1,720,979 research outputs found
Comprehensive profile in head and neck cancer patients treated with immunotherapy
Full text linkAbstract
Background
Immunotherapy has a crucial role in the treatment of recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC). However, only a small percentage of patients achieve long-term benefit in terms of overall response and survival. It was shown that HNSCC has an immunosuppressive microenvironment due to high levels of regulatory T cells and immunosuppressive molecules, such as LAG3 and CD73.
The aim of our study was to investigate if the expression of CD73 by neoplastic and immune cells could affect the efficacy of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy and we evaluated the role of circulating CD137+ T cells in (R/M) HNSCC patients undergoing pembrolizumab treatment.
Methods
We reviewed data from 50 patients with R/M HNSCC receiving first line immunotherapy with or without chemotherapy based on a combined positive score (CPS). CD73 expression by cancer and immune cells was evaluated on pre-treatment and the percentage of stained cells was recorded. We analysed the association between CD73 expression on neoplastic and immune cells and early progression (EP), defined as progression occurring within 3 months.
PBMCs obtained from 40 (R/M) HNSCC patients with a PD-L1 combined positive score (CPS) ≥1
were analysed at baseline via cytofluorimetry for the expression of CD137, and it was found that the
percentage of CD3+CD137+ cells is correlated with the clinical benefit rate (CBR), PFS, and OS.
Results
In 88% of patients the primary tumour site was in the oral cavity or larynx. All patients received pembrolizumab associated in 40% of cases to chemotherapy. CD73 was positive in 82% and 96% of cases on neoplastic and immune cells, respectively. The median value of CD73 was 32% for neoplastic cells and 10% for the immune ones. We observed a significant association between CD73 expression over the median
value and EP disease. We didn’t record a correlation between the expression of CD73 on immune cells and early progression.
The results show that levels of circulating CD137+ T cells are significantly higher in responder patients
than in non-responders (p = 0.03). Moreover, patients with CD3+CD137+ percentage ≥1.65% had
prolonged OS (p = 0.02) and PFS (p = 0.02). Multivariate analysis, on a combination of biological and
clinical parameters, showed that high levels of CD3+CD137+ cells (≥1.65%) and performance status
(PS) = 0 are independent prognostic factors of PFS (CD137+ T cells, p = 0.007; PS, p = 0.002) and OS
(CD137+ T cells, p = 0.006; PS, p = 0.001).
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that higher expression of CD73 on neoplastic cells could predict resistance to immunotherapy in patients with CPS positive R/M HNSCC. The addition of this biomarker to routine evaluation of CPS could help to select the patients primary resistant to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy.
Furthermore our results suggest that levels of circulating CD137+ T cells could serve as biomarkers for predicting the response of (R/M) HNSCC patients to pembrolizumab treatment, thus contributing to the success of anti-cancer treatment
Ideal regimen for induction chemotherapy in nasopharyngeal cancer: still a hot issue?
No full textIdeal regimen for induction chemotherapy in nasopharyngeal cance
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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