, and to enhance antitumor immunity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOvarian cancer is one of the most frequent gynecological malignancies. However, as there is no effective screening method to detect early disease, it is usually only diagnosed when already widespread in the abdomen. The majority of patients diagnosed with advanced-stage disease will relapse and require additional therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCCR9 has been identified on T cells as a chemokine receptor that directs these cells to migrate to the intestine. CCR9 has also been reported on different cell types in the intestine, thymus, liver and peripheral blood. Little is reported concerning the presence of or functional implications of this chemokine receptor on myeloid dendritic cells (DC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDendritic cells are prime antigen presenting cells for stimulation of T cell immune responses. These cells are present in trace amounts in normal tissue. At sites of disease the increased frequency of these cells interacting with T cells may provide the basis for the release of pro-inflammatory mediators and contribute to localised cell and tissue damage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHelicobacter infections are present in approximately 50% of humans, causing severe illnesses such as gastritis and malignancies. Dendritic cells (DC) are critical antigen-presenting cells which link innate and adaptive immune responses. The mechanism of dendritic cell regulation in Helicobacter-induced gastritis is poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntestinal immune responses are normally regulated to maintain a state of immune balance. Dendritic cells (DC) are antigen-presenting cells, which induce immune responses against microbes and other stimuli and are key players in the regulation of tolerance in the gut. These cells influence the differentiation of cytokine responses in T cells, and in the gut, in particular, such interactions may be critical to the course of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Helicobacter pylori has been shown to induce pronounced gastric inflammation in the absence of interleukin-10 (IL-10) by 6 weeks post inoculation. The ability of IL-10(-/-) mice to eradicate H. pylori has not been demonstrated, possibly due to early sacrifice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose Of Review: Helicobacter pylori remains one of the world's most prevalent bacterial pathogens, often causing gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, gastric mucosa-associated lymphatic tissue lymphoma, or gastric adenocarcinoma. Elucidation of H. pylori virulence mechanisms and characteristics of the host that contribute to pathogenesis will facilitate the development of both pharmacologic and immunologic therapies.
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