5 research outputs found
Interleukin 7 and Patient Selection in Immunotherapy for Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is a disease of elderly males. An increase in prostate
cancer is expected in the coming years due to a growing population of
men aged over 60 years of age from 475 million in 2009 to 1.6 billion in the
year 2050 worldwide. Moreover, if screening for prostate cancer is taken
into account, even more men will be diagnosed with this disease.[1-3]
In the early disease stages, prostate cancer is a slow-growing and
symptom-free malignancy. Men suffering from prostate cancer are
more likely to die of causes unrelated to the condition, such as heart/
circulatory disease, pneumonia, or old age. PIN, prostatic intraepithelial
neoplasia, lesions are considered to be a pre-cancereous condition.[4]
Once prostate cancer has developed, mostly adenocarcinomas in the
peripheral zone of the prostate are observed and different disease
stages can be identified. The TNM classification is used to describe
the stages of the primary tumor (T), the regional lymph nodes (N), and
distant metastases (M). Combining the T, N and M stages for a prostate
tumor gives an indication of the extent of the disease (Table 1). At
T-stage 1 and 2, the cancer is confined to the prostate. Once the cancer
has spread outside the outer layer of the prostate and invades nearby
tissues such as bladder and rectum, the cancer is staged at T3 or T4.
Metastatic prostate cancer has spread throughout the patientâs body
most often to regional or distant lymph nodes (N+) and the bone (M+).
At this stage patients often present themselves with the first clinical
symptoms which is usually bone pain due to skeletal metastases.
As a result of prostate cancer screening, patients are nearly always
diagnosed with asymptomatic localized prostate cancer
The additional value of TGFβ1 and IL-7 to predict the course of prostate cancer progression
Background: Given the fact that prostate cancer incidence will increase in the coming years, new prognostic biomarkers are needed with regard to the biological aggressiveness of the prostate cancer diagnosed. Since cytokines have been associated with the biology of cancer and its prognosis, we determined whether transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFβ1), interleukin-7 (IL-7) receptor and IL-7 levels add additional prognostic information with regard to prostate cancer
853 Prolonged survival after allogeneic whole cell vaccination in an immune-competent mouse prostate cancer model
Unknown primary carcinoma in the Netherlands: decrease in incidence and survival times remain poor between 2000 and 2012
Background/aim: Unknown primary tumour (UPT) is the term applied to metastatic cancer, the origin of which remains unidentified. Since cancer treatment is primarily based on the tumour site of origin, treatment of UPT patients is challenging. The number of reports on incidence, treatment and survival of UPT is limited. We hereby report data on patients (2000â2012) with UPT in the Netherlands. Methods: The age-standardised rate (ASR) of âother and unspecifiedâ malignancies in the Netherlands was compared with other European countries. Patients diagnosed with UPT between 2000 and 2012 were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR) to calculate incidence rates. Patient characteristics, treatment and survival rates were assessed. Results: The ASR of âother and unspecifiedâ malignancies in the Netherlands did not differ from the European average ASRs (2008â2012). A total of 29,784 patients with an unknown primary tumour were selected from the NCR (2000â2012). The incidence decreased from 14 per 100,000 person years (European standardised rate) in 2000 to 7.0 in 2012. The most common metastatic sites were liver, lymph nodes, bone and lung (42%, 22%, 16% and 14%, respectively), and approximately two-thirds of patients were diagnosed with metastases at a single site. One-third of the patients were treated; these were mainly younger patients. The overall median survival for all patients was 1.7 months. The median survival of untreated patients was 1.0 month and of treated patients 6.3 months. Conclusion: The incidence of UPT between 2000 and 2012 is decreasing in the Netherlands, and one-third of these patients received treatment. Survival after diagnosis is limited to months rather than years