Infrared spectroscopy in detection of brain tumor of different morphological structure

The study considers the results of application of blood serum infrared spectroscopy as a diagnosis method of brain tumors with various morphological structure. The study involves 99 patients with brain tumors (glioblastomas were diagnosed in 22 patients, astrocytomas – in 21, neuromas – in 13, meningiomas – in 12, ependymomas – in 11, oligodendroastrocytomas – in 10, hypophyseal adenomas – in 10 patients), 16 patients with acute cerebrovascular accidents of ischemic type, 24 patients with severe traumatic brain injury and 20 healthy volunteers. In each studied case, 13 ratios of peak heights of blood serum infrared spectrum absorption bands were studied applying infrared spectroscopy (IRS). The results of morphological and immunohistochemical examinations were compared with the results of blood serum IRS data of patients with brain tumors. There were statistically significant correlations between the histological nature of brain tumors and IRS values. Statistically significant differences between the blood serum IRS of patients with tumor, non-tumor brain lesions and healthy volunteers were also found.

Prospects for the use of small interfering RNAs as inhibitors of immune checkpoints for immunotherapy in oncology

Immune therapy is one of the most promising areas of cancer treatment. It is aimed at a cascade of processes responsible for the antitumor immune response. The involved regulatory mechanisms become targets for various therapeutic approaches aimed at restoring the impaired functions of immune cells that eliminate cancer cells. The ability of malignant cells to affect receptors of immune checkpoints is one of the most important mechanisms for suppressing antitumor immunity. The development of immune check-point inhibitors (ICIs) based on monoclonal antibodies, as well as the methods of adoptive cell therapy (ACT), are a breakthrough in the immunotherapy of malignant diseases, but it carries a number of limitations such as insufficient efficiency, safety and cost-effectiveness. The use of RNA interference technologies opens up prospects for the development of fundamentally new class of ICIs and, as a consequence, the development of more efficient ACT methods. This review presents the main problems and prospects of the use of small interfering RNA (siRNA) as the ICIs are highlighted in order to optimize modern AKT approaches

Acid-base balance in the regulation of tumor growth: value for the clinicians

Tumor acidosis affects every stage of cancer development, from dysplasia to full-blown metastatic disease. Survival strategies of malignant cells in an acidic microenvironment and pH gradient inversion promote resistance to chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy, and suppress the antitumor immune response. It is necessary to consider the low pH of the microenvironment both when diagnosing and when choosing the most optimal treatment regimen. The development of methods for non-invasive measurement of tumor pH, methods for direct and indirect correction of acidosis, new pH-activated and pH-targeted drugs is required. In this work, we consider some aspects related to the altered acid-base state of the tumor, which may be significant for the clinician.

Therapeutic Targets of Tumor Metabolism

Tumor cell metabolism has certain distinctive features such as aerobic glycolysis, utilization of alternative energy sources, increased lipid synthesis, mitochondrial dysfunction, macropinocytosis, autophagy, high levels of ROS, tumor microenvironment and hypoxia. This heterogeneity is determined by the malignant phenotype and the environmental conditions. Targeting specific metabolic pathways may be a promising treatment to increase the overall survival. This paper demonstrates the metabolic reprogramming as the potential anticancer strategy.

Advances in fundamental oncology: the year 2020 update

This paper describes the most remarkable advances in fundamental and translational oncology occurred within the year 2020.

MAIN ASPECTS AND RESULT’S TREATMENT OF PRIMARY MEDIASTINAL B-CELL LARGE LYMPHOMA

Efficiency of first-line immunopolychemotherapy schemes was comparable. Long-term results were better with immunochaemoradiotherapy; the presence of PET-negative data after the first line of immunopolychemotherapy is a favourable prognostic sign. Radiation therapy executed in proper time helps to reduce the systemic cytostatic stress.

BIOMARKERS FOR EARLY DIAGNOSTICS OF BRAIN TUMORS

Early diagnostics of brain tumors – is an important component of combined therapy for treatment neoplasms. Searching markers of glioma allowing to diagnose tumors at an early stage (before appearance of some changes on MRI and CT scans), to predict their course and to estimate the effectiveness of the performed therapy is a prospective research direction. Now-a-days the properties of microRNK and infrared spectroscopy of blood serum is being studied actively. This review covers results of the performed studies, confirming the possibility of application of such methods as biomarkers of glioma.

New and promising immune oncology drugs combinations

Given that no new immunotherapeutic drugs proved to be at least as effective as approved CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors during last years the focus of further immuno oncology (IO)development has shifted to the research on different drug combinations. Most of new immunotherapeutics are studied in combinations with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors. This paper reviews most perspective targets for therapeutic manipulations currently studied in combinations with immune check-point inhibitors, such as Tim-3, LAG-3, TIGIT, OX-40, 4-1BB, STING, TGF-β, as well as some metabolic pathways. Also the principles of individualized biology-tailored approaches to IO drugs combining are discussed.

Expanding the clinical uses of ctDNA

The majority of currently available studies on the use of this circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) deal with the detection of mutations. The analysis of cfDNA is often discussed in the context of the noninvasive detection of mutations that lead to resistance mechanisms and therapeutic and disease monitoring in cancer patients. Indeed, substantial advances have been made in this area, with the development of methods that reach high sensitivity and can interrogate a large number of genes.

COLORECTAL MOLECULAR SUBTYPES – PROGRESS OR DEADLOCK?

Attempts to classify tumors in order to substantiate the different course of the disease and response to therapy have undergone significant changes over the past decades and have advanced from the creation of prognostic systems based on the clinical and morphological picture to the division into molecular-genetic subtypes. The latter, based on various omics data, should have opened a new era in oncology, dividing tumors not only according to the prognostic course, but also allowing individualized treatment. However, data from clinical trials, at least in colorectal cancer, show conflicting results. This review is devoted to the critical analysis of the applicability of molecular genetic subtyping of colon tumors in clinical practice.