Systematic evaluation of immune regulation and modulation

Cancer immunotherapies are showing promising clinical results in a variety of malignancies. Monitoring the immune as well as the tumor response following these therapies has led to significant advancements in the field. Moreover, the identification and assessment of both predictive and prognostic biomarkers has become a key component to advancing these therapies. Thus, it is critical to develop systematic approaches to monitor the immune response and to interpret the data obtained from these assays. In order to address these issues and make recommendations to the field, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer reconvened the Immune Biomarkers Task Force. As a part of this Task Force, Working Group 3 (WG3) consisting of multidisciplinary experts from industry, academia, and government focused on the systematic assessment of immune regulation and modulation. In this review, the tumor microenvironment, microbiome, bone marrow, and adoptively transferred T cells will be used as examples to discuss the type and timing of sample collection. In addition, potential types of measurements, assays, and analyses will be discussed for each sample. Specifically, these recommendations will focus on the unique collection and assay requirements for the analysis of various samples as well as the high-throughput assays to evaluate potential biomarkers

Is there a difference in outcome of arthroscopic iliac crest autograft and allograft in recurrent anterior shoulder instability?

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare outcomes of arthroscopic tricortical iliac crest autograft and allograft bone blocks for recurrent traumatic anterior shoulder instability in terms of bone resorption, union and recurrent instability and assess which one is a better graft choice. PATIENTS AND METHODS Twenty-two consecutive patients treated for recurrent traumatic anterior shoulder instability that required reconstruction with bone block were included in the study. Surgical reconstruction was carried out arthroscopically with contoured tricortical iliac crest autograft or allograft. At follow-up, patients were assessed for Oxford Shoulder Instability Score (OSIS), recurrent dislocation, apprehension testing, complications, and 3-dimensional computed tomography (CT) for resorption and union rate at a mean of 10.89 months. RESULTS There were 10 patients in the allograft group with a median age of 27.7 years and a mean follow-up of 26.6 months. In the autograft group, there were 12 patients with a median age of 29 years and a mean follow-up of 28.7 months. The OSIS increased in both groups but was significantly higher in the autograft group (54.1 vs 48.2, p = 0.02). There were 2 failures in each group but no hardware complications. Allograft had higher resorption rate in comparison (75% in allograft vs 40% in autograft) and higher non-union rate (62.5% in allograft vs 16.5% in autograft). CONCLUSION This study demonstrated that both tricortical iliac crest autograft and allograft can improve shoulder instability symptoms. However, the results suggest that autograft may lead to significantly improved instability score, higher union rate and less bone resorption. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE IV, retrospective study