Second-line therapies for steroid-refractory immune-related adverse events in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) induce adverse events (irAEs) that do not respond to steroids, i.e. steroid-refractory (sr) irAEs, and irAEs in which steroids cannot be tapered, i.

Clinical Decision Support for Axillary Lymph Node Staging in Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer Patients Based on F-FDG PET/MRI and Machine Learning.

In addition to its high prognostic value, the involvement of axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer patients also plays an important role in therapy planning. Therefore, an imaging modality that can determine nodal status with high accuracy in patients with primary breast cancer is desirable. Our purpose was to investigate whether, in newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, machine-learning prediction models based on simple assessable imaging features on MRI or PET/MRI are able to determine nodal status with performance comparable to that of experienced radiologists; whether such models can be adjusted to achieve low rates of false-negatives such that invasive procedures might potentially be omitted; and whether a clinical framework for decision support based on simple imaging features can be derived from these models.

BAFF Attenuates Immunosuppressive Monocytes in the Melanoma Tumor Microenvironment.

Emerging evidence indicates B-cell activating factor (BAFF, ) to be an important cytokine for antitumor immunity. In this study, we generated a BAFF-overexpressing B16.F10 melanoma cell model and found that BAFF-expressing tumors grow more slowly than control tumors.

Leptomeningeal disease from melanoma-Poor prognosis despite new therapeutic modalities.

Objective: The development of leptomeningeal disease (LMD) among melanoma patients is associated with short survival. Unspecific clinical symptoms and imprecise diagnostic criteria often delay diagnosis. Because melanoma patients with LMD have been excluded from most clinical trials, the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) and targeted therapies (TTs) has not been adequately investigated among these patients.

Sequence-dependent cross-resistance of combined radiotherapy plus BRAF inhibition in melanoma.

Introduction: Treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma is hampered by drug-resistance and often requires combination with radiotherapy as last-resort option. However, also after radiotherapy, clinical relapses are common.

Methods & Results: Our preclinical models indicated a higher rate of tumour relapse when melanoma cells were first treated with BRAF inhibition (BRAFi) followed by radiotherapy as compared to the reverse sequence.