Publications by authors named "Robert W Lentz"
Article Synopsis
- * The study involved 50 patients who had not responded to at least two previous treatments, resulting in an objective response rate (ORR) of 12%, which was statistically better than historical data.
- * While the combination treatment showed a high disease control rate and acceptable side effects, it did not achieve the primary goal of improving ORR compared to historical controls.
Purpose: Treatment of metastatic pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pancNETs), particularly grade 2 (G2) and grade 3 (G3), often presents a dilemma in choosing from multiple similarly efficacious therapies. Data on targeted therapies for these tumor types is limited, and this report presents BRAF-targeted therapy as a therapeutic option for metastatic pancNET G3.
Methods: This is a case report of a patient with G3 pancNET metastatic to the liver, lung, lymph node, and scalp (soft tissue) treated with dabrafenib/trametinib (D/T) in the presence of a BRAF V600E mutation detected in tumor tissue.
Article Synopsis
- Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is difficult to treat due to its late-stage diagnosis and resistance to most therapies, with Wnt signaling playing a significant role in tumor growth and treatment resistance.
- *Research using patient-derived organoids (PDOs) revealed distinct growth dependencies and responses to Wnt inhibitors, particularly the drug ETC-159, in combination with chemotherapy agents like paclitaxel and gemcitabine.
- *In vivo studies with xenografts showed that the combination of ETC-159 and paclitaxel was more effective at reducing tumor growth than either treatment alone, indicating potential for targeted therapies based on Wnt signaling pathways in pancreatic cancer.
Article Synopsis
- HER2-positive metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) requires HER2 testing, and first-line treatment typically involves chemotherapy paired with EGFR inhibitors or bevacizumab based on specific genetic mutations.* -
- For patients with RAS/BRAF wild-type disease, HER2-targeted therapies can be considered in later treatment lines or as first-line treatment for those unable to undergo aggressive therapy, with trastuzumab plus tucatinib being a preferred combination.* -
- Ongoing research is focused on optimizing the use of HER2-targeted therapies, including the sequence and combinations of treatments, as well as the role of predictive biomarkers for better treatment guidance.*
Article Synopsis
- - The study investigates how pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells release CSF-1, leading to NLRP3 activation in immune cells, which contributes to an immune-tolerant microenvironment that facilitates tumor growth and drug resistance.
- - Higher NLRP3 expression was observed in PDAC patients, correlating with increased inflammation driven by IL1β, which suppresses CD8+ T-cell activation and promotes tumor expansion.
- - The study highlights the potential of using NLRP3 inhibitors in combination with gemcitabine chemotherapy to enhance immune response and reduce tumor growth, suggesting a new therapeutic target for PDAC treatment.
While immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment of many types of advanced cancer, most patients still do not derive benefit. The currently available immune checkpoint inhibitors target the adaptive immune system, generating a T-cell antitumor response. However, an antitumor immune response depends on a complex interplay of both innate and adaptive immune cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTreatment response assessment for patients with advanced solid tumors is complex and existing methods require greater precision. Current guidelines rely on imaging, which has known limitations, including the time required to show a deterministic change in target lesions. Serial changes in whole-genome (WG) circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) were used to assess response or resistance to treatment early in the treatment course.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Myocardial deformation or strain by speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) has become an established echocardiographic modality for the diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of cardiac dysfunction. Current literature supports the incremental value of strain in diagnosis, risk stratification, and prognostication of a multitude of cardiac disease states.
Observations: Strain has been studied across the clinical spectrum from common to obscure pathologic conditions.
A number of recent studies have shown that iron dissolution in Fe-containing dust aerosol can be linked to source material (mineral or anthropogenic), mineralogy, and iron speciation. All of these factors need to be incorporated into atmospheric chemistry models if these models are to accurately predict the impact of Fe-containing dusts into open ocean waters. In this report, we combine dissolution measurements along with spectroscopy and microscopy to focus on nanoscale size effects in the dissolution of Fe-containing minerals in low-pH environments and the importance of acid type, including HNO(3), H(2)SO(4), and HCl, on dissolution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetal-containing nanorods are of great interest from a number of technological perspectives, and they are also present in the natural environment. Here we show that dissolution, both rate and extent, is greater for rod-shaped alpha-FeOOH particles on the nanoscale at pH 2 relative to microrods. However, when nanorods aggregate, either at lower pH and/or high ionic strength, dissolution is either completely quenched or severely quenched, by orders of magnitude.
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