Pulsed electric field induces exocytosis and overexpression of MAGE antigens in melanoma.

Nanosecond pulsed electric field (nsPEF) has emerged as a promising approach for inducing cell death in melanoma, either as a standalone treatment or in combination with chemotherapeutics. However, to date, there has been a shortage of studies exploring the impact of nsPEF on the expression of cancer-specific molecules. In this investigation, we sought to assess the effects of nsPEF on melanoma-specific MAGE (Melanoma Antigen Gene Protein Family) expression.

An unusual coincidence of giant cervical leiomyoma and incidental ovarian granulosa cell tumor: A case report.

Rationale: Leiomyomas are the most common benign tumors of smooth muscle origin in women. They are most frequently found in the submucosal tissue of the uterine corpus; however, they also occur in other areas of the uterus, including the cervix. Their size usually varies between 0.

GC-MS analysis of the composition of serum IgG glycans as a potential diagnostic marker of advanced endometriosis - Preliminary report.

Background: Endometriosis is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease that causes the growth of endometrial-like tissue outside the uterus. Diagnostics of this disease are difficult, often invasive, and time-consuming, therefore non-invasive diagnostic methods and parameters are very desirable in endometriosis detection.

Objectives: The study aimed to check whether there are any differences in the monosaccharide composition of N-glycans in serum IgG of women with advanced endometriosis and women with mild gynecological diseases.

Long-Term Real-World Outcomes and Safety of Vemurafenib and Vemurafenib + Cobimetinib Therapy in Patients with BRAF-Mutated Melanoma.

Background: Combined treatment with BRAFi and/or MEK inhibitors (MEKi) improves outcomes in advanced melanoma patients in comparison with monotherapy.

Objective: We aim to report real-world treatment efficacy and safety of vemurafenib (V) and vemurafenib + cobimetinib (V + C) from 10 years of practice.

Patients And Methods: A total of 275 consecutive patients with unresectable or metastatic BRAF mutated melanoma started first-line V or V + C treatment between 1 October 2013 and 31 December 2020.

Brachytherapy training survey among radiation oncology residents in Europe.

Unlabelled: We aim to investigate the current state of brachytherapy (BT) training among the radiation oncology trainees in Europe.

Material And Methods: A 22-question online survey based on the one by the American Association of Radiation Oncology Residents (2017) with added queries pertinent to training in Europe was sent to 1450 residents in two iterations. These included site-specific training, volume of experience, barriers to training, institutional support, and preferences for further education.

Melanoma stimulates the proteolytic activity of HaCaT keratinocytes.

Background: Keratinocytes constitute a major part of the melanoma microenvironment, considering their protective role towards melanocytes in physiological conditions. However, their interactions with tumor cells following melanomagenesis are still unclear.

Methods: We used two in vitro models (melanoma-conditioned media and indirect co-culture of keratinocytes with melanoma cells on Transwell inserts) to activate immortalized keratinocytes towards cancer-associated ones.

O-Glycosylation Changes in Serum Immunoglobulin G Are Associated with Inflammation Development in Advanced Endometriosis.

Endometriosis is a gynecological disease, the pathogenesis of which seems to be directly related to inflammatory processes with an immune basis. Our study aimed to analyze the O-glycosylation of native serum IgG and IgG isolated from sera of women with advanced endometriosis, without endometriosis but with benign gynecological diseases, and from a control group of healthy women, in the context of its utility for differentiation of advanced endometriosis from the other two groups of women studied. For the analysis of serum IgG O-glycosylation and the expression of multi-antennary N-glycans, lectin-ELISA with lectins specific to O-glycans (MPL, VVL, and Jacalin) and highly branched N-glycans (PHA-L) was used.

Fractal Dimension Analysis of Melanocytic Nevi and Melanomas in Normal and Polarized Light-A Preliminary Report.

Clinical diagnosis of pigmented lesions can be a challenge in everyday practice. Benign and dysplastic nevi and melanomas may have similar clinical presentations, but completely different prognoses. Fractal dimensions of shape and texture can describe the complexity of the pigmented lesion structure.

ATR-IR Spectroscopy Application to Diagnostic Screening of Advanced Endometriosis.

Endometriosis is one of the most common gynecological diseases among young women of reproductive age. Thus far, it has not been possible to define a parameter that is sensitive and specific enough to be a recognized biomarker for diagnosing this disease. Nonspecific symptoms of endometriosis and delayed diagnosis are impulses for researching noninvasive methods of differentiating endometriosis from other gynecological disorders.

Texture Analysis in Diagnosing Skin Pigmented Lesions in Normal and Polarized Light-A Preliminary Report.

The differential diagnosis of benign nevi (BN), dysplastic nevi (DN), and melanomas (MM) represents a considerable clinical problem. These lesions are similar in clinical examination but have different prognoses and therapeutic management techniques. A texture analysis (TA) is a mathematical and statistical analysis of pixel patterns of a digital image.

Long Term Results and Prognostic Biomarkers for Anti-PD1 Immunotherapy Used after BRAFi/MEKi Combination in Advanced Cutaneous Melanoma Patients.

(1) Background: BRAFi/MEKi are usually offered as a first line treatment for patients requiring rapid response; with elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, large tumor burden, and with brain metastases. The efficacy of second line therapies after BRAFi/MEKI failure is now well defined. (2) Methods: Patients treated with first line target BRAFi/MEKi therapy (vemurafenib plus cobimetinib, dabrafenib plus trametinib or encorafenib plus binimetinib); and for the second line treatment immunotherapy with programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) checkpoint inhibitors (nivolumab or pembrolizumab) with at least one cycle of second line were analyzed for survival and prognostic biomarkers.

Melanoma cells with diverse invasive potential differentially induce the activation of normal human fibroblasts.

Background: The tumor microenvironment consists of stromal cells, extracellular matrix, and physicochemical properties (e.g., oxygenation, acidification).

Long-Term Outcomes of Targeted Therapy after First-Line Immunotherapy in BRAF-Mutated Advanced Cutaneous Melanoma Patients-Real-World Evidence.

Background: Currently, limited data on targeted therapy and immunotherapy sequencing in patients with -mutant melanoma is available. Targeted therapy and immunotherapy are expected to be comparable in terms of overall survival (OS) when used as second-line therapies; therefore, understanding the characteristics of patients who completed sequential treatment is needed.

Methods: The primary objective of this study was to analyze the efficacy of BRAFi/MEKi activity as second-line therapy in patients with advanced melanoma.

The report and analysis concerning the usefulness of basic telemedicine tools in the skin cancer diagnostic screening process during COVID-19 pandemics.

Introduction: A rapid spread of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic limited the availability of professional medical advice. As a result, a significant increase in the number of undiagnosed and chronically ill patients without medical care was noticed. In reaction to the urgent need, the telemedical consultation, instead of the classical form, may be introduced as a vulnerable tool in preclinical evaluation of patients with potentially malignant skin lesions.

Type D Personality and Big Five Personality Traits and the Risk of Breast Cancer: A Case-Control Study.

Objective: The goal of this study is to establish the differences in Type D personality and Big five personality traits between a group of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients and a group of controls.

Methods: A comparative study of breast cancer patients and women without previous history of cancer was carried out. We used Type D Scale-14 as an instrument for the assessment of the type-D personality pattern and NEO-FFI for the assessment of the Big Five personality traits.

The Alterations of Serum IgG Fucosylation as a Potential Additional New Diagnostic Marker in Advanced Endometriosis.

Background: Endometriosis is an inflammatory disease leading to the growth of endometrial-like tissue outside of the uterus, which affects approximately 10% of young women of reproductive potential. The diagnosis of this disease is difficult, often invasive and time-consuming, therefore non-invasive diagnostic methods are strongly desirable in endometriosis detection. The aim of our project was to investigate whether any associations exist between the expression of serum IgG fucosylation and advanced stages of endometriosis.

Treatment of Locally Advanced Merkel Cell Carcinoma-A Multi-Center Study.

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare, aggressive skin cancer with a high risk of recurrence and poor prognosis. The treatment of locally advanced disease involves surgery and radiotherapy. To analyze real-life treatment patterns and clinical outcomes, we conducted a retrospective analysis of data from 161 MCC patients treated with curative intent in four oncological centers in Poland.

Polish Multi-Institutional Study of Children with Ependymoma-Clinical Practice Outcomes in the Light of Prospective Trials.

We performed a multi-institutional analysis of 74 children with ependymoma to evaluate to what extent the clinical outcome of prospective trials could be reproduced in routine practice. The evaluation of factors that correlated with outcome was performed with a log rank test and a Cox proportional-hazard model. Survival was estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method.

Validation of HER2 Status in Whole Genome Sequencing Data of Breast Cancers with the Ploidy-Corrected Copy Number Approach.

Background And Objective: Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) protein overexpression is one of the most significant biomarkers for breast cancer diagnostics, treatment prediction, and prognostics. The high accessibility of HER2 inhibitors in routine clinical practice directly translates into the diagnostic need for precise and robust marker identification. Even though multigene next-generation sequencing methodologies have slowly taken over the field of single-biomarker molecular tests, the copy number alterations such as amplification of the HER2-coding ERBB2 gene are hard to validate on next-generation sequencing platforms as they are characterized by chromosomal structural heterogeneity, polysomy, and genomic context of ploidy.

Analysis of lung cancer measures of the National Cancer Network pilot study in Poland for potential improvement in the quality of advanced-stage lung cancer therapy.

Background: This study aimed to present the performance of the National Cancer Network's (NCN) pilot program in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (southwestern province of Poland with a population of 2,9 million in 2019), to analyse measures describing lung cancer patients and to determine whether those measures can be used to improve the treatment outcomes of stage III and IV patients with lung cancer in Poland.

Methods: Three measures of the NCN pilot programme were analysed: "Percentage of patients with genetic and molecular testing for predictive factors", "Assessment of the completeness of a pathological examination", and "Percentage of stage III and IV cancer patients". As many as 2,218 patients with ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Code C34 were included in the NCN pilot program from 1 to 2019 to 31 December 2020, in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship.

Variation in the gene encoding the co-inhibitory molecule BTLA is associated with survival in patients treated for clear cell renal carcinoma - results of a prospective cohort study.

Introduction: The successful introduction of immune checkpoint blockade approaches to renal-cell carcinoma (RCC) treatment indicates the importance of molecules regulating the T cell response to RCC risk and progression.

Material And Methods: In this study, we evaluate the association of variations in the , and genes with overall survival (OS) of RCC patients and specifically clear cell RCC (ccRCC) patients. The following single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously genotyped using the RFLP method or TaqMan SNP Genotyping Assays were analyzed: gene: c.

Is There a Balance in Oxidative-Antioxidant Status in Blood Serum of Patients with Advanced Endometriosis?

Can redox homeostasis indicators be potential non-invasive markers, crucial in the diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis? We checked if the differences in levels of serum oxidative-antioxidant balance parameters (TAS, FRAP, albumin, total bilirubin, uric acid, iron, SIRT3, SIRT5, SIRT6, telomerase, AOPP) are significant between patients with advanced endometriosis (E), healthy women (control group, C) and non-endometriosis women, but with other gynecological disorders (NE). The FRAP concentrations were significantly higher in E and NE group than in the control group ( = 0.015 and = 0.

Adjuvant Nivolumab versus Placebo in Muscle-Invasive Urothelial Carcinoma.

Background: The role of adjuvant treatment in high-risk muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma after radical surgery is not clear.

Methods: In a phase 3, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial, we assigned patients with muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma who had undergone radical surgery to receive, in a 1:1 ratio, either nivolumab (240 mg intravenously) or placebo every 2 weeks for up to 1 year. Neoadjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy before trial entry was allowed.