Clinical relevance of soluble c-erbB-2 for patients with metastatic breast cancer predicting the response to second-line hormone or chemotherapy.

Concentrations of soluble c-erbB-2 were determined in the sera of 64 patients with distant metastasis from advanced breast cancer receiving second-line hormone or chemotherapy in comparison to 35 breast cancer patients without detectable recurrent disease and 17 healthy blood donors. The sera of non-metastatic breast cancer patients contained s-erbB-2 concentrations similar to those of healthy blood donors. Patients with distant metastasis from advanced breast cancer had significantly higher values of s-erbB-2 in comparison to patients with non-disseminated disease (mean: 59.

Predictive relevance of soluble CD44v6 serum levels for the responsiveness to second line hormone- or chemotherapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Concentrations of soluble CD44 standard (sCD44std) and CD44 variant 6 (sCD44v6) isoforms were determined in the sera of 59 patients with distant metastasis from breast cancer receiving second line hormone- or chemotherapy, in comparison to 46 breast cancer patients without detectable recurrent disease and 21 healthy blood donors. The sera of non-metastatic breast cancer, patients contained sCD44std and sCD44v6 concentrations similiar to those of healthy blood donors. In sera of patients with distant metastasis from recurrent breast cancer the median values of sCD44std and sCD44v6 were significantly higher (sCD44std: 502 ng/ml, p=0.

Local immunotherapy of glioma patients with a combination of 2 bispecific antibody fragments and resting autologous lymphocytes: evidence for in situ t-cell activation and therapeutic efficacy.

After adoptive transfer of pre-activated lymphocytes into the operation cavity of glioma patients, tumor regression and improved survival have been reported in some patients. Results were most impressive when bispecific antibodies with tumor x CD3 specificity were also applied. In this study, we attempted to avoid time-consuming pre-activation procedures for adoptively transferred cells by using a combination of bispecific antibodies directed to the EGF receptor (EGFR) on tumor cells and to CD3 and CD28 on T cells.

Modulation of CD95 in leukemia and lymphoma cells by retinoids.

Retinoids are highly active for the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia, but have effects on many different types of normal and transformed cells. CD95 is a member of the TNF-receptor superfamily and can mediate apoptosis. In this study, we screened a series of 7 myeloid and 12 lymphoid cell lines for the expression of CD95 and for the induction of CD95 by retinoids.

Prognostic significance of increased IL-10 production in patients prior to allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

IL-10 is a potent immunosuppressant which inhibits allo-antigen-specific T cell responses. In addition, IL-10 is a strong endogenous anti-inflammatory cytokine. To investigate the role of IL-10 in the induction of acute GVHD following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) we performed a prospective study on spontaneous IL-10 production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNC) in 84 patients admitted for allogeneic BMT.