Clinical and radiological pattern of olaparib-induced interstitial lung disease.

Background: PARP inhibitors (PARPi) are used in the treatment of ovarian, breast, pancreatic, and prostate cancers. Pneumonitis has been identified as a potential side effect, with a higher meta-analysis-assessed risk for olaparib versus other PARPi. Olaparib-induced interstitial lung disease (O-ILD) was first described within the Japanese population, with few information available for Caucasian patients.

[Update regarding the management of vulvar cancer: The guidelines of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris].

Vulvar cancer is a rare disease, which represents 4% of gynecological tumors with an incidence of 0.5 to 1.5 per 100,000 women per year in France.

Accuracy of clinical data entry when using a computerized decision support system: a case study with OncoDoc2.

Some studies suggest that the implementation of health information technology (HIT) introduces unpredicted and unintended consequences including e-iatrogenesis. OncoDoc2 is a guideline-based clinical decision support system (CDSS) applied to the management of breast cancer. The system is used by answering closed-ended questions in order to document patient data while navigating through the knowledge base until the best patient-specific recommended treatments are obtained.

TLR3 as a biomarker for the therapeutic efficacy of double-stranded RNA in breast cancer.

The discovery of a targeted therapeutic compound along with its companion predictive biomarker is a major goal of clinical development for a personalized anticancer therapy to date. Here we present evidence of the predictive value of TLR3 expression by tumor cells for the efficacy of Poly (A:U) dsRNA in 194 breast cancer patients enrolled in a randomized clinical trial. Adjuvant treatment with double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) was associated with a significant decrease in the risk of metastatic relapse in TLR3 positive but not in TLR3-negative breast cancers.

How to improve the immunogenicity of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Chemotherapy or radiotherapy could induce various tumor cell death modalities, releasing tumor-derived antigen as well as danger signals that could either be captured for triggering antitumor immune response or ignored. Exploring the interplay among therapeutic drugs, tumor cell death and the immune cells should improve diagnostic, prognostic, predictive, and therapeutic management of tumor. We summarized some of the cell death-derived danger signals and the mechanism for host to sense and response to cell death in the tumor microenvironment.

Pulmonary toxicity related to systemic treatment of nonsmall cell lung cancer.

Physicians who are responsible for the delivery of systemic treatment in lung cancer should be aware of the potential risk of drug-induced pulmonary toxicity (DIPT), because such toxicity may develop in the context of a multifactorial clinical condition. First, most patients with lung cancer may suffer from other non-neoplastic, smoking-related lung diseases, such as emphysema and chronic obstructive lung disease, which may generate pathologic changes in lung parenchyma. In addition, lung cancer itself may worsen the respiratory function, inducing atelectasis and lymphangitic carcinomatosis.

Desirable cell death during anticancer chemotherapy.

The concept of immunogenic chemotherapy that has recently emerged relies upon the capacity of a cytotoxic compound to trigger a cell-death modality. This modality elicits cross-priming by dendritic cells of tumor antigen-specific T cells that will contribute to the tumoricidal activity of the compound and protect the host against relapse. In contrast, most anticancer drugs elicit nonimmunogenic apoptosis that is not accompanied with an immunizing property.

Tomorrow's targeted therapies in breast cancer patients: what is the risk for increased radiation-induced cardiac toxicity?

Ongoing clinical trials are now investigating the benefits of new targeted therapies, including ErbB and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) and antiangiogenics. Those may carry a potential risk for additional cardiac toxicity, particularly in association with radiotherapy. Although the risk of symptomatic cardiotoxicity is low, more subtle functional declines may increase mortality with longer follow-up and necessitate caution when assessing concurrent or sequential trastuzumab or lapatinib with radiotherapy.

Opposing effects of toll-like receptor (TLR3) signaling in tumors can be therapeutically uncoupled to optimize the anticancer efficacy of TLR3 ligands.

Many cancer cells express Toll-like receptors (TLR) that offer possible therapeutic targets. Polyadenylic-polyuridylic acid [poly(A:U)] is an agonist of the Toll-like receptor TLR3 that displays anticancer properties. In this study, we illustrate how the immunostimulatory and immunosuppressive effects of this agent can be uncoupled to therapeutic advantage.

CXCR4 expression in early breast cancer and risk of distant recurrence.

Background: Chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) has been demonstrated to have a critical role in the early metastatic process. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of CXCR4 expression in primary breast tumors and describe correlations with the occurrence of metastasis in organs expressing the CXCR4 ligand stromal cell-derived factor 1 (i.e.

Quantification of circulating mature endothelial cells using a whole blood four-color flow cytometric assay.

Circulating endothelial cells (CEC) are currently proposed as a potential biomarker for measuring the impact of anti-angiogenic treatments in cancer. However, the lack of consensus on the appropriate method of CEC measurement has led to conflicting data in cancer patients. A validated assay adapted for evaluating the clinical utility of CEC in large cohorts of patients undergoing anti-angiogenic treatments is needed.

Carboplatin and etoposide (CE) chemotherapy in patients with recurrent or progressive oligodendroglial tumors.

Background: Oligodendroglial tumors are rare and chemosensitive diseases; but the overall results with current chemotherapy regimens cannot be considered satisfactory and other active treatments are necessary. We decided to determine the efficacy and toxicity profile of the carboplatin and etoposide (CE) regimen in this setting.

Methods: In this phase II trial we evaluated the response rate of first or second line CE regimen (Carboplatin AUC 5 on day 1 and Etoposide 120 mg/m2 on days 1-3 every 28 days) in patients with recurrent/progressive oligodendroglial tumors.

Real-time RT-PCR of tyrosine hydroxylase to detect bone marrow involvement in advanced neuroblastoma.

Neuroblastoma (NB) is characterised by the secretion of catecholamines in approximately 95% of patients. Tyrosine hydroxylase is the rate-limiting enzyme in catecholamine biosynthesis pathway. Expression of the tyrosine hydroxylase gene (TH) is regulated in a tissue-specific manner during neonatal development and differentiation, therefore TH mRNA expression is a specific tumour marker for NB.