Chinese clinical oncology
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Chinese clinical oncology · Dec 2015
ReviewUpcoming innovations in lung cancer immunotherapy: focus on immune checkpoint inhibitors.
For decades, immunotherapy strategies have failed to succeed in lung cancer. However, the recent success of immune checkpoint inhibitors and the progress in the understanding of the immunobiology of lung cancer have changed this paradigm. Here we review ongoing clinical trials and recent results obtained with these novel lung cancer immunotherapies.
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Chinese clinical oncology · Jun 2015
ReviewPrognostic scores for brain metastasis patients: use in clinical practice and trial design.
Brain metastases (BM) are the most serious neurological complication of cancer that results in significant morbidity and mortality in these patients. The most common primary malignancies that lead to BM include lung, breast and melanoma. Until recently the outcomes of patients with BM has been dismal. ⋯ Due to vastly different outcomes, prognostic scores are important to stratify patients in clinical trials. A number of prognostic scoring systems for BM patients have been proposed that include Recursive Partitioning Analysis (RPA), the Score Index For Radiosurgery (SIR), the Basic Score for Brain Metastases (BSBM), the Rotterdam system (ROTTERDAM), the Golden Grading System (GGS), 2 Rades classification (RADES), the Graded Prognostic Assessment (GPA) and the disease specific Graded Prognostic Assessment (ds-GPA). In this article, we will review the important prognostic scoring systems and their utility in clinical decision making and trial design.
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Chinese clinical oncology · Mar 2015
ReviewRisk- and response-adapted strategies for the management of Hodgkin lymphoma.
Therapy for Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is associated with excellent long-term survival rates, of 80% of more. Extended follow up has described late treatment-related toxicities, principally secondary malignancies, cardiovascular disease and infertility. Given the young age of many patients, there is a desire to offer a more personalised approach, correlated to individual tumour biology that enables treatment de-escalation in low risk patients to reduce toxicity, and treatment intensification in high risk patients to reduce treatment failure. ⋯ They aim to determine whether early response scanning can be used to directly modulate subsequent therapy, through intensifying or abbreviating chemotherapy regimens and/or omitting radiotherapy. Integrated multi-modality imaging and advanced conformal planning techniques have led to the emergence of radiotherapy strategies such as involved-node radiation (INRT) that aim to optimise treatment volumes and maintain efficacy whilst lowering toxicity. Study groups have incorporated these modalities in trial designs to assess whether a PET-directed, individualised approach can become the new standard of care.
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Chinese clinical oncology · Mar 2015
ReviewPrimary extranodal B-cell lymphoma: current concepts and treatment strategies.
Around 30% of all non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) cases arise from extranodal sites. Often the primary extranodal presentation requires site-specific strategies either for diagnosis or therapy. However, several issues remain controversial such as the definition itself of primary extranodal lymphoma, and the most appropriate staging system to characterize the disease extent. ⋯ The vast majority of the published reports on primary extranodal lymphomas are represented by single-institution retrospective studies. In most clinical trials the primary extranodal lymphomas are often included together with the nodal ones and only a few studies have investigated the peculiarity of extranodal lymphomas. This review summarizes the recent advances in B-cell extranodal lymphomas, addressing the critical points in the management of the more frequently involved sites.