Striving toward Improved Outcomes for Surgically Resectable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: the Promise and Challenges of Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment of non-surgical stage III and stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Here, we review emerging data on the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of neoadjuvant immunotherapy in the setting of earlier stage surgically resectable lung cancer. RECENT FINDINGS: Several small studies support the safety and feasibility of neoadjuvant immunotherapy, noting similar perioperative rates of morbidity and mortality compared with historical controls. Data from several phase II trials have shown high rates of major pathologic response (MPR), though it is unclear if this will correlate with a survival benefit. Phase III trials of neoadjuvant immunotherapy alone or in combination with chemotherapy are ongoing. Neoadjuvant immunotherapy offers a promising treatment modality in earlier stage NSCLC patients. Results of ongoing phase II and phase III trials will be essential in determining how to best integrate this treatment modality in the future.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy: contributions from the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy.

OBJECTIVE: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease associated with repetitive brain trauma (RBT). Initially described in boxers, CTE has now been found in other contact sport athletes with a history of RBT. In recent years, there has been tremendous media attention regarding CTE, primarily because of the deaths of high profile American football players who were found to have CTE upon neuropathological examination. However, the study of CTE remains in its infancy. This review focuses on research from the Centre for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) at Boston University. METHODS: This study reviews the formation of the CSTE, major CSTE publications and current ongoing research projects at the CSTE. RESULTS: The neuropathology of CTE has been well-described. Current research focuses on: methods of diagnosing the disease during life (including the development of biomarkers), examination of CTE risk factors (including genetic susceptibility and head impact exposure variables); description of the clinical presentation of CTE; development of research diagnostic criteria for Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome; and assessment of mechanism and pathogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: Current research at the BU CSTE is aimed at increasing understanding of the long-term consequences of repetitive head impacts and attempting to begin to answer several of the unanswered questions regarding CTE.

The spectrum of disease in chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a progressive tauopathy that occurs as a consequence of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury. We analysed post-mortem brains obtained from a cohort of 85 subjects with histories of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury and found evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in 68 subjects: all males, ranging in age from 17 to 98 years (mean 59.5 years), including 64 athletes, 21 military veterans (86% of whom were also athletes) and one individual who engaged in self-injurious head banging behaviour. Eighteen age- and gender-matched individuals without a history of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury served as control subjects. In chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the spectrum of hyperphosphorylated tau pathology ranged in severity from focal perivascular epicentres of neurofibrillary tangles in the frontal neocortex to severe tauopathy affecting widespread brain regions, including the medial temporal lobe, thereby allowing a progressive staging of pathology from stages I-IV. Multifocal axonal varicosities and axonal loss were found in deep cortex and subcortical white matter at all stages of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. TAR DNA-binding protein 43 immunoreactive inclusions and neurites were also found in 85% of cases, ranging from focal pathology in stages I-III to widespread inclusions and neurites in stage IV. Symptoms in stage I chronic traumatic encephalopathy included headache and loss of attention and concentration. Additional symptoms in stage II included depression, explosivity and short-term memory loss. In stage III, executive dysfunction and cognitive impairment were found, and in stage IV, dementia, word-finding difficulty and aggression were characteristic. Data on athletic exposure were available for 34 American football players; the stage of chronic traumatic encephalopathy correlated with increased duration of football play, survival after football and age at death. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy was the sole diagnosis in 43 cases (63%); eight were also diagnosed with motor neuron disease (12%), seven with Alzheimer's disease (11%), 11 with Lewy body disease (16%) and four with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (6%). There is an ordered and predictable progression of hyperphosphorylated tau abnormalities through the nervous system in chronic traumatic encephalopathy that occurs in conjunction with widespread axonal disruption and loss. The frequent association of chronic traumatic encephalopathy with other neurodegenerative disorders suggests that repetitive brain trauma and hyperphosphorylated tau protein deposition promote the accumulation of other abnormally aggregated proteins including TAR DNA-binding protein 43, amyloid beta protein and alpha-synuclein.

Pegaspargase in Practice: Minimizing Toxicity, Maximizing Benefit.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The incorporation of pegaspargase in chemotherapy regimens has significantly improved the prognosis of ALL in adults. However, pegaspargase use poses many challenges due to its unique toxicity profile. Here, we review pegaspargase's most clinically significant toxicities, and provide guidance for their prevention and management in order to avoid unnecessary drug discontinuation and achieve maximum clinical benefit. RECENT FINDINGS: Clinically significant toxicities of pegaspargase include thrombosis, hypersensitivity and inactivation, hepatotoxicity, pancreatitis, and hypertriglyceridemia. The majority of these toxicities are temporary, nonfatal, and can be managed supportively without permanent pegaspargase discontinuation. Special attention should be paid to inactivation, which can lead to treatment failure, as well as pancreatitis, which necessitates complete cessation of asparaginase therapy. The question of how to best proceed in patients who cannot tolerate pegaspargase remains unanswered, and is an important area of future investigation. Pegaspargase is an essential component of the pediatric-inspired regimens that have improved survival in adult ALL. Although pegaspargase's toxicity profile is unique, it is also highly manageable and should not be a barrier to achieving maximum clinical benefit using this drug.

Self-reported concussion history: impact of providing a definition of concussion.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, the understanding of concussion has evolved in the research and medical communities to include more subtle and transient symptoms. The accepted definition of concussion in these communities has reflected this change. However, it is unclear whether this shift is also reflected in the understanding of the athletic community. WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE SUBJECT: Self-reported concussion history is an inaccurate assessment of someone's lifetime exposure to concussive brain trauma. However, unfortunately, in many cases it is the only available tool. HYPOTHESIS/PURPOSE: We hypothesize that athletes' self-reported concussion histories will be significantly greater after reading them the current definition of concussion, relative to the reporting when no definition was provided. An increase from baseline to post-definition response will suggest that athletes are unaware of the currently accepted medical definition. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of 472 current and former athletes. METHODS: Investigators conducted structured telephone interviews with current and former athletes between January 2010 and January 2013, asking participants to report how many concussions they had received in their lives. Interviewers then read participants a current definition of concussion, and asked them to re-estimate based on that definition. RESULTS: THE TWO ESTIMATES WERE SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT (WILCOXON SIGNED RANK TEST: z=15.636, P<0.001). Comparison of the baseline and post-definition medians (7 and 15, respectively) indicated that the post-definition estimate was approximately twice the baseline. Follow-up analyses indicated that this effect was consistent across all levels of competition examined and across type of sport (contact versus non-contact). CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that athletes' current understandings of concussions are not consistent with a currently accepted medical definition. We strongly recommend that clinicians and researchers preface requests for self-reported concussion history with a definition. In addition, it is extremely important that researchers report the definition they used in published manuscripts of their work. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE: Our study shows that unprompted reporting of concussion history produces results that are significantly different from those provided after a definition has been given, suggesting one possible mechanism to improve the reliability of self-reported concussion history across multiple individuals.

Profile of self-reported problems with executive functioning in college and professional football players.

Repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), such as that experienced by contact-sport athletes, has been associated with the development of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Executive dysfunction is believed to be among the earliest symptoms of CTE, with these symptoms presenting in the fourth or fifth decade of life. The present study used a well-validated self-report measure to study executive functioning in football players, compared to healthy adults. Sixty-four college and professional football players were administered the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, adult version (BRIEF-A) to evaluate nine areas of executive functioning. Scores on the BRIEF-A were compared to published age-corrected normative scores for healthy adults Relative to healthy adults, the football players indicated significantly more problems overall and on seven of the nine clinical scales, including Inhibit, Shift, Emotional Control, Initiate, Working Memory, Plan/Organize, and Task Monitor. These symptoms were greater in athletes 40 and older, relative to younger players. In sum, football players reported more-frequent problems with executive functioning and these symptoms may develop or worsen in the fifth decade of life. The findings are in accord with a growing body of evidence that participation in football is associated with the development of cognitive changes and dementia as observed in CTE.

Clinical presentation of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to examine the clinical presentation of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in neuropathologically confirmed cases. METHODS: Thirty-six adult male subjects were selected from all cases of neuropathologically confirmed CTE at the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy brain bank. Subjects were all athletes, had no comorbid neurodegenerative or motor neuron disease, and had next-of-kin informants to provide retrospective reports of the subjects' histories and clinical presentations. These interviews were conducted blind to the subjects' neuropathologic findings. RESULTS: A triad of cognitive, behavioral, and mood impairments was common overall, with cognitive deficits reported for almost all subjects. Three subjects were asymptomatic at the time of death. Consistent with earlier case reports of boxers, 2 relatively distinct clinical presentations emerged, with one group whose initial features developed at a younger age and involved behavioral and/or mood disturbance (n = 22), and another group whose initial presentation developed at an older age and involved cognitive impairment (n = 11). CONCLUSIONS: This suggests there are 2 major clinical presentations of CTE, one a behavior/mood variant and the other a cognitive variant.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy: neurodegeneration following repetitive concussive and subconcussive brain trauma.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease thought to be caused, at least in part, by repetitive brain trauma, including concussive and subconcussive injuries. It is thought to result in executive dysfunction, memory impairment, depression and suicidality, apathy, poor impulse control, and eventually dementia. Beyond repetitive brain trauma, the risk factors for CTE remain unknown. CTE is neuropathologically characterized by aggregation and accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau and TDP-43. Recent postmortem findings indicate that CTE may affect a broader population than was initially conceptualized, particularly contact sport athletes and those with a history of military combat. Given the large population that could potentially be affected, CTE may represent an important issue in public health. Although there has been greater public awareness brought to the condition in recent years, there are still many research questions that remain. Thus far, CTE can only be diagnosed post-mortem. Current research efforts are focused on the creation of clinical diagnostic criteria, finding objective biomarkers for CTE, and understanding the additional risk factors and underlying mechanism that causes the disease. This review examines research to date and suggests future directions worthy of exploration.

Long-term consequences of repetitive brain trauma: chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has been linked to participation in contact sports such as boxing and American football. CTE results in a progressive decline of memory and cognition, as well as depression, suicidal behavior, poor impulse control, aggressiveness, parkinsonism, and, eventually, dementia. In some individuals, it is associated with motor neuron disease, referred to as chronic traumatic encephalomyelopathy, which appears clinically similar to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Results of neuropathologic research has shown that CTE may be more common in former contact sports athletes than previously believed. It is believed that repetitive brain trauma, with or possibly without symptomatic concussion, is responsible for neurodegenerative changes highlighted by accumulations of hyperphosphorylated tau and TDP-43 proteins. Given the millions of youth, high school, collegiate, and professional athletes participating in contact sports that involve repetitive brain trauma, as well as military personnel exposed to repeated brain trauma from blast and other injuries in the military, CTE represents an important public health issue. Focused and intensive study of the risk factors and in vivo diagnosis of CTE will potentially allow for methods to prevent and treat these diseases. Research also will provide policy makers with the scientific knowledge to make appropriate guidelines regarding the prevention and treatment of brain trauma in all levels of athletic involvement as well as the military theater.

Long-term consequences: effects on normal development profile after concussion.

Each year in the United States, approximately 1.7 million people are diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (TBI), about 75% of which are classified as mild TBIs or concussions. Although symptoms typically resolve in a matter of weeks, both children and adults may suffer from postconcussion syndrome for months or longer. A progressive tauopathy, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is believed to stem from repeated brain trauma. Alzheimer-like dementia, Parkinsonism, and motor neuron disease are also associated with repetitive brain trauma. Effective diagnoses, treatments, and education plans are required to reduce the future burden and incidence of long-term effects of head injuries.