Monitoring Circulating γδ T Cells in Cancer Patients to Optimize γδ T Cell-Based Immunotherapy

The success of γδ T cell-based immunotherapy, where the cytotoxic activity of circulating γδ T lymphocytes is activated by nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates (n-BP), or possibly by bispecific antibodies or the combination of both, requires a profound knowledge of patients' γδ T cells. A possible influence of radio- or chemotherapy on γδ T cells as well as their reported exhaustion after repetitive treatment with n-BP or their lack of response to various cancers can be easily determined by the monitoring assays described in this perspective article. Monitoring the absolute cell numbers of circulating γδ T cell subpopulations in small volumes of whole blood from cancer patients and determining γδ T cell cytotoxicity using the Real-Time Cell Analyzer can give a more comprehensive assessment of a personalized tumor treatment. Possible future directions such as the combined usage of n-BP or phosphorylated antigens together with bispecific antibodies that selectively target γδ T cells to tumor-associated antigens, will be discussed. Such strategies induce expansion and enhance γδ T cell cytotoxicity and might possibly avoid their exhaustion and overcome the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment

A risk model for prediction of diagnosis of cancer after ischemic stroke

It remains controversial which characteristics may predict occult cancer in stroke patients. Characteristics of patients with ischemic stroke registered in the Zurich Swiss Stroke Registry (2014 to 2016) were tested for associations with cancer diagnosis after stroke with consideration of death as competing risk for cancer diagnosis. Among 1157 patients, 34 (3%) and 55 patients (5%) were diagnosed with cancer within 1 and 3 years after stroke. Levels of white blood cells (WBC) > 9,600/µl (subdistribution hazard ratio (SHR) 3.68, p = 0.014), platelets > 400,000/µl (SHR 7.71, p = 0.001), and d-dimers ≥ 3 mg/l (SHR 3.67, p = 0.007) were independently associated with cancer diagnosis within 1 year after stroke. Occurrence of ischemic lesions in ≥ 2 vascular territories not attributed to cardioembolic etiology was associated with cancer diagnosed within 1 year after stroke in univariable analysis (SHR 3.69, p = 0.001). The area under the curve of a score from these parameters (score sum 0-4) was 0.73. A score of ≥ 2 had a sensitivity of 43% and specificity of 92% for prediction of cancer diagnosis within 1 year after stroke. We suggest further validation of a score of WBC, platelets, d-dimers and multiple ischemic lesions without cardioembolic stroke etiology for prediction of cancer diagnosis after stroke

Editorial

Editoria

Image Worlds of the Occident

Die wichtigsten Bildthemen der abendländischen Kunstgeschichte zu präsentieren und zu erläutern, ist ein Unterfangen, das sich eigentlich nur im Plural vorstellen lässt – als mehrbändiges Gemeinschaftswerk verschiedener Kunsthistoriker/-innen. Sabine Poeschel hat nun im Alleingang ein Handbuch zur Ikonographie vorgelegt, das seinem Titel alle Ehre macht: In kurzen, gut lesbaren Artikeln, die mit zahlreichen Abbildungen versehen sind, werden die Leser/-innen schnell und kompetent über die bedeutendsten Motive der abendländischen Malerei vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart informiert.The task of presenting and commenting on the most important themes in the images of the occidental history of art is one that is only imaginable in the plural-as a multivolume collaboration of many art historians. Sabine Poeschel has single-handedly presented a handbook for iconography that does its title credit: The book quickly and competently informs readers of the most important motifs of occidental painting from the Middle Ages to the present in short, readable articles furnished with numerous images

Fiction as Blossom of Truth

Kaum eine andere Schriftstellerin hat so konsequent – man ist versucht, zu sagen: so ernsthaft – mit fremden Identitäten gespielt wie Else Lasker-Schüler, die sich selbst als Tino von Bagdad oder Prinz Jussuf von Theben imaginierte und ihren Freunden erfindungsreiche Namen beilegte. Realität und Phantasie flossen in ihrem Leben und Werk stets zusammen. Sigrid Bauschinger, ehemalige Professorin an der University of Massachusetts und bereits 1980 mit einer umfangreichen Studie über Else Lasker-Schüler hervorgetreten (Else Lasker-Schüler. Ihr Werk und ihre Zeit), hat es nun unternommen, auf Grundlage bisher unveröffentlicher Dokumente eine neue Biographie der bedeutenden Wuppertaler Autorin zu verfassen.Almost no other female author has played with foreign identities as consistently—one could almost say as seriously—as Else Lasker-Schüler, who fashioned herself as Tino von Baghdad or Prince Jussuf von Theben and affixed her friends with imaginative names. Reality and fantasy were intertwined in her life and work. Sigrid Bauschinger, formerly professor at the University of Massachusetts, already presented a comprehensive study of Else Lasker-Schüler in 1980 (Else Lasker-Schüler. Ihr Werk und ihre Zeit/Else Lasker-Schüler. Her Work and Her Time). She has now written a new biography of the Wuppertal author based on previously unpublished documents