Cutaneous CD30-positive lymphoproliferations : clinical and molecular aspects and differential diagnosis

The studies presented in this thesis focused on cutaneous CD30-positive lymphoproliferations, particularly on primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma (C-ALCL), a distinct type of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). In the initial staging of patients with an anaplastic large cell lymphoma first presenting in the skin, bone marrow examination has limited value (chapter 4). C-ALCL patients usually have an excellent prognosis, although some patients follow an unfavorable course. These patients often have extensive disease with leg involvement (chapter 2). Several phenotypical markers have been reported to aid in the differentiation between different types of cutaneous CD30-positive lymphoproliferations, however, TRAF1, MUM1 and BCL2 are not useful for this purpose (chapter 3). The miRNA expression profile of C-ALCL does show differences with that of tumor stage mycosis fungoides (MF), another type of CTCL, suggesting a different contribution to the pathogenesis of these lymphomas (chapter 5). In patients with transformed MF, several parameters can be used as prognostic factors, including CD30 expression, folliculotropic MF, extent of skin lesions and extracutaneous transformations (chapter 6).UBL - phd migration 201

A methodology for determining amino-acid substitution matrices from set covers

We introduce a new methodology for the determination of amino-acid substitution matrices for use in the alignment of proteins. The new methodology is based on a pre-existing set cover on the set of residues and on the undirected graph that describes residue exchangeability given the set cover. For fixed functional forms indicating how to obtain edge weights from the set cover and, after that, substitution-matrix elements from weighted distances on the graph, the resulting substitution matrix can be checked for performance against some known set of reference alignments and for given gap costs. Finding the appropriate functional forms and gap costs can then be formulated as an optimization problem that seeks to maximize the performance of the substitution matrix on the reference alignment set. We give computational results on the BAliBASE suite using a genetic algorithm for optimization. Our results indicate that it is possible to obtain substitution matrices whose performance is either comparable to or surpasses that of several others, depending on the particular scenario under consideration

Cutaneous CD30-positive lymphoproliferations : clinical and molecular aspects and differential diagnosis

The studies presented in this thesis focused on cutaneous CD30-positive lymphoproliferations, particularly on primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma (C-ALCL), a distinct type of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). In the initial staging of patients with an anaplastic large cell lymphoma first presenting in the skin, bone marrow examination has limited value (chapter 4). C-ALCL patients usually have an excellent prognosis, although some patients follow an unfavorable course. These patients often have extensive disease with leg involvement (chapter 2). Several phenotypical markers have been reported to aid in the differentiation between different types of cutaneous CD30-positive lymphoproliferations, however, TRAF1, MUM1 and BCL2 are not useful for this purpose (chapter 3). The miRNA expression profile of C-ALCL does show differences with that of tumor stage mycosis fungoides (MF), another type of CTCL, suggesting a different contribution to the pathogenesis of these lymphomas (chapter 5). In patients with transformed MF, several parameters can be used as prognostic factors, including CD30 expression, folliculotropic MF, extent of skin lesions and extracutaneous transformations (chapter 6)

Prognostic factors in transformed mycosis fungoides: a retrospective analysis of 100 cases

Large cell transformation (LCT) in mycosis fungoides (MF) is generally associated with an aggressive clinical course and poor survival, requiring aggressive therapeutic approach. However, a proportion of cases may follow an indolent clinical course. To identify prognostic factors we analyzed the prognostic relevance of clinical, histological and immunophenotypical features in a large cohort of transformed MF patients, including 75 patients with only skin lesions, 19 patients with LCT in skin and lymph nodes and 6 patients with LCT in lymph nodes only. Multivariate analysis of the total group showed that CD30 negativity, folliculotropic MF, extent of skin lesions and extracutaneous transformation were associated with reduced DSS and, except for CD30 negativity and folliculotropic MF, also OS. In a multivariate analysis of 75 patients with only skin lesions at the time of LCT, CD30 negativity, folliculotropic MF and extent of skin lesions were independent parameters for both DSS and OS. Using the most discriminating parameters as a prognostic index, in both study groups differences in DSS between patients with 0-1 unfavorable prognostic factor(s) and ≥2 unfavorable prognostic factors were statistically significant (p<0.001). This prognostic index may be helpful in predicting prognosis and selecting the most appropriate treatment in patients with transformed MF.Molecular tumour pathology - and tumour genetic

Cutaneous adverse effects of immunotherapy

Dermatology-oncolog

Diagnostic and prognostic significance of CDKN2A/CDKN2B deletions in patients with transformed mycosis fungoides and primary cutaneous CD30-positive lymphoproliferative disease

Dermatology-oncolog

O-MOORE-NICE! : new methodologies and algorithms for design and simulation of analog integrated circuits

No abstract

miRNA expression profiling of mycosis fungoides

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA species that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally and are aberrantly expressed in many malignancies including lymphoma. However, the role of miRNAs in the pathogenesis of T-cell lymphoid malignancies is poorly understood. Previously we examined the miRNA profile of Sézary syndrome (Sz), a leukemia of skin-homing memory T cells. In this study we determined the complete miRNome of mycosis fungoides (MF), the most common type of cutaneous T cell lymphoma. The miRNA profile of skin biopsies from 19 patients with tumor stage MF and 12 patients with benign inflammatory dermatoses (eczema and lichen planus) were compared by microarray analysis. We identified 49 miRNAs that are differentially expressed in tumor stage MF compared to benign inflammatory dermatoses using ANOVA analysis (P < 0.05, Benjamini-Hochberg corrected). The majority of the differentially expressed miRNAs (30/49) were up-regulated in tumor stage MF. The most significant differentially expressed were miR-155 and miR-92a (both up-regulated in tumor stage MF), while miR-93 showed the highest up-regulation in tumor stage MF with a fold difference of 5.8. Differential expression of a selection of these miRNAs was validated by miRNA-Q-PCR on additional test groups (tumors and controls). None of the miRNAs up-regulated in tumor stage MF was previously shown to be up-regulated in Sz, and only 2 of the 19 miRNAs down-regulated in tumor stage MF were also down-regulated in Sz. Taken together this report is the first describing the miRNA signature of tumor stage MF.Dermatology-oncolog