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Anoctamins and Calcium Signalling: An Obstacle to EGFR Targeted Therapy in Glioblastoma?Glioblastoma is the most common form of high-grade glioma in adults and has a poor survival rate with very limited treatment options. There have been no significant advancements in glioblastoma treatment in over 30 years. Epidermal growth factor receptor is upregulated in most glioblastoma tumours and, therefore, has been a drug target in recent targeted therapy clinical trials.
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Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in children and adolescent cancer patientsBrain cancer and leukemia are the most common cancers diagnosed in the pediatric population and are often treated with lifesaving chemotherapy. However, chemotherapy causes severe adverse effects and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a major dose-limiting and debilitating side effect.
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Cancer chemotherapy: insights into cellular and tumor microenvironmental mechanisms of actionChemotherapy has historically been the mainstay of cancer treatment, but our understanding of what drives a successful therapeutic response remains limited.
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Comprehensive Testing of Chemotherapy and Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Preclinical Cancer Models Identifies Additive CombinationsAntibodies that target immune checkpoints such as cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA‐4) and the programmed cell death protein 1/ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) are now a treatment option for multiple cancer types. However, as a monotherapy, objective responses only occur in a minority of patients. Chemotherapy is widely used in combination with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). Although a variety of isolated immunostimulatory effects have been reported for several classes of chemotherapeutics, it is unclear which chemotherapeutics provide the most benefit when combined with ICB.
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Retinoic Acid Induces an IFN-Driven Inflammatory Tumour Microenvironment, Sensitizing to Immune Checkpoint TherapyWith immune checkpoint therapy (ICT) having reshaped the treatment of many cancers, the next frontier is to identify and develop novel combination therapies to improve efficacy. Previously, we and others identified beneficial immunological effects of the vitamin A derivative tretinoin on anti-tumour immunity.
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Multi-institutional analysis of treatment modalities in basal ganglia and thalamic germinomaCentral nervous system germinomas are treatment-sensitive tumors with excellent survival outcomes. Current treatment strategies combine chemotherapy with radiotherapy (RT) in order to reduce the field and dose of RT. Germinomas originating in the basal ganglia/thalamus have proven challenging to treat given their rarity and poorly defined imaging characteristics. Craniospinal, whole brain, whole ventricle, and focal RT have all been utilized; however, the best treatment strategy remains unclear.
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Making a Killer: Selecting the Optimal Natural Killer Cells for Improved ImmunotherapiesOver the past 20 years natural killer (NK) cell-based immunotherapies have emerged as a safe and effective treatment option for patients with relapsed or refractory leukemia. Unlike T cell-based therapies, NK cells harbor an innate capacity to eliminate malignant cells without prior sensitization and can be adoptively transferred between individuals without the need for extensive HLA matching.
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A surveillance clinic for children and adolescents with, or at risk of, hereditary cancer predisposition syndromesHereditary cancer predisposition syndromes (HCPS) account for at least 10% of paediatric cancers.1 Li‐Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) is a dominant HCPS caused by mutations in the TP53 gene and is associated with an 80–90% lifetime risk of cancer, commencing in infancy.2 Children of affected individuals are at 50% risk of inheriting the family mutation.
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Parental occupational exposure to pesticides and risk of childhood cancer in Switzerland: a census-based cohort studyPesticide exposure is a suspected risk factor for childhood cancer. We investigated the risk of developing childhood cancer in relation to parental occupational exposure to pesticides in Switzerland for the period 1990-2015.
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Tumor Infiltrating Effector Memory Antigen-Specific CD8(+) T Cells Predict Response to Immune Checkpoint TherapyImmune checkpoint therapy (ICT) results in durable responses in individuals with some cancers, but not all patients respond to treatment. ICT improves CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) function, but changes in tumor antigen-specific CTLs post-ICT that correlate with successful responses have not been well characterized. Here, we studied murine tumor models with dichotomous responses to ICT.