How to assess and manage cognitive impairment induced by treatments of non-central nervous system cancer.

A number of neurotoxicity associated with oncological treatments has been reported in non-central nervous system cancers. An expert group presents the state of the art and a guide to help the choice of appropriated tools to assess patient cognition in studies on oncology and neurobehavior in animal models. In addition, current cognitive rehabilitation programs currently under evaluation are also discussed.

Impact of Cancer and Its Treatments on Cognitive Function: Advances in Research From the Paris International Cognition and Cancer Task Force Symposium and Update Since 2012.

Context: Although cognitive impairments have been identified in patients with non-central nervous system cancer, especially breast cancer, the respective roles of cancer and therapies, and the mechanisms involved in cognitive dysfunction remain unclear.

Objectives: To report a state-of-the-art update from the International Cognitive and Cancer Task Force conference held in 2012.

Methods: A report of the meeting and recent new perspectives are presented.

Effect of nasopharyngeal carcinoma-derived exosomes on human regulatory T cells.

Background: Regulatory T cells (Treg) and tumor-exosomes are thought to play a role in preventing the rejection of malignant cells in patients bearing nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Methods: Treg recruitment by exosomes derived from NPC cell lines (C15/C17-Exo), exosomes isolated from NPC patients' plasma (Patient-Exo), and CCL20 were tested in vitro using Boyden chamber assays and in vivo using a xenograft SCID mouse model (n = 5), both in the presence and absence of anti-CCL20 monoclonal antibodies (mAb). Impact of these NPC exosomes (NPC-Exo) on Treg phenotype and function was determined using adapted assays (FACS, Q-PCR, ELISA, and MLR).

Epstein-Barr virus infection induces an increase of T regulatory type 1 cells in Hodgkin lymphoma patients.

Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is present in the neoplastic cells of around 20-30% of patients with Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL). Although, an immunosuppressive environment is currently described in HL patients, little is known concerning the regulatory mechanism induced by EBV proteins expression in tumour cells. This study aimed to investigate an association between regulatory Type 1 cells (Tr1) and EBV tissue positivity in HL patients.

Overexpression of Regulatory T Cells Type 1 (Tr1) Specific Markers in a Patient with HCV-Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an important causative agent of liver disease, but factors that determine the resolution or progression of infection are poorly understood. In this study, we suggested that existence of immunosuppressive mechanisms, supported by regulatory T cells and especially the regulatory T cell 1 subset (Tr1), may explain the impaired immune response during infection and thus the fibrosis aggravation to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Using quantitative real-time PCR, we investigated the intra-hepatic presence of Tr1 cells in biopsies from a genotype 1b infected patient followed for an 18-year period from cirrhosis to HCC.