Publications by authors named "Pelzer U"

Background: Despite remarkable clinical efficacy, little is known about the system-wide immunological alterations provoked by PD1 blockade. Dynamics of quantitative immune composition and functional repertoire during PD1 blockade could delineate cohort-specific patterns of treatment response and therapy-induced toxicity.

Methods: We longitudinally assessed therapy-induced effects on the immune system in fresh whole blood using flow cytometry-based cell quantifications, accompanied by analyses of effector properties of all major immune populations upon cell-type specific stimulations.

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Background: We have recently constructed a DNA methylation classifier that can discriminate between pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PAAD) liver metastasis and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) with high accuracy (PAAD-iCCA-Classifier). PAAD is one of the leading causes of cancer of unknown primary and diagnosis is based on exclusion of other malignancies. Therefore, our focus was to investigate whether the PAAD-iCCA-Classifier can be used to diagnose PAAD metastases from other sites.

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Article Synopsis
  • Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCC) is an aggressive tumor often diagnosed late, prompting this study to evaluate body composition analysis (BCA) from CT scans for predicting surgical complications.
  • The research involved 86 patients and found that sarcopenia (muscle loss) and higher levels of subcutaneous and visceral fat increased the risk of complications, leading to longer hospital and ICU stays.
  • The study concluded that BCA is more effective than BMI for assessing risks before surgery in iCC patients, suggesting its incorporation into routine preoperative evaluations.
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Ewing sarcoma is a rare malignant neoplasm that is primarily localized in bone tissues. The prognosis for patients with a newly diagnosed localized Ewing sarcoma has been greatly improved by multimodality treatment. However, treating patients with disseminated or recurrent disease is challenging, with a 5-year overall survival rate of <30%.

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Ga-labeled fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (FAPI) is a novel PET tracer with great potential for staging pancreatic cancer. Data on locally advanced or recurrent disease is sparse, especially on tracer uptake before and after high dose chemoradiotherapy (CRT). The aim of this study was to evaluate [Ga]Ga-FAPI-46 PET/CT staging in this setting.

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Previous data regarding chemotherapy-induced olfactory and gustatory dysfunction (CIOGD) are heterogeneous due to inconsistent study designs and small numbers of patients. To provide consistent, reliable data, we conducted a cohort study using standardized testing. Patients diagnosed with lymphoma, leukemia, or gastrointestinal malignancies were examined up to five times (T1 to T5), beginning prior to chemotherapy.

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  • The study looks at how early palliative care can help improve the quality of life for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) who experience severe symptoms, a crucial aspect not previously examined in depth.
  • Patients with mRCC were admitted to a palliative care unit, and their symptoms were tracked before, during, and after treatment, revealing that many suffered from pain, dyspnea, fatigue, and the need for assistance.
  • Results showed that multidisciplinary palliative care significantly reduced symptom scores and pain levels, indicating the effectiveness of integrating palliative care early in treatment for mRCC patients.
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Even after decades of research, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains a highly lethal disease and responses to conventional treatments remain mostly poor. Subclassification of PDAC into distinct biological subtypes has been proposed by various groups to further improve patient outcome and reduce unnecessary side effects. Recently, an immunohistochemistry (IHC)-based subtyping method using cytokeratin-81 (KRT81) and hepatocyte nuclear factor 1A (HNF1A) could recapitulate some of the previously established molecular subtyping methods, while providing significant prognostic and, to a limited degree, also predictive information.

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The efficacy and safety of olaratumab plus nabpaclitaxel and gemcitabine in treatment-naïve participants with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma was evaluated. An initial phase 1b dose-escalation trial was conducted to determine the olaratumab dose for the phase 2 trial, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to compare overall survival (OS) in the olaratumab arm vs. placebo arms.

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Objective: To investigate the prognostic value of enhancement patterns of intrahepatic mass-forming cholangiocarcinomas (IMCCs) during the hepatobiliary phase (HBP) in gadoxetic acid (Gd-EOB)-enhanced MRI.

Methods: We retrospectively identified 66 consecutive patients with histopathologically proven IMCCs (reference standard: resection) and preoperative Gd-EOB-enhanced MRI. Gd-EOB retention area was subjectively rated based on areas of intermediate signal intensity.

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Background: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is still a complex, devastating disease. Cachexia symptoms frequently impair patient survival. This accompanying syndrome is commonly diagnosed late, when clinical signs become evident.

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In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a scarcity of resources with various effects on the care of cancer patients. This paper provides an English summary of a German guideline on prioritization and resource allocation for colorectal and pancreatic cancer in the context of the pandemic. Based on a selective literature review as well as empirical and ethical analyses, the research team of the CancerCOVID Consortium drafted recommendations for prioritizing diagnostic and treatment measures for both entities.

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Patients with cancer are prone to develop venous thromboembolism (VTE) with negative impact on quality of life, morbidity, and mortality. Treatment of established VTE is often complex in patients with cancer. Treatment of cancer-associated VTE (CAT) basically comprises initial and maintenance treatment, for 3 to 6 months, secondary preventions, and treatment in special situations.

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Introduction: In view of the high therapeutic value of surgical resection for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (ICC), our study addresses the question of clinical management and outcome in case of borderline resectability requiring hypertrophy induction of the future liver remnant prior to resection.

Methods: Clinical data was collected of all primary ICC cases receiving major liver resection with or without prior portal vein embolization (PVE) from a single high-volume center. PVE was performed via a percutaneous transhepatic access.

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Purpose: The present study assesses long-term overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) after curative resection for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICCA) depending on resection margin (RM) status and lymph node (LN) status.

Methods: Clinical data of all consecutively resected patients with ICCA at a single high-volume center between 2005 and 2018 were collected. Minimum follow-up was 36 months.

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Background: Body composition alterations are frequent in patients with cancer or chronic liver disease, but their prognostic value remains unclear in many cancer entities.

Objective: We investigated the impact of disease aetiology and body composition after surgery for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), a rare and understudied cancer entity in European and North American cohorts.

Methods: Computer tomography-based assessment of body composition at the level of the third lumbar vertebra was performed in 173 patients undergoing curative-intent liver resection for iCCA at the Department of Surgery, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

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Objectives: Lymph node metastases (LNM) are frequent in patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCC) and worsen their prognosis even after surgery. Our aim was to investigate the predictive value of lymph node (LN) short axis, the most common discriminator for identifying LNM in tumor-imaging and to develop a predictive model for regional LNM in iCC taking computed tomography (CT) features of extranodal disease into account.

Materials And Methods: We enrolled 102 patients with pathologically proven iCC who underwent CT prior to hepatic resection and hilar lymph node dissection (LND) from 2005 to 2021.

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In addition to being risk factors for pancreatic cancer, parameters such as smoking, diabetes, or obesity might also act as potential prognostic factors for the survival of patients initially diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. By implementing one of the largest retrospective study cohorts of 2323 pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients treated at a single high-volume center, potential prognostic factors for survival were evaluated on the basis of 863 cases. Since parameters such as smoking, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension can cause severe chronic kidney dysfunction, the glomerular filtration rate was also considered.

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Inflammatory properties are known to promote tumor progression leading to an impaired median overall survival (mOS). Various small studies have focused on a wide range of inflammation-based prognostic indicators. By using sufficient data from 1294 out of 2323 patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer between 2009 and 2021 at our cancer center, inflammatory markers such as the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NRL), the platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), the lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR) and the CRP to albumin ratio (CAR) were evaluated.

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cHCC-CCA is an uncommon type of liver cancer that exhibits clinical and pathological characteristics of both hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), which are the two main forms of primary liver cancer. The similarity to HCC and CCA makes therapeutical strategies challenging. The poor prognosis of CCA in general, as well as for cHCC-CCA, is mainly attributable to the fact that diagnosis is often at an advanced stage of disease.

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Objectives: To investigate the value of gadoxetic acid (Gd-EOB)-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for noninvasive subtype differentiation of HCCs according to the 5 edition of the WHO Classification of Digestive System Tumors in a western population.

Methods: This retrospective study included 262 resected lesions in 240 patients with preoperative Gd-EOB-enhanced MRI. Subtypes were assigned by two pathologists.

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Article Synopsis
  • Biliary tract cancers are on the rise globally and have a poor prognosis, with standard treatment involving chemotherapy using gemcitabine and cisplatin; however, adding immune checkpoint inhibitors like pembrolizumab could potentially improve outcomes.
  • The KEYNOTE-966 study was a phase 3 clinical trial that randomly assigned patients with advanced biliary tract cancer to receive either pembrolizumab or a placebo along with gemcitabine and cisplatin at over 175 medical centers.
  • The trial's primary focus was to assess overall survival, while the safety of the treatment regimens was evaluated, with a total of 1564 patients screened between October 2019 and June 2021.
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