Association of Patient and Tumor Characteristics With Outcomes in Young Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients.

Introduction: We retrospectively studied young patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) to identify factors associated with disease-specific survival (DSS).

Methods: Patient and tumor characteristics of patients aged ≤45 who received treatments for non-metastatic HNSCC were collected to identify factors associated with DSS. Proportional hazards regression was applied separately for surgical and non-surgical patients.

Preoperative stereotactic radiosurgery for cerebral metastases: safe, effective, and decreases steroid dependency.

Objective: Preoperative stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is emerging as a viable alternative to standard postoperative SRS. Studies have suggested that preoperative SRS provides comparable tumor control and overall survival (OS) and may reduce the incidence of leptomeningeal disease (LMD) and adverse radiation effects (AREs). It is unknown, however, if preoperative SRS remains effective in cohorts including large brain metastases (> 14 cm3) or if preoperative SRS affects steroid taper/immunotherapy.

Promoting Women and Historically Excluded Minorities in Medicine as Essential Leaders of Research.

Women and historically excluded minorities are underrepresented in clinical research. At the ASTRO 2021 annual meeting, the authors reviewed several strategies to improve on this issue. Implementation of such strategies should not only improve their visibility but also provide increased opportunities for their advancement and work in clinical research.

Radiation dose, schedule, and novel systemic targets for radio-immunotherapy combinations.

Immunotherapy combinations are being investigated to expand the benefit of immune checkpoint blockade across many cancer types. Radiation combinations, in particular using stereotactic body radiotherapy, are of keen interest because of underlying mechanistic rationale, safety, and availability as a standard of care in certain cancers. In addition to direct tumor cytotoxicity, radiation therapy has immunomodulatory effects such as induction of immunogenic cell death, enhancement of antigen presentation, and expansion of the T-cell receptor repertoire as well as recruitment and increased activity of tumor-specific effector CD8+ cells.

A phase Ⅱ prospective trial of photobiomodulation therapy in limiting oral mucositis in the treatment of locally advanced head and neck cancer patients.

Objective: This study aimed to compare the historical incidence rate of severe oral mucositis (OM) in head and neck cancer patients undergoing definitive concurrent chemoradiation therapy (CRT) versus a prospective cohort of patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) treated with prophylactic photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT).

Methods: This US-based, institutional, single-arm, phase Ⅱ prospective clinical trial was initiated in 50 patients (age ≥ 18 years, Karnofsky Performance Scale Index > 60, with locally advanced HNSCC (excluding oral cavity) receiving definitive or adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) with concurrent platinum-based chemotherapy (CT). PBMT was delivered three times per week throughout RT utilizing both an intraoral as well extraoral delivery system.

Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation Therapy Followed by Extrafascial Hysterectomy in Locally Advanced Type II Endometrial Cancer Clinically Extending to Cervix.

Purpose: The role of neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy in locally advanced type II endometrial cancer is controversial. We thus aimed to present our experience with the hypothesis that neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy is associated with similarly high rates of downstaging and locoregional control for type II endometrial cancer and type I endometrial cancer.

Methods And Materials: Thirty-four patients with type II endometrial cancer with clinical evidence of cervical ± parametrium involvement treated with neoadjuvant external beam radiation therapy (45-50.

Influenza virus infection elicits protective antibodies and T cells specific for host cell antigens also expressed as tumor-associated antigens: a new view of cancer immunosurveillance.

Most tumor-associated antigens (TAA) are self-molecules that are abnormally expressed in cancer cells and become targets of antitumor immune responses. Antibodies and T cells specific for some TAAs have been found in healthy individuals and are associated with lowered lifetime risk for developing cancer. Lower risk for cancer has also been associated with a history of febrile viral diseases.

Radiographical resolution of renal lymphangiomatosis following cardiac transplantation.

Renal lymphangiomatosis is a disease characterized by abnormal formation of perirenal lymphatic vessels that fail to communicate with other retroperitoneal lymphatics; as a result, perirenal lymphatics dilate and form cysts. While typically an asymptomatic incidental finding, renal lymphangiomatosis rarely presents as flank or abdominal pain, ascites, impaired renal function, hypertension, hematuria, or proteinuria. Here we present the first known case of renal lymphangiomatosis found to spontaneously resolve following cardiac transplantation.

Uveal melanoma cell-based vaccines express MHC II molecules that traffic via the endocytic and secretory pathways and activate CD8+ cytotoxic, tumor-specific T cells.

We are exploring cell-based vaccines as a treatment for the 50% of patients with large primary uveal melanomas who develop lethal metastatic disease. MHC II uveal melanoma vaccines are MHC class I(+) uveal melanoma cells transduced with CD80 genes and MHC II genes syngeneic to the recipient. Previous studies demonstrated that the vaccines activate tumor-specific CD4(+) T cells from patients with metastatic uveal melanoma.

Regulation of podosome formation in macrophages by a splice variant of the sodium channel SCN8A.

Voltage-gated sodium channels initiate electrical signaling in excitable cells such as muscle and neurons. They also are expressed in non-excitable cells such as macrophages and neoplastic cells. Previously, in macrophages, we demonstrated expression of SCN8A, the gene that encodes the channel NaV1.

MHC class II-transduced tumor cells originating in the immune-privileged eye prime and boost CD4(+) T lymphocytes that cross-react with primary and metastatic uveal melanoma cells.

Uveal melanoma, the most common malignancy of the eye, has a 50% rate of liver metastases among patients with large primary tumors. Several therapies prolong survival of metastatic patients; however, none are curative and no patients survive. Therefore, we are exploring immunotherapy as an alternative or adjunctive treatment.