Background: CA125 is a well-established ovarian cancer (OC) serum biomarker. The CA125 heavily glycosylated epitope is carried by the MUC16 mucin, a high molecular weight transmembrane mucin. Upon proteolytic cleavage, the extracellular domain of MUC16 is released from the cell surface into malignant ascites and blood vessels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbout 20% of patients with high grade serous epithelial ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) are intrinsically resistant to standard first-line platinum-based combination therapy. There is no marker yet available to identify these patients. In that context, all patients with HGSOC initially receive the same standard first-line platinum-based therapy, and those with intrinsically resistant diseases can only be identified retrospectively after they experienced early relapse to therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOvarian cancer (OC) ascites is an inflammatory and immunosuppressive tumor environment characterized by the presence of various cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. The presence of high concentrations of these cytokines/chemokines in ascites is associated with a more aggressive tumor phenotype. IL-10 is an immunosuppressive cytokine for which high expression has been associated with poor prognosis in some cancers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Colorectal cancer is the third most common and the fourth most lethal cancer in the world. In the majority of cases, patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage or even metastatic, thus explaining the high mortality. The standard treatment for patients with locally advanced non-metastatic rectal cancer is neoadjuvant radio-chemotherapy (NRCT) with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) followed by surgery, but the resistance rate to this treatment remains high with approximately 30% of non-responders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: We report an unusual case of a synchronous rectal and metachronous vaginal metastatic renal cell carcinoma.
Case Presentation: A 78-year-old woman presented with hematochezia and a colonoscopy revealed a metastatic clear-cell renal cell carcinoma rectal polyp biopsy-proven. Abdominal computed tomography identified a 9.
Background: Ovarian cancer (OC) ascites consist in a proinflammatory tumor environment that is characterized by the presence of various cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. The presence of these inflammatory-related factors in ascites is associated with a more aggressive tumor phenotype. CCL18 is a member of CCL chemokines and its expression has been associated with poor prognosis in some cancers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) dissemination is primarily mediated by the shedding of tumor cells from the primary site into ascites where they form multicellular spheroids that rapidly lead to peritoneal carcinomatosis. While the clinical importance and fundamental role of multicellular spheroids in EOC is increasingly appreciated, the mechanisms that regulate their formation and dictate their cellular composition remain poorly characterized. To investigate these important questions, we characterized spheroids isolated from ascites of women with EOC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBmps are morphogens involved in various gastric cellular functions. Studies in genetically-modified mice have shown that Bmp disruption in gastric epithelial and stromal cell compartments leads to the development of tumorigenesis. Our studies have demonstrated that abrogation of gastric epithelial Bmp signaling alone was not sufficient to recapitulate the neoplastic features associated with total gastric loss of Bmp signaling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEwing sarcoma of the abdomen is a rare entity in pediatric oncology and represents a technical challenge both for surgeons and radiation oncologists. We document the case of a young female patient with primary disseminated, intraperitoneal Ewing sarcoma who after an excellent response to chemotherapy received preoperative whole abdominal-pelvic radiotherapy with good tolerance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Platinum-based combination therapy is the standard first-line treatment for women with advanced serous epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC). However, about 20 % will not respond and are considered clinically resistant. The availability of biomarkers to predict responses to the initial therapy would provide a practical approach to identify women who would benefit from a more appropriate first-line treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOvarian cancer ascites consist of a proinflammatory environment that is characterized by the presence of abundant human peritoneal mesothelial cells (HPMCs). Cytokines and growth factors in ascites modulate cell activities of tumor cells. The expression of proinflammatory cytokines in ascites is associated with a more aggressive tumor phenotype.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Resistance to apoptosis is a major problem in ovarian cancer (OC) and correlates with poor prognosis. Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is a soluble secreted factor that acts as a decoy receptor for receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL) and tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL). OPG has been reported to attenuate TRAIL-induced apoptosis in a variety of cancer cells, including OC cells.
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