Available evidence and new biological perspectives on medical treatment of advanced thymic epithelial tumors.

Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are rare primary mediastinal tumors arising from thymic epithelium. Their rarity and complexity hinder investigations of their causes and therapy development. Here, we summarize the existing knowledge regarding medical treatment of these tumors, and thoroughly review the known genetic aberrations associated with TETs and the present status of potential biological treatments. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), stem-cell factor receptor, insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF1R), and vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF-A, VEGF-B, and VEGF-2) are overexpressed in TETs. EGFR overexpression in TETs is associated with higher stage, and IGF1R overexpression has poor prognostic value. Data indicate that anti-IGF1R monoclonal antibodies, and inhibitors of angiogenesis, somatostatin receptors, histone deacetylase, mammalian target of rapamycin, and cyclin-dependent kinases may be active against TETs. Continued investigations in this field could lead to advancement of targeted and biological therapies for TETs.

Fasting glucose and treatment outcome in breast and colorectal cancer patients treated with targeted agents: results from a historic cohort.

BACKGROUND: We investigated pretreatment fasting glucose as a predictor of patients' important outcomes in breast and colorectal cancers undergoing targeted therapies. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In a historic cohort of 202 breast and 218 colorectal cancers treated with targeted agents from 1998 to 2009, we used the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test to estimate survival through tertiles of fasting glucose and the Cox proportional hazards model for multivariate analysis stratified by primary site of cancer and including gender, age and body mass index. RESULTS: The median follow-up was 20 months (1-128). At 60 months, 65% of patients in the lowest tertile of fasting glucose did not experiment disease progression compared with 34% in the highest tertile (P=0.001). Seventy-six percent of females in the lowest tertile showed no progression compared with 49% in the top tertiles (P=0.015). In multivariate analysis, fasting glucose was a significant predictor of time to disease progression only in breast cancer patients in the first tertile compared with the third (P=0.017). CONCLUSIONS: We found evidence of a predictive role of pretreatment fasting glucose in the development of resistance in breast cancer patients treated with targeted agents. Prospective studies are warranted to confirm our findings.

Is hypogammaglobulinemia a constant feature in Good's syndrome?

Thymomas are rare tumors, which can be associated to a variety of paraneoplastic syndromes, including a fatal hypogammaglobulinemia, namely Good?s Syndrome (GS). Although the combination of thymoma and hypogammaglobulinemia is regarded as sufficient for diagnosis of Good?s syndrome, some thymoma patients with a clear clinical picture of immunodeficiency present normal levels of immunoglobulins. We describe the case of a patient, with a 20-year history of thymoma, who underwent several operations and lines of chemotherapy, and suffered from recurrent infections, including one rare skin infection from Pseudoallescheria boydii. The patient constantly presented normal levels of gammaglobulins.

Disease progression pattern in metastatic breast cancer patients treated with anti-HER2 therapies.

PURPOSE: Over the last decade a dramatic improvement in the treatment and prognosis of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC) has been achieved. This study aimed to describe pattern, timing of metastases, and time to progression (TTP) of MBC patients (pts) treated with multiple lines of therapy with trastuzumab and/or lapatinib. METHODS: Clinical-pathologic features, treatment-lines and metastatic sites were collected from the institutional database; TTP was evaluated for each treatment-line. A meta-analysis of treatment-line estimates was performed; Q test and I (2)-index were used to detect and estimate heterogeneity. Cox's proportional hazards model and Fine and Gray's proportional subhazards model in a competing risks setting were used to detect differences in hazard rate and to estimate relative risks. RESULTS: 112 pts were analyzed. The median number of treatment-lines administered was 6 (range 1-17) and 524 (86 %) disease progression events were observed (median follow up 4.2 years). Distribution of metastases at baseline remained consistent across all lines. Having a given site affected by metastasis was a major risk factor of progression in that site. Hormone-receptor-positive pts resulted more likely to progress on bone (HR = 1.88). Elderly pts were less likely to progress on CNS (HR = 0.73). Median TTP resulted superior to 5 months up to the 6th line of treatment, reaching a plateau at the 9th treatment-line. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that risk factors for progression in HER2 positive MBC do not significantly differ between various distributions of metastases, and that MBC pts benefit from anti-HER2 therapy even in late treatment-lines.