Pembrolizumab-induced immune-mediated fatal colitis with concurrent giardia infection.

Advancements in medicine have enabled the use of monoclonal antibodies in the field of oncology. However, the new adverse effects of immunotherapeutic agents are still being reported. We present the first case of pembrolizumab-induced fatal colitis with concurrent Giardia infection in a patient with metastatic ovarian cancer. A 47-year-old woman with metastatic ovarian cancer who was being treated with pembrolizumab admitted to our clinic complaining of persisting bloody diarrhoea. Her stool antigen test was positive for Giardia. The patient received metronidazole. A colonoscopy with mucosal biopsy was performed upon no clinical or laboratory improvement. Colonoscopy detected deep exudative ulcers in sigmoid colon and rectum. The cytopathological evaluation revealed immune-mediated ischemic colitis. The treatment was rearranged with methylprednisolone. Upon an increase in bloody diarrhoea frequency and C-reactive protein levels, infliximab was started. However, the patient became refractory to infliximab therapy after the second dose and was deceased due to septic shock.

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) status evaluation in advanced gastric cancer using immunohistochemistry versus silver in situ hybridization.

Accurate identification of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) status in advanced gastric cancer patients is of utmost importance in terms of treatment planning. This study aimed to examine the HER-2 status in advanced gastric cancer patients using both immunohistochemistry (IHC) and silver in situ hybridization (SISH) techniques and to investigate concordance and diagnostic accuracy. In addition, associations between clinical parameters and HER 2 status were examined. A total of 313 patients diagnosed with locally advanced (Stage III: T3-4, N+) recurrent or metastatic adenocarcinoma of the stomach or esophagogastric junction, between 2009 and 2015, were included. HER-2 status was examined using both IHC and SISH techniques and the findings were compared. Overall SISH-confirmed HER-2 positivity rate was 22%. Multivariate analysis identified only well-differentiated tumor as a significant predictor of HER-2 positivity (OR: 2.9, 95% CI: 1.4-5.9, p = 0.003). When IHC 2+ and 3+ were considered positive for HER-2 status, sensitivity, specificity, and concordance rate (κ) was 95.7%, 93.8%, and 0.84, respectively. Corresponding figures when only IHC 3+ cases were considered positive were lower: 50%, 100%, and 0.61, respectively. The present method used for the identification of HER-2 positive gastric cancer patients provides satisfactory results. However, better categorization of IHC 2+ cases has the potential to improve the diagnostic accuracy, which is particularly important when more sophisticated methods are not readily available.

Patterns of EPIYA motifs among cagA-positive Helicobacter pylori strains: a case-control study in a Turkish population with Eurasian geographical features.

Geographical variation in the frequency of various gastroduodenal pathologies was shown to be related to the geographical diversity of H. pylori CagA Glu-Pro-Ile-Tyr-Ala (EPIYA) patterns. We examined the EPIYA patterns of H. pylori and the association of EPIYA patterns with gastric cancer (GC) for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, in Turkey. The patient group (PG) contained 60 patients [38 GC and 22 duodenal ulcer (DU) patients]. The control group (CG) was 110 individuals [94 gastritis patients and 16 persons with a normal gastrointestinal system (NGIS)]. Specific primers were used for the detection of cagA including empty-site-positive and EPIYA-A, -B, -C, -D PCR. Bands of EPIYA-A, -B, -C were confirmed by DNA sequencing. One hundred and forty-two (83.5 %) strains [60 in the PG (38 GC, 22 DU), 82 in the CG (72 gastritis, 10 NGIS)] were positive for the cagA gene. EPIYA-C with multiple repeats was detected in 34 (23.9 %) strains, and 22 (64.7 %) were from GC patients. EPIYA-C with one repeat was detected in 89 (62.7 %) strains, and 54 (60.7 %) were from gastritis patients. EPIYT was detected in 10 strains, and EPIYA-D was not detected. The number of EPIYA-C with multiple repeats was significantly higher for the PG than for the CG (P < 0.0001). In GC patients, the number of EPIYA-C with multiple repeats was significantly higher than one repeat (P < 0.0001). In conclusion, our study showed that multiple EPIYA-C repeats increases the GC risk by 30.6-fold and the DU risk by 8.9-fold versus the CG. This indicates that Western-type H. pylori strains in Turkey have similar EPIYA motifs to those of neighbouring countries and Western populations.