Perihilar or (Hilar) Cholangiocarcinoma: Interventional to Surgical Management

Peri-hilar cholangiocarcinoma (PHC) or hilar cholangiocarcinoma (HCCA) characterizes a critical effort to assess significantly sick patients. The existing scenery and proof to the diagnosis and treatments for hilar cholangiocarcinoma are improving day by day. Patients with HCCA encounter numerous obstacles in acquiring efficient therapies. The condition is uncommon, and the majority patients don’t have any distinct risk factors, doing selection process inadequate. The initial signs and symptoms in many cases are non-specific, and in many patients the tumors are not resectable because of involvement of the perihilar structures. MRI with MRCP offers further information about the extent of biliary involvement. Furthermore, endoscopic stenting and percutaneous drain could be useful for intricate hilar strictures. Surgical resections with negative margins are related to good likelihood of survival for patients representing with HCCA. Regardless of the accessibility of curative treatment strategies such as operative resection and liver transplantation, most sufferers with HCCA shows with repeated, metastases or locally advanced disease with a poor prognosis. Within this chapter, we have tried to elaborate the modalities of treatment from intervention to surgical approach for HCCA

Rationale and Design of a Prospective, Multicentre, Stop Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Trial of Paediatric Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia with Sustained Complete Molecular Response (STKI-14)

Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is a relatively rare disease in children, accounting for 2–3% of all paediatric leukaemia cases. Generally, children with CML can avoid hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and achieve molecular responses with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). However, CML stem cells are thought to survive in many patients, even after TKI treatment. Many aspects of the toxic effects of prolonged exposure to TKIs during childhood remain unclear, particularly those regarding growth impairment. This lack of clarity underscores the importance of the present clinical trial, which aims to clarify the feasibility of treatment-free remission (TFR) in children following TKI treatment. We aim to examine the long-term out-comes and complications of TKIs before and after cessation to better understand the unknown complications that could arise in adulthood. This trial targets patients who were diagnosed with CML at an age younger than 20 years, were in the chronic or accelerated phase at initial diagnosis and remained in complete molecular remission for at least 2 years after TKI administration. We will examine the utility of TKI cessation and assess the treatment results of patients who resumed TKI therapy after losing a major molecular response. We will also investigate factors related to the feasibility of a TFR after TKI cessation

Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Activation in Glioblastoma through Novel Missense Mutations in the Extracellular Domain

Background: Protein tyrosine kinases are important regulators of cellular homeostasis with tightly controlled catalytic activity. Mutations in kinase-encoding genes can relieve the autoinhibitory constraints on kinase activity, can promote malignant transformation, and appear to be a major determinant of response to kinase inhibitor therapy. Missense mutations in the EGFR kinase domain, for example, have recently been identified in patients who showed clinical responses to EGFR kinase inhibitor therapy. Methods and Findings: Encouraged by the promising clinical activity of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) kinase inhibitors in treating glioblastoma in humans, we have sequenced the complete EGFR coding sequence in glioma tumor samples and cell lines. We identified novel missense mutations in the extracellular domain of EGFR in 13.6% (18/132) of glioblastomas and 12.5% (1/ 8) of glioblastoma cell lines. These EGFR mutations were associated with increased EGFR gene dosage and conferred anchorage-independent growth and tumorigenicity to NIH-3T3 cells. Cells transformed by expression of these EGFR mutants were sensitive to small-molecule EGFR kinase inhibitors. Conclusions: Our results suggest extracellular missense mutations as a novel mechanism for oncogenic EGFR activation and may help identify patients who can benefit from EGFR kinase inhibitors for treatment of glioblastoma

Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Activation in Glioblastoma through Novel Missense Mutations in the Extracellular Domain

BACKGROUND: Protein tyrosine kinases are important regulators of cellular homeostasis with tightly controlled catalytic activity. Mutations in kinase-encoding genes can relieve the autoinhibitory constraints on kinase activity, can promote malignant transformation, and appear to be a major determinant of response to kinase inhibitor therapy. Missense mutations in the EGFR kinase domain, for example, have recently been identified in patients who showed clinical responses to EGFR kinase inhibitor therapy. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Encouraged by the promising clinical activity of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) kinase inhibitors in treating glioblastoma in humans, we have sequenced the complete EGFR coding sequence in glioma tumor samples and cell lines. We identified novel missense mutations in the extracellular domain of EGFR in 13.6% (18/132) of glioblastomas and 12.5% (1/8) of glioblastoma cell lines. These EGFR mutations were associated with increased EGFR gene dosage and conferred anchorage-independent growth and tumorigenicity to NIH-3T3 cells. Cells transformed by expression of these EGFR mutants were sensitive to small-molecule EGFR kinase inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest extracellular missense mutations as a novel mechanism for oncogenic EGFR activation and may help identify patients who can benefit from EGFR kinase inhibitors for treatment of glioblastoma

Treatment of Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Historical Perspective

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common disease in pediatric oncology. The history of developmental therapeutics for ALL began in the 1960s with the repetition of “unreliable” medical interventions against this lethal disease. By the 1990s, the development of multi-agent chemotherapy and various types of supportive care rendered ALL treatable. Highly sophisticated, molecular, diagnostic techniques have enabled highly accurate prediction of the relapse risk, and the application of risk-adapted treatments has increased the survival rate in the standard-risk group to nearly 100% in most European nations and North America. Incorporation of state-of-the-art, molecularly targeted agents and novel treatments, including cell and immunotherapy, is further improving outcomes even in the high-risk group. On the other hand, the financial burden of treating children with ALL has increased, imperiling the availability of these diagnostic and treatment strategies to patients in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The fundamental treatment strategy, consisting of corticosteroid and classical cytotoxic therapy, has achieved fairly good outcomes and should be feasible in LMICs as well. The present review will discuss the history of developmental therapeutics for childhood ALL in various countries through an extensive literature review with the aim of proposing a model for a treatment backbone for pediatric ALL. The discussion will hopefully benefit LMICs and be useful as a base for future clinical trials of novel treatments

Tumor-Treating Fields Therapy for Pediatric Brain Tumors

Tumor-treating fields (TTFields) are alternating electric fields applied continuously to the brain by attaching two-pair arrays on the scalp. Although TTFields therapy has demonstrated efficacy against supratentorial glioblastoma (GBM) in adults, its safety and efficacy in children have not been confirmed. Despite differences in the genetic etiology of the adult and pediatric forms of GBM, both have certain clinical behaviors in common, allowing us to test TTFields therapy in pediatric GBM. Recently, several, pediatric case-series using TTFields therapy have been published, and a few, prospective, pediatric studies are ongoing. Because GBMs are extremely rare in pediatric patients, where they comprise a wide variety of genetic subtypes, these pediatric studies are feasibility studies targeting various types of malignant brain tumor. Although they are important for confirming the safety and feasibility of TTFields therapy in the pediatric population, confirming its efficacy against each type of pediatric brain tumor, including the GBM, is difficult. Our clinical research team, therefore, planned an investigator-initiated clinical trial targeting pediatric supratentorial GBMs (as in adults) with the aim of expanding regulatory approval of TTFields therapy for pediatric GBM treatment based on safety and exploratory efficacy data in combination with the accumulated evidence on adult GBMs

Copy Number Amplification of the PIK3CA Gene Is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Non-lymph node metastatic Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract Background Deregulation of the EGFR signaling pathway is one of the most frequently observed genetic abnormalities that drives cancer development. Although mutations in the downstream components of the EGFR signaling pathway, including KRAS, BRAF and PIK3CA, have been reported in numerous cancers, extensive mutation and copy number analysis of these genes in clinical samples has not been performed for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Methods We examined the mutations and copy number alterations of KRAS, BRAF and PIK3CA in 115 clinical specimens of HNSCC obtained from surgically treated patients. We used DNA sequencing to detect mutations and the copy number changes were evaluated by qPCR and array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) analysis. Results We examined the mutations and copy number alterations of KRAS, BRAF and PIK3CA in 115 clinical specimens of HNSCC obtained from surgically treated patients. We identified 3 mutations (2.6%) in K-RAS and 3 mutations (2.6%) in PIK3CA. Copy number amplification was found in 37 cases (32.2%) for PIK3CA, 10 cases (8.7%) for K-RAS and 2 cases (1.7%) for BRAF. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that copy-number amplification of PIK3CA was markedly associated with cancer relapse in patients without lymph node metastasis. (Log-rank test, p = 0.026) Conclusions Copy number amplification of the PIK3CA gene is associated with poor prognosis in HNSCC patients without lymph node metastasis. The PIK3CA copy number status will serve as a marker of poor prognosis in patients with HNSCC.</p