Systemic therapy and COVID19: Immunotherapy and chemotherapy

As the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 related pandemic - Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged, decision making in the context of cancer treatment has become more complex. The apprehension of using drugs that could adversely affect infected patients, the risk of not using life-saving treatments and the complexities related to the type of cancer itself, all must be taken into consideration before proceeding with treatment. Data from large registries such as COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium, Thoracic Cancers International COVID-19 Collaboration (TERAVOLT) and NCI COVID-19 in Cancer Patients Study will hopefully provide granularity on the outcomes of patients with cancer who are infected with COVID-19. As these efforts are underway, this review aims to shed light on the management of patients with genitourinary malignancies being treated with systemic therapies while infected with COVID-19

Trisomy 14 as a Sole Chromosome Abnormality Is Associated with Older Age, a Heterogenous Group of Myeloid Neoplasms with Dysplasia, and a Wide Spectrum of Disease Progression

Trisomy 14 is a rare recurrent cytogenetic abnormality in myeloid neoplasms; however, its clinicopathologic features have not been well described. We report the clinicopathologic, immunophenotypic, and molecular genetic features of 16 cases of myeloid neoplasms with isolated trisomy 14. Our results show that cases with isolated trisomy 14 encompass a heterogenous group of myeloid neoplasms including myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS, 44%), myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms (31%), and acute myeloid leukemia (25%). The patients are usually elder (median age 71 years), and there is a male predominance (82%). Multilineage dysplasia is noted in all cases. Oncogenic mutations of genes involved in cell proliferation and/or survival rarely occur. Compared with cases of MDS with diploid karyotype, patients of MDS with isolated trisomy 14 demonstrate a similar overall survival and rate of leukemia transformation

Trisomy 14 as a Sole Chromosome Abnormality Is Associated with Older Age, a Heterogenous Group of Myeloid Neoplasms with Dysplasia, and a Wide Spectrum of Disease Progression

Trisomy 14 is a rare recurrent cytogenetic abnormality in myeloid neoplasms; however, its clinicopathologic features have not been well described. We report the clinicopathologic, immunophenotypic, and molecular genetic features of 16 cases of myeloid neoplasms with isolated trisomy 14. Our results show that cases with isolated trisomy 14 encompass a heterogenous group of myeloid neoplasms including myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS, 44%), myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms (31%), and acute myeloid leukemia (25%). The patients are usually elder (median age 71 years), and there is a male predominance (82%). Multilineage dysplasia is noted in all cases. Oncogenic mutations of genes involved in cell proliferation and/or survival rarely occur. Compared with cases of MDS with diploid karyotype, patients of MDS with isolated trisomy 14 demonstrate a similar overall survival and rate of leukemia transformation

The miR-184 binding-site rs8126 T>C polymorphism in TNFAIP2 is associated with risk of gastric cancer.

TNFAIP2 is a crucial gene involved in apoptosis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in its miRNA binding sites could modulate functions of the miRNA-target genes and thus risk of cancers. In this study, we investigated associations between potentially functional SNPs in the miRNA binding sites of the 3'UTR of TNFAIP2 and gastric cancer risk in a US population.We conducted a case-control study of 301 gastric cancer patients and 313 cancer-free controls frequency-matched by age, sex and ethnicity. We genotyped four selected TNFAIP2 SNPs (rs8126 T>C, rs710100 G>A, rs1052912 G>A and rs1052823 G>T) and used the logistic regression analysis to assess associations of these SNPs with cancer risk.The rs8126 CC genotype was associated with a significantly elevated risk of gastric cancer (adjusted OR = 2.00, 95% CI = 1.09-3.64 and P = 0.024), compared with the combined rs8126 TT+TC genotypes, particularly in current drinkers. However, none of other TNFAIP2 SNPs was associated with risk of gastric cancer.Our data suggested that the TNFAIP2 miRNA binding site rs8126 T>C SNP may be a marker for susceptibility to gastric cancer, and this finding requires further validation by larger studies

Stratification analysis for associations between the <i>TNFAIP2</i> rs8126 SNP and gastric cancer risk.

a<p>Adjusted for age, sex, race, smoking status and drinking status.</p>b<p>Information of drinking status was unavailable for 3 cases.</p><p>(Statistically significant findings are in bold).</p

Distributions of selected variables in gastric cancer cases and cancer-free controls.

a<p>Two-sided χ² test.</p>b<p>Information of smoking and drinking status was unavailable for 3 cases.</p

The four selected SNPs of <i>TNFAIP2</i>.

<p>(A) The four validated SNPs and their exact locations within the <i>TNFAIP2</i> 3′-UTR. (B) Linkage disequilibrium (LD) map for selected SNPs of <i>TNFAIP2</i> gene. It showed that rs1052912 and rs1052823 are in LD with a D′ = 0.87.</p

Logistic regression analysis of associations between the genotypes of <i>TNFAIP2</i> and gastric cancer risk.

a<p>Adjusted for age, sex, race, smoking status and drinking status.</p><p>(Statistically significant findings are in bold).</p

Haplotype analysis for genotypes of <i>TNFAIP2</i> and Gastric Cancer risk.

a<p>The order of haplotype sequence is rs8126, rs1052823 and rs710100.</p><p>Adjusted for age, sex, race, smoking status and drinking status.</p><p>(Statistically significant findings are in bold).</p