Project description:The NCCN Guidelines for Hepatobiliary Cancers provide treatment recommendations for cancers of the liver, gallbladder, and bile ducts. The NCCN Hepatobiliary Cancers Panel meets at least annually to review comments from reviewers within their institutions, examine relevant new data from publications and abstracts, and reevaluate and update their recommendations. These NCCN Guidelines Insights summarize the panel's discussion and most recent recommendations regarding locoregional therapy for treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
Project description:Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is an acute infectious disease of the respiratory system caused by the new betacoronavirus (MERS coronavirus, MERS-CoV), which shows high mortality rates. The typical symptoms of MERS are fever, cough, and shortness of breath, and it is often accompanied by pneumonia. The MERS-CoV was introduced to Republic of Korea in May 2015 by a patient returning from Saudi Arabia. The disease spread mostly through hospital infections, and by the time the epidemic ended in August, the total number of confirmed diagnoses was 186, among which 36 patients died. Reflecting the latest evidence for antiviral drugs in the treatment of MERS-CoV infection and the experiences of treating MERS patients in Republic of Korea, these guidelines focus on antiviral drugs to achieve effective treatment of MERS-CoV infections.
Project description:Hepatobiliary cancers (HBCs) include hepatocellular carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, and gallbladder carcinoma, which originate from the liver, bile ducts, and gallbladder, respectively. They are responsible for a substantial burden of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Despite knowledge of risk factors and advancements in therapeutics and surgical interventions, the prognosis for most patients with HBC remains bleak. There is evidence from familial aggregation and case-control studies to suggest a familial risk component in HBC susceptibility. Recent progress in genomics research has led to the identification of germline variants including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and pathogenic or likely pathogenic (P/LP) variants in cancer-associated genes associated with HBC risk. These findings emerged from genome-wide association studies and next-generation sequencing techniques such as whole-exome sequencing. Patients with other cancer types, including breast, colon, ovarian, prostate, and pancreatic cancer, are recommended by guidelines to undergo germline genetic testing, but similar recommendations are lagging in HBC. This prompts the question of whether multi-gene panel testing should be integrated into clinical guidelines for HBC management. Here, we review the hereditary genetics of HBC, explore studies investigating SNPs and P/LP variants in HBC patients, discuss the clinical implications and potential for personalized treatments and impact on patient's family members, and conclude that additional studies are needed to examine how genetic testing can be applied clinically.
Project description:The development of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) targeting cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4), programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), or programmed cell death protein ligand 1 (PD-L1) has revolutionized the treatment strategy in various types of cancers. In addition, recent studies have revealed that tumor microsatellite instability (MSI) status and tumor mutation burden (TMB) contribute significantly to the therapeutic response to anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody (mAb), which led to an accelerated approval to pembrolizumab for the treatment of MSI-high or mismatch-repair-deficient solid tumors after conventional chemotherapies in 2017 and for the treatment of TMB-high solid tumors in 2020 by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In the field of gastrointestinal cancers, many clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of various regimens such as ICI monotherapy, the combination of anti-CTLA-4 mAb and anti-PD-1/PD-L1 mAb, and combination of ICI and conventional chemotherapy or tyrosine kinase inhibitor have been reported or are in progress. This review summarizes MSI status and TMB in gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, and pancreatic cancers, and provides the results of most relevant clinical trials evaluating ICIs. We also discuss the development of biomarkers required for improving the selection of patients with a high probability of benefiting from treatment with ICIs, and potential therapeutic strategies that could help to enhance anticancer responses of ICIs.
Project description:BackgroundX-linked myotubular myopathy (XLMTM) is a rare congenital myopathy resulting from pathogenic variants in the MTM1 gene. Affected male subjects typically present with severe hypotonia and respiratory distress at birth and they often require intensive supportive care. Long-term survivors are often non-ambulant, ventilator and feeding tube-dependent and they generally show additional organ manifestations, indicating that myotubularin does play a vital role in tissues other than muscle. For XLMTM several therapeutic strategies are under investigation. For XLMTM several therapeutic strategies are under investigation including a study of intravenous MTM1 gene transfer using a recombinant AAV8 vector of which has some concerns arises due to hepatotoxicity.ResultsWe report prospective and retrospective clinical data of 12 XLMTM patients collected over a period of up to 10 years. In particular, we carried out a thorough review of the data about incidence and the course of hepatobiliary disease in our case series.ConclusionsWe demonstrate that hepatobiliary disease represents a common comorbidity of XLMTM that seems irrespective to age and diseases severity. We recommend to carefully explore and monitor the hepatobiliary function in XLMTM patients. We believe that a better understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms that induce hepatobiliary damage is essential to understand the fatal events that may occur in the gene therapy program.
Project description:Cancer of the hepatobiliary system can be divided into primary liver cancer and biliary tract cancer (BTC), which includes hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), and gallbladder cancer (GBC). These aggressive cancers often present at an advanced stage or among patients with poorly preserved liver function. The primary treatment for HCC and BTC when diagnosed early is surgical resection, but given the high rate of recurrence and often advanced stage at diagnosis, many patients will require systemic therapy. Unfortunately, even with systemic therapy, long-term survival is poor. The immune system plays an important role in preventing cancer progression. The unique immune environment of the liver and subsequent alterations to the immune microenvironment by tumor cells to create a favorable microenvironment plays a key role in the progression of HCC and BTC. Due to the paucity of effective systemic therapies and distinctive immune environment of the liver, research and clinical trials are investigating the use of immunotherapy in HCC and BTC. This review will focus on current immunotherapies and emerging data for the treatment of HCC and BTC.
Project description:Hepatobiliary cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), and gallbladder carcinoma (GBC), are lethal cancers with limited therapeutic options. Curative-intent treatment typically involves surgery, yet recurrence is common and many patients present with advanced disease not amenable to an operation. Immunotherapy represents a promising approach to improve outcomes, but the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment of the liver characteristic of hepatobiliary cancers has hampered the development and implementation of this therapeutic approach. Current immunotherapies under investigation include immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), the adoptive transfer of immune cells, bispecific antibodies, vaccines, and oncolytic viruses. Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) are two ICIs that have demonstrated utility in HCC, and newer immune checkpoint targets are being tested in clinical trials. In advanced CCA and GBC, PD-1 ICIs have resulted in antitumor responses, but only in a minority of select patients. Other ICIs are being investigated for patients with CCA and GBC. Adoptive transfer may hold promise, with reports of complete durable regression in metastatic CCA, yet this therapeutic approach may not be generalizable. Alternative approaches have been developed and promising results have been observed, but clinical trials are needed to validate their utility. While the treatment of hepatobiliary cancers involves unique challenges that these cancers present, the progress seen with ICIs and adoptive transfer has solidified immunotherapy as an important approach in these challenging patients with few other effective treatment options.
Project description:Model systems that evaluated different approaches to construct the central ether ring of maoecrystal V are described. Our first model systems attempted the ether formation using C-H functionalization reactions, which led to interesting rearrangements but none of the desired ether product. An intramolecular conjugate addition strategy was then explored that successfully formed the targeted C-O bond but resulted in the undesired stereochemistry.