Exploring the relation between TGF-β pathway activity and response to checkpoint inhibition in patients with metastatic melanoma.

Introduction: Immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) is highly effective for the treatment of melanoma, but intrinsic resistance is present in a subgroup of patients. TGF-β pathway activity may play a role in this resistance by preventing T-cells from entering the tumor microenvironment, causing immune escape. We investigated the association of TGF-β signal transduction pathway activity with resistance to ICI treatment in advanced melanoma.

The Prognostic Relevance of MRI Characteristics in Myxofibrosarcoma Patients Treated with Neoadjuvant Radiotherapy.

To improve local control, neoadjuvant radiotherapy (nRT) followed by surgery is the standard of care in myxofibrosarcoma (MFS) because of its infiltrative growth pattern. Nevertheless, local recurrence rates are high. Data on prognostic factors for poor clinical outcomes are lacking.

The safety risk of information overload and bureaucracy in oncology clinical trial conduct.

Performance of clinical trials has led to major therapeutic developments and substantial improvements in the field of medical oncology. To ensure patient's safety, regulatory aspects for proper clinical trial conduct have been increased over the past two decades but seem to cause information overload and ineffective bureaucracy, possibly even impacting patient safety. To put this in perspective, after the implementation of Directive 2001/20/EC in the European Union, a 90 per cent increase in trial launching time, a 25 per cent decrease in patient participation and a 98 per cent rise in administrative trial costs were reported.

Immunological and Genomic Analysis Reveals Clinically Relevant Distinctions between Angiosarcoma Subgroups.

Angiosarcomas (AS) are extremely rare and aggressive vascular malignancies subdivided in de novo primary AS (pAS) and secondary AS (sAS). We hypothesize that the combination of immunological and genomic profiles significantly differs between primary and secondary AS, with potential impact on treatment strategies and a role for immunotherapy. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes were analyzed using multiplex immunohistochemistry from 79 pAS and 178 sAS.

Oxaliplatin infusion-related venous pain: prevention by simultaneous intravenous fluids.

Objective: Oxaliplatin is a cytotoxic agent frequently used in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer patients. A known side effect of oxaliplatin administration via a peripheral vein is infusion-related pain. In this retrospective cohort study we compared the incidence of infusion-related pain in patients treated with oxaliplatin with or without simultaneous fluid infusion (FI) (800 mL glucose 5% in 2 hours).