Cancer

Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) represent a heterogeneous disease characterized by several molecular subtypes with different prognoses and responses to therapy. For a correct clinical management of TNBC patients the knowledge of the gene regulation mechanisms related to tumor progression and drug response has become fundamental.

Melanoma is one of the most common skin malignancies. Both microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have critical roles in the progression of cancers, including melanoma.

Infiltration of immune cells into the tumor microenvironment (TME) can regulate growth and survival of neoplastic cells, impacting tumorigenesis and tumor progression. Correlations between the number of effector immune cells present in a tumor and clinical outcomes in many human tumors, including breast, have been widely described. Current immunotherapies utilizing checkpoint inhibitors or co-stimulatory molecule agonists aim to activate effector immune cells. However, tumors often lack adequate effector cell numbers within the TME, resulting in suboptimal responses to these agents.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

We investigated how pancreatic cancer developed resistance to focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibition over time.

DESIGN:

Approximately 30% of ERα breast cancer patients relapse with metastatic disease following adjuvant endocrine therapies. The connection between acquisition of drug resistance and invasive potential is poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrate that the type II keratin topological associating domain undergoes epigenetic reprogramming in aromatase inhibitors (AI)-resistant cells, leading to Keratin-80 (KRT80) upregulation.

Colon cancer stem cells (CSCs) are closely related to tumorigenesis and treatment response, and LGR5 is currently the most robust and reliable CSC marker in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, LGR5 expression in CRC tumor budding (TB) is not well understood. We examined the clinicopathological and prognostic significance of LGR5 in CRC TB. LGR5 expression was evaluated by RNAscope, a newly developed RNA in situ hybridization technique, using a tissue microarray consisting of 55 patient samples of TB in colon adenocarcinoma (CA) selected from the medical archives at our hospital.

Anti-tumor immunity is driven by self versus non-self discrimination. Many immunotherapeutic approaches to cancer have taken advantage of tumor neoantigens derived from somatic mutations. Here, we demonstrate that gene fusions are a source of immunogenic neoantigens that can mediate responses to immunotherapy.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

Four consensus molecular subtypes (CMS1-4) of colorectal cancer (CRC) were identified in primary tumors and found to be associated with distinctive biological features and clinical outcomes. Given that distant metastasis largely accounts for CRC-related mortality, we examined the molecular and clinical attributes of CMS in metastatic CRC (mCRC).

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN:

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a dismal prognosis largely owing to inefficient diagnosis and tenacious drug resistance.

MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) is upregulated in many cancers including colon cancers and is a prognostic indicator of recurrence and poor prognosis. In colon cancers, miR-21 is highly expressed in stromal fibroblastic cells and more weakly in a subset of cancer cells, particularly budding cancer cells. Exploration of the expression of inflammatory markers in colon cancers revealed tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) mRNA expression at the invasive front of colon cancers.