Current take on systemic sclerosis patients’ vaccination recommendations

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic disease. The prevalence of SSc ranges from 7 to 700 cases per million worldwide. Due to multiple organ involvement and constant inflammatory state, this group of patients presents an increased risk of infectious diseases. This paper aimed to gather the up-to-date evidence on vaccination strategies for patients with SSc and to be a useful tool for the prevention and management of infectious diseases. The authors conducted a scoping review in which each paragraph presents data on a specific vaccine’s safety, immuno-genicity, and efficacy. The work deals with the following topics: SARS-CoV-2, seasonal influenza, S. pneumoniae, HAV, HBV, HZV, N. meningitidis, H. influenzae, HPV, and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis

Renal function during rofecoxib therapy in patients with metastatic cancer: retrospective analysis of a prospective phase II trial

German Clinical Trials Register DRKS: DRKS0000011

Modulation of epidermal growth factor receptor status by chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer is rare

PURPOSE: To determine whether epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression in non\u2013small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is modulated by chemotherapy and to assess the agreement of EGFR status between mediastinal nodes and the primary tumor after chemotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with NSCLC stage IIIa/b pN2/3 confirmed by mediastinoscopy or mediastinostomy were treated with at least three cycles of chemotherapy before undergoing surgery. EGFR expression was evaluated on mediastinal nodes at the time of initial diagnosis and on both the primary tumor and residual metastatic nodes after treatment. RESULTS: EGFR expression determined on 138 of 164 patients who underwent mediastinoscopy or mediastinostomy was 0 (22 patients), 1+ (27 patients), 2+ (28 patients), and 3+ (61 patients). Fifty-four patients of 164 received chemotherapy followed by surgery. Of the 89 of 138 patients with EGFR score of 2+/3+ at the time of diagnosis, 34 patients underwent surgery after induction chemotherapy. None changed to zero EGFR immunoreactivity, with 29 patients (88%) maintaining a score of 2+/3+. Of the 22 of 138 patients with no EGFR expression at the time of diagnosis, six underwent surgical resection after induction chemotherapy. Of these six patients, four changed their EGFR expression from an EGFR score of 0 to 2+/3+. After treatment, the agreement of EGFR status between tumor and nodes in the subgroup of patients with EGFR score 2+/3+ was 89% to 92%. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest a very good agreement of EGFR status before and after chemotherapy in EGFR-positive NSCLC. Induction chemotherapy can induce EGFR expression in occasional EGFR-negative tumors

Breast phyllodes tumor : A review of literature and a single center retrospective series analysis

PURPOSE: Complete surgical resection is the standard treatment for localized breast phyllodes tumors. Post-surgical treatments are still a matter of debate. We carried out an overview of the literature to investigate the clinical outcome of patients with phyllodes tumor. A retrospective analysis of mono-institutional series has been included as well. METHODS: We reviewed all the retrospective series reported from 1951 until April 2012. We analyzed cases treated at our institution from 1999 to 2010. RESULTS: Eighty-three articles (5530 patients; 1956 malignant tumors) were reviewed. Local recurrences were independent of histology. Distant recurrences were more frequent in the malignant tumors (22%). A total of 172 phyllodes tumors were included in the retrospective analysis. DISCUSSION: Prognosis of phyllodes tumors is excellent. There are no convincing data to recommend any adjuvant treatment after surgery. Molecular characterization may well provide new clues to permit identification of active treatments for the rare poor prognosis cases

HER2 expression as a potential marker for response to therapy targeted to the EGFR

Since human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is known to participate with the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in mitogenic signalling, we hypothesised that HER2 overexpression might indicate responsiveness to EGFR targeted therapies. MCF7 breast cancer cells transfected with the HER2 gene were subcloned to establish a set of genetically related cell lines expressing graded levels of HER2 by immunoblot analysis. The subcloned cell lines and parental MCF7 cells were characterised by their growth characteristics, and cell by cell patterns of EGFR, HER2 and HER3 expression as well as levels of phosphorylated mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and AKT by laser scanning cytometry (LSC). Growth inhibition assays were used to characterise response to EGFR targeted therapy, and to determine the relationship between therapeutic response and levels of tyrosine kinase expression. The levels of growth inhibition of AG1478 and of the AG1478-trastuzumab combinations were correlated with levels of HER2 expression among the different cell lines. Among EGFR, HER2 and HER3, HER2 overexpression was the best single predictive marker, but combinations of two markers provided additional predictive information