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Hyperthermia as an immunotherapy strategy for cancer - 1 views

  • the notion of treating human cancers with heat dates back to the writings of Hippocrates
  • enhance the efficiency of standard cancer therapies, such as chemotherapy and radiation treatment
  • After antigen uptake at tumor sites, APCs have the ability to create a robust response by entering lymphoid compartments and programming lymphocytes
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  • Hyperthermia differs fundamentally from fever in that it elevates the core body temperature without changing the physiological set point
  • hyperthermia is induced by increasing the heat load and/or inactivating heat dissipation
  • mor cells [2]. Although significant cell killing could be achieved by heating cells or tissues to temperatures > 42°C for 1 or more hours, the application, measurement and consistency of this temperature range within the setting of cancer clinical trials
  • mild temperature hyperthermia (ie, within the fever-range, 39–41°C)
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      101.2 to 105.8
  • moderate hyperthermia (41°C)
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      105.8 F
  • Hsps are a family of stress-induced proteins
  • they are key regulators of cellular protein activity, turnover and trafficking
  • Hsps ensure appropriate post-translational protein folding, and are able to refold denatured proteins, or mark irreversibly damaged proteins for destruction
  • the ability of fever-range hyperthermia to induce reactive immunity against tumor antigens through DCs and NK-cells is likely mediated by Hsps
  • thermotolerance
  • Hsps support the malignant phenotype of cancer cells by not only affecting the cells’ survival, but also participating in angiogenesis, invasion, metastasis and immortalization mechanisms
  • Hsps released from stressed or dying cells activate dendritic cells (DCs), transforming them into mature APCs
  • In theory, fever-range hyperthermia may take advantage of tumor cell Hsps by inducing their release from tumor cells and augmenting DC priming against tumor antigens
  • In several models of hyperthermia, heat-treated tumors exhibited improved DC priming and generation of systemic immunity to tumor cell
  • hyperthermia alone can enhance antigen display by tumor cells, thus rendering them even more susceptible to programmed immune clearance
  • Fever-range hyperthermia may also induce Hsps
  • Hsps may exert an adjuvant effect by bolstering MHC class II and co-stimulatory molecule expression by DCs
  • thermal ablation of liver tumors in particular has demonstrated an ability to potentiate immune responses [57, 58] and elicit robust T-cell infiltrates at ablation sites
  • specific Hsp, Hsp70, directly inhibits apoptosis pathways in cancer cells, as demonstrated in human pancreatic, prostate and gastric cancer cells
  • Cross-priming is the ability of extracellular Hsps complexed to tumor peptides to be internalized and presented in the context of MHC class I molecules on APCs, thus allowing potent priming of CTLs against tumor antigens
  • It has been reported that Hsps are generated from necrotic tumor cell lysates, but not from tumor cells undergoing apoptosis
  • tumor cells exposed to hyperthermia in the heat shock range (42°C for 4h) prior to lysing, DC activation and cross-priming were significantly enhanced with the application of heat
  • Due to the ability of Hsps to activate DCs directly by chaperoning tumor antigens upon their release [28], it is possible that both local and regional immune stimulation can be achieved with hyperthermia.
  • support the use of hyperthermia as an inducer of Hsps to serve as ‘danger signals’, activating antitumor immune responses
  • whole-body hyperthermia not only augments immune responses, but also stimulates the migration of skin-derived DCs to draining lymph nodes
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      This allows for the activation of lymphocytes by the activated dendritic cells.
  • suggest a valuable role of hyperthermia in DC cancer vaccine strategies
  • In mice treated with fever-range whole-body hyperthermia, tumor growth was significantly inhibited and NK-cell infiltration increased
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      Hyperthermia increased NK cell activation, proliferation, and infiltration, which equals increased cytotoxicity.
  • exposure to fever-range hyperthermia resulted in improved endogenous NK-cell cytotoxicity to several cancer types
  • improved activation and function of DCs and NK cells following hyperthermia
  • Hyperthermia increases the expression ICAM-1 a key adhesion molecule,
  • The combined effects of hyperthermia on lymphoid tissue endothelium and lymphocytes can promote immune surveillance and increase the probability of naive lymphocytes leaving the circulation and encountering their cognate antigen displayed by DCs in lymphoid organs.
  • In independent clinical studies, whole-body hyperthermia resulted in a transient decrease in circulating lymphocytes in patients with advanced cancer [12, 94, 99, 100], a finding which mirrored observations in animal models in which lymphocyte entry into lymph noeds was increased following hyperthermia treatment [93]. Enhanced recruitment of lymphocytes to lymphoid tissues may be exploited in the treatment of malignancies.
  • The initial tumor antigen presentation and initiation of clonal expansion of CTLs transpires in the lymph nodes and cannot take place outside this specialized compartment
  • the ability of DCs present in the lymph nodes to stimulate an anti-tumor immune response is critical
  • hyperthermia has been shown to improve immune surveillance by T-cell
  • and to increase DC trafficking to lymph nodes
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    Great review of hyperthermia.
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Axillary Dissection vs No Axillary Dissection in Women With Invasive Breast Cancer and ... - 0 views

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    axillary lymph node dissection in breast cancer patients did not change survival rate when compared to sentinal Lymph node removal
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Evolving landscape of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive breast cancer t... - 0 views

  • 15%–20%
  • key mediator of cell growth, differentiation, and survival
  • of higher histological grade and are more likely to invade axillary lymph nodes
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  • shortened survival and an increased risk of disease recurrence and metastasis
  • Currently, four HER2-directed agents are approved for the treatment of patients with HER2+ breast cancer: trastuzumab, pertuzumab, lapatinib, and ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1)
  • biosimilars
  • trastuzumab may provide greater benefit when administered concurrently with chemotherapy rather than after, and this has become the standard approach
  • concurrent use of anthracyclines (ie, doxorubicin or epirubicin) and trastuzumab is not recommended because of an increased risk for cardiac toxicity
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      avoid herceptin in conjuction with antracyclines i.e. doxorubicin
  • Sequential doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide followed by concomitant paclitaxel or docetaxel and trastuzumab is recommended for most patients
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      top recommended regimen combination
  • Guidelines also recommend trastuzumab in combination with paclitaxel, docetaxel and carboplatin, or docetaxel and cyclophosphamide, particularly for patients with increased risk for cardiac toxicity or those with small (≤1 cm), node-negative HER2+ tumors
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      good alternative in patients with increased risk of cardiac toxicity.
  • guidelines recommend up to 1 year of adjuvant trastuzumab
  • Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with trastuzumab is associated with higher rates of pathologic complete response (pCR) than chemotherapy alone or in combination with lapatinib
  • the combination of trastuzumab, lapatinib, and chemotherapy is not recommended because it failed to demonstrate noninferiority versus trastuzumab and chemotherapy in the adjuvant setting
  • recommend the combination of trastuzumab, pertuzumab, and chemotherapy as neoadjuvant treatment for patients with locally advanced HER2+ breast cancer and for some patients (node-positive or tumor ≥2 cm) with early-stage disease
  • neoadjuvant chemotherapy in combination with pertuzumab and trastuzumab reduced the risk of progression or death by 31% and recurrence or death by 40% versus trastuzumab alone
  • Concurrent chemotherapy and HER2-directed therapy improves survival outcomes over chemotherapy alon
  • dual inhibition of HER2 with trastuzumab and pertuzumab in combination with paclitaxel reduced the risk of death or progression by approximately 40% compared with concurrent trastuzumab and paclitaxel
  • the combination of trastuzumab, pertuzumab, and taxane chemotherapy is the preferred first-line regimen
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    HER-2 + breast cancer = appx 15-20% of all breast cancers and is a marker of worse prognosis and an indication for targeted immunotherapy blockade.
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Axillary Dissection vs No Axillary Dissection in Women With Invasive Breast Cancer and ... - 1 views

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    axillary lymph node dissection not needed in many breast cancer clients
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How We Read Oncologic FDG PET/CT | Cancer Imaging | Full Text - 0 views

  • In early PET literature focusing on analysis of solitary pulmonary nodules, some researchers defined malignancy based on a SUVmax threshold of greater than 2.5
  • We contend that SUV analysis has virtually no role in this setting.
  • tumours grow as spheres, whereas inflammatory processes are typically linear
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  • Far more important than the SUVmax is the pattern rather than intensity of metabolic abnormality and the correlative CT findings
  • Descriptively, we define SUV < 5 as “low intensity”, 5–10 as “moderate”, 10–15 as “intense” and >15 as “very intense”
  • Evolving literature suggests that intensity of uptake is an independent prognostic factor and in some tumour subtypes superior to histopathologic characterisation.
  • aerobic glycolysis
  • Our practice of thresholding the grey and colour scale to liver as detailed above results in similar image intensity to a fixed upper SUV threshold of 8 to 10
  • The advantage of using the liver as a reference tissue is also aided by this organ having rather low variability in metabolic activity
  • When the liver is abnormal and cannot be used as a reference organ, we use the default SUV setting of an upper SUV threshold of 8
  • One of the most challenging aspects of oncologic FDG PET/CT review, however, is to recognise all the patterns of metabolic activity that are not malignant and which consequently confound interpretation
  • Many benign and inflammatory processes are also associated with high glycolytic activity
  • Future articles in the “How I Read” series will address the specific details of reading PET/CT in various cancers
  • The intensity of uptake in metastases usually parallels that in the primary site of disease
  • For example, discordant low-grade activity in an enlarged lymph node in the setting of intense uptake in the primary tumour suggests it is unlikely malignant and more likely inflammatory or reactive
  • By CT criteria the enlarged node is ‘pathologic’ but the discordantly low metabolic signature further characterises this is as non-malignant since such a node is not subject to partial volume effects and therefore the intensity of uptake should be similar to the primary site
  • The exception is when the lymph node is centrally necrotic as a small rim of viable tumour is subject to partial volume effects with expectant lower intensity of uptake; integrating the CT morphology is therefore critical to reaching an accurate interpretation
  • Small nodes that are visualised on PET are conversely much more likely to be metastatic as such nodes are subject to partial volume effects.
  • The exception to this rule is tumours with a propensity for tumour heterogeneity at different sites
  • The combination of FDG and a more specific tracer, which visualises the well-differentiated disease can be very useful to characterise this phenomenon
  • “metabolic signature”
  • For the majority of malignant processes, the intensity of metabolic abnormality correlates with degree of aggressiveness or proliferative rate.
  • a negative PET/CT study in a patient with biopsy proven malignancy would be considered false-negative
  • Warburg effect
  • There, however, are a significant minority of tumours that utilise substrates other glucose such as glutamine or fatty acids as a source of the carbon atoms required for growth and proliferation
  • This includes a subset of diffuse gastric adenocarcinomas, signet cell colonic adenocarcinomas and some sarcomas, particularly liposarcoma
  • There may be a role for other radiotracers such as fluorothymidine (FLT) or amino acid substrates in this setting.
  • Some tumours harbour mutations that result in defective aerobic mitochondrial energy metabolism, effectively simulating the Warburg effect
  • patients with hereditary paraganglioma and pheochromocytoma highlight this phenomenon
  • These have intense uptake on FDG PET/CT despite often having low proliferative rate.
  • Uterine fibroids, hepatic adenomas, fibroadenomas of the breast and desmoid tumours are benign or relatively benign lesions that can have quite high FDG-avidity.
  • Metabolic activity switches off rapidly following initiation of therapy
  • Common examples where patients have commenced active therapy but the referrer is requesting “staging” includes hormonal therapy (eg. tamoxifen) in breast cancer, oral capecitabine in colorectal cancer or high dose steroids in Hodgkin’s lymphoma
  • It is therefore critical to perform PET staging before commencement of anti-tumour therapy
  • The potential advantage of routine diagnostic CT is improved anatomic localisation and definition
  • Without intravenous contrast, additional identification of typical oncologic complications such as pulmonary embolism or venous thrombosis cannot be identified
  • If the study is performed as an “interim” restaging study after commencement of therapy but before completion, in order to reach a valid or clinically useful conclusion findings must be interpreted in the context of known changes that occur at a specific timing and type of therapy
  • The most well studied use of interim PET is in Hodgkin’s lymphoma where repeat PET after two cycles of ABVD-chemotherapy provides powerful prognostic information and may improve outcomes by enabling early change of management
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    good read on the PET/CT scan reading.  They mention that tumors are spheres and inflammation is linear, yet inflammation coexists with cancer; hard to simply delineate these on simple terms. I do agree aon the metabolic signature of the PET/CT scan
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Axillary dissection versus no axillary dissection in patients with breast cancer and se... - 0 views

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    study finds no disease free survival difference in those women with breast cancer and sentinel node metastasis for axillary lymph node dissection versus no disecction; no difference in overall survival at 10 years also observed.
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Glutathione Peroxidase (GPx) and Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) in Oropharyngeal Cancer Ass... - 0 views

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    Hmmm…."Both GPx and SOD activity was statistically lower in patients with EBV/HPV coinfection than in a single EBV or HPV infection. Analysis of GPx and SOD activity in relation to histological grading and tumor, node (TN) classification revealed that in poorly-differentiated tumors, the level of antioxidant enzymes was lower compared with well-differentiated lesions and in cases with greater tumor dimensions and lymph-node involvement, both GPx and SOD activity was decreased."
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Testosterone level in men with type 2 diabetes mellitus and related metabolic... - 0 views

  • defined by consistent symptoms and signs of androgen deficiency, and an unequivocally low serum testosterone level
  • the threshold serum testosterone level below which adverse clinical outcomes occur in the general population is not known
  • most population-based studies use the serum testosterone level corresponding to the lower limit, quoted from 8.7 to 12.7 nmol/L, of the normal range for young Caucasian men as the threshold
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      this equals 251 to 366 in serum Total Testosterone
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  • Researchers tried to examine whether serum total or free testosterone would be a better/more reliable choice when studying the effect of testosterone. The results were mixed. Some reported significant associations of both serum total and free testosterone level with clinical parameters25, whereas others reported that only serum free testosterone26 or only serum total testosterone6 showed significant associations.
  • −0.124 nmol/L/year in serum total testosterone
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      this equates to a 4 ng/dl decline annually in total Testosterone.
  • In experimental studies, androgen receptor knockout mice developed significant insulin resistance rapidly
  • In mouse models, testosterone promoted differentiation of pluripotent stem cells to the myogenic lineage
  • testosterone decreased insulin resistance by enhancing catecholamine induced lipolysis in vitro, and reducing lipoprotein lipase activity and triglyceride uptake in human abdominal tissue in vivo
  • by promoting lipolysis and myogenesis, testosterone might lead to improved insulin resistance
  • testosterone regulated skeletal muscle genes involved in glucose metabolism that led to decreased systemic insulin resistance
  • In the liver, hepatic androgen receptor signaling inhibited development of insulin resistance in mice
  • independent and inverse association of testosterone with hepatic steatosis shown in a cross-sectional study carried out in humans
  • In short, androgen improves insulin resistance by changing body composition and reducing body fat.
  • Although a low serum testosterone level could contribute to the development of obesity and type 2 diabetes through changes in body composition, obesity might also alter the metabolism of testosterone
  • In obese men, the peripheral conversion from testosterone to estrogen could attenuate the amplitude of luteinizing hormone pulses and centrally inhibit testosterone production
  • leptin, an adipokine, has been shown to be inversely correlated with serum testosterone level in men
  • Leydig cells expressed leptin receptors and leptin has been shown to inhibit testosterone secretion, suggesting a role of obesity and leptin in the pathogenesis of low testosterone
    • Nathan Goodyear
       
      So what is "unequivocal"?
  • Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) cohort made up of 3,565 middle-class, mostly Caucasian men from the USA, the incidence of low serum total testosterone increased from approximately 20% of men aged over 60 years, 30% over 70 years, to 50% over 80 years-of-age
  • 30–44% sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG)-bound testosterone and 54–68% albumin-bound testosterone
  • As the binding of testosterone to albumin is non-specific and therefore not tight, the sum of free and albumin-bound testosterone is named bioavailable testosterone, which reflects the hormone available at the cellular level
  • Serum total testosterone is composed of 0.5–3.0% of free testosterone unbound to plasma proteins
  • alterations in SHBG concentration might affect total serum testosterone level without altering free or bioavailable testosterone
  • listed in Table​T
  • A significant, independent and longitudinal effect of age on testosterone has been observed with an average change of −0.124 nmol/L/year in serum total testosterone28. The same trend has been shown in Europe and Australia
  • Asian men residing in HK and Japan, but not those living in the USA, had 20% higher serum total testosterone than in Caucasians living in the USA, as shown in a large multinational observational prospective cohort of the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study
  • subjects with chronic diseases consistently had a 10–15% lower level compared with age-matched healthy subjects
  • In Caucasians, the mean serum total testosterone level for men in large epidemiological studies has been reported to range from 15.1 to 16.6 nmol/L
  • Asians, higher values, ranging from 18.1 to 19.1 nmol/L, were seen in Korea and Japan
  • Chinese middle-aged men reported a similar mean serum testosterone level of 17.1 nmol/L in 179 men who had a family history of type 2 diabetes and 17.8 nmol/L in 128 men who had no family history of type 2 diabetes
  • The reduction of total testosterone was 0.4% per year in both groups
  • HK involving a cohort of 1,489 community-dwelling men with a mean age of 72 years, a mean serum total testosterone of 19.0 nmol/L was reported
  • pro-inflammatory factors, such as tumor necrosis factor-α in the testes, could locally inhibit testosterone biosynthesis in Leydig cells47, and testosterone treatment in men was shown to reduce the level of tumor necrosis factor-α
  • In Asians, a genetic deletion polymorphism of uridine diphosphate-glucuronosyltransferase UGT2B17 was associated with reduced androgen glucuronidation. This resulted in higher level of active androgen in Asians as compared to Caucasians, as Caucasians' androgen would be glucuronidated into inactive forms faster.
  • Compared with Caucasians, the frequency of this deletion polymorphism of UGT2B17 was 22-fold higher in Asian subjects
  • Other researchers have suggested that environmental, but not genetic, factors influenced serum total testosterone
  • The basal and ligand-induced activity of the AR is inversely associated with the length of the CAG repeat chain
  • In the European Male Aging Study, increased estrogen/androgen ratio in association with longer AR CAG repeat was observed
  • a smaller number of AR CAG repeat had been shown to be associated with benign prostate hypertrophy and faster prostate growth during testosterone treatment
  • In India, men with CAG ≤19 had increased risk of prostate cancer
  • the odds of having a short CAG repeat (≤17) were substantially higher in patients with lymph node-positive prostate cancer than in those with lymph node-negative disease or in the general population
  • assessing the polymorphism at the AR level could be a potential tool towards individualized assessment and treatment of hypogonadism.
  • In elderly men, there was reduced testicular response to gonadotropins with suppressed and altered pulsatility of the hypothalamic pulse generator
  • a significant, independent and longitudinal effect of age on serum total testosterone level had been observed
  • A significant graded inverse association between serum testosterone level and insulin levels independent of age has also been reported in Caucasian men
  • Low testosterone is commonly associated with a high prevalence of MES
  • most studies showed that changes in serum testosterone level led to changes in body composition, insulin resistance and the presence of MES, the reverse might also be possible
  • MES predicted a 2.6-fold increased risk of development of low serum testosterone level independent of age, smoking and other potential confounders
  • Other prospective studies have shown that development of MES accelerated the age-related decline in serum testosterone level
  • In men with type 2 diabetes, changes in serum testosterone level over time correlated inversely with changes in insulin resistance
  • weight loss by either diet control or bariatric surgery led to a substantial increase in total testosterone, especially in morbidly obese men, and the rise in serum testosterone level was proportional to the amount of weight lost
  • To date, published clinical trials are small, of short duration and often used pharmacological, not physiological, doses of testosterone
  • In the population-based Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study cohort from Sweden, men in the highest quartile of serum testosterone level had the lowest risk of cardiovascular events compared with men in the other three quartiles (hazard ratio [HR] 0.70
  • low serum total testosterone was associated with a significant fourfold higher risk of cardiovascular events when comparing men from the lowest testosterone tertile with those in the highest tertile
  • Shores et al. were the first to report that low serum testosterone level, including both serum total and free testosterone, was associated with increased mortality
  • low serum total testosterone predicted increased risk of cardiovascular mortality with a HR of 1.38
  • low serum total testosterone increased all-cause (HR 1.35, 95% CI 1.13–1.62, P < 0.001) and cardiovascular mortality (HR 1.25
  • European Association for the Study of Diabetes 2013 suggested there was an inverse relationship between serum testosterone level and acute myocardial infarction
  • Diabetic men in the highest quartile of serum total testosterone had a significantly reduced risk of acute MI when compared with those in the lower quartiles
  • serum total testosterone level in the middle two quartiles at baseline predicted reduced incidence of death compared with having the highest and lowest levels
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    Nice review of Testosterone levels and some of the evidence linking Diabetes with low T.  However, the conclusion by the authors regarding what is causing the low T in men with Diabetes is baffling.  The literature does not point to one cause, it is clearly multifactorial--obesity, inflammation, high aromatase activity...I would suggest the authors continue their readings in the manner.
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Testosterone: More Than Having the Guts to Win the Tour de France - 0 views

  • female adult mice have microbiomes similar to those of prepubescent mice of both sexes;
  • the commensal microbial community in adult male mice significantly deviates from this shared initial pool.
  • the microbiome in castrated adult males clearly shifts away from that of normal adult males and is closer to the microbiome of females
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  • The incidence of T1D in these mice is positively correlated with the “femaleness” of the microbiota
  • These results support the hypothesis that the host androgen level is influential in determining the composition of the microbiota, which in turn affects T1D initiation and progression
  • a high testosterone level enriches the microbiota for specific organisms such as segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB) and Escherichia coli or Shigella–like (SECS) strains.
  • A minimum level of testosterone and specific male-enriched microbes working together upregulate M2 macrophage and IFN-γ producing T cells in pancreatic lymph nodes. Microarray data show that both the IFN-γ and IL-1β pathways are also stimulated.
  • These microbes also upregulate host testosterone
  • In four independent experiments, the authors found no universal unique “male microbiome”
  • they did find that four distinct combinations of microbial groupings (with an interesting lack of overlap at the individual family level in the four experiments) were enhanced by androgen
  • one species consists of the segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB) and belongs to the Firmicutes, whereas the other is an Escherichia coli or Shigella–like (SECS) strain belonging to the Proteobacteria
  • colonization with protective microbiomes—e.g., SPF microbiota, SFB, and SECS—is positively correlated with high blood testosterone levels in male mice
  • A direct implication of this study is that probiotic administration or fecal transplantation is a theoretically possible approach to protection against T1D
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    nice summary of article on the relationship between Testosteorne and gut microbiome in autoimmune disease.
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Diet-Induced Dysbiosis of the Intestinal Microbiota and the Effects on Immunity and Dis... - 0 views

  • The gut microbiota participates in the body’s metabolism by affecting energy balance, glucose metabolism, and low-grade inflammation associated with obesity and related metabolic disorders
  • Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes represent the two largest phyla in the human and mouse microbiota and a shift in the ratio of these phyla has been associated with many disease conditions, including obesity
  • In obese humans, there is decreased abundance of Bacteroidetes compared to lean individuals
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  • weight loss in obese individuals results in an increase in the abundance of Bacteroidetes
  • there is conflicting evidence on the composition of the obese microbiota phenotype with regards to Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes ratios
  • Bifidobacteria spp. from the phyla Actinobacteria, has been shown to be depleted in both obese mice and human subjects
  • While it is not yet clear which specific microbes are inducing or preventing obesity, evidence suggests that the microbiota is a factor.
  • targeted manipulation of the microbiota results in divergent metabolic outcomes depending on the composition of the diet
  • The microbiota has been linked to insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes (T2D) via metabolic syndrome and indeed the microbiota of individuals with T2D is also characterized by an increased Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes ratio, as well as an increase in Bacillus and Lactobacillus spp
  • It was also observed that the ratio of Bacteriodes-Prevotella to C. coccoides-E. rectale positively correlated with glucose levels but did not correlate with body mass index [80]. This suggests that the microbiota may influence T2D in conjunction with or independently of obesity
  • In humans, high-fat Western-style diets fed to individuals over one month can induce a 71% increase in plasma levels of endotoxins, suggesting that endotoxemia may develop in individuals with GI barrier dyfunction connected to dysbiosis
  • LPS increases macrophage infiltration essential for systemic inflammation preceding insulin resistance, LPS alone does not impair glucose metabolism
  • early treatment of dysbiosis may slow down or prevent the epidemic of metabolic diseases and hence the corresponding lethal cardiovascular consequences
  • increased Firmicutes and decreased Bacteroidetes, which is the microbial profile found in lean phenotypes, along with an increase in Bifidobacteria spp. and Lactobacillus spp
  • mouse and rat models of T1D have been shown to have microbiota marked by decreased diversity and decreased Lactobacillus spp., as well as a decrease in the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio
  • microbial antigens through the innate immune system are involved in T1D progression
  • The microbiota appears to be essential in maintaining the Th17/Treg cell balance in intestinal tissues, mesenteric and pancreatic lymph nodes, and in developing insulitis, although progression to overt diabetes has not been shown to be controlled by the microbiota
  • There is evidence that dietary and microbial antigens independently influence T1D
  • Lactobacillus johnsonii N6.2 protects BB-rats from T1D by mediating intestinal barrier function and inflammation [101,102] and a combination probiotic VSL#3 has been shown to attenuate insulitis and diabetes in NOD mice
  • breast fed infants have higher levels of Bifidobacteria spp. while formula fed infants have higher levels of Bacteroides spp., as well as increased Clostridium coccoides and Lactobacillus spp
  • the composition of the gut microbiota strongly correlates with diet
  • In mice fed a diet high in fat, there are many key gut population changes, such as the absence of gut barrier-protecting Bifidobacteria spp
  • diet has a dominating role in shaping gut microbiota and changing key populations may transform healthy gut microbiota into a disease-inducing entity
  • “Western” diet, which is high in sugar and fat, causes dysbiosis which affects both host GI tract metabolism and immune homeostasis
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    Nice discussion of how diet, induces gut bacterial change, that leads to metabolic endotoxemia and disease.
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Cancer cells metabolically "fertilize" the tumor microenvironment with hydrogen peroxid... - 0 views

  • reducing oxidative stress with powerful antioxidants, is an important strategy for cancer prevention, as it would suppress one of the key early initiating steps where DNA damage and tumor-stroma metabolic-coupling begins. This would prevent cancer cells from acting as metabolic “parasites
  • Oxidative stress in cancer-associated fibroblasts triggers autophagy and mitophagy, resulting in compartmentalized cellular catabolism, loss of mitochondrial function, and the onset of aerobic glycolysis, in the tumor stroma. As such, cancer-associated fibroblasts produce high-energy nutrients (such as lactate and ketones) that fuel mitochondrial biogenesis and oxidative metabolism in cancer cells. We have termed this new energy-transfer mechanism the “reverse Warburg effect.
  • Then, oxidative stress, in cancer-associated fibroblasts, triggers the activation of two main transcription factors, NFκB and HIF-1α, leading to the onset of inflammation, autophagy, mitophagy and aerobic glycolysis in the tumor microenvironment
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  • oxidative stress and ROS, produced in cancer-associated fibroblasts, has a “bystander effect” on adjacent cancer cells, leading to DNA damage, genomic instability and aneuploidy, which appears to be driving tumor-stroma co-evolution
  • tumor cells produce and secrete hydrogen peroxide, thereby “fertilizing” the tumor microenvironment and driving the “reverse Warburg effect.”
  • This type of stromal metabolism then produces high-energy nutrients (lactate, ketones and glutamine), as well as recycled chemical building blocks (nucleotides, amino acids, fatty acids), to literally “feed” cancer cells
  • loss of stromal caveolin (Cav-1) is sufficient to drive mitochondrial dysfunction with increased glucose uptake in fibroblasts, mimicking the glycolytic phenotype of cancer-associated fibroblasts.
  • oxidative stress initiated in tumor cells is transferred to cancer-associated fibroblasts.
  • Then, cancer-associated fibroblasts show quantitative reductions in mitochondrial activity and compensatory increases in glucose uptake, as well as high ROS production
  • These findings may explain the prognostic value of a loss of stromal Cav-1 as a marker of a “lethal” tumor microenvironment
  • aerobic glycolysis takes place in cancer-associated fibroblasts, rather than in tumor cells, as previously suspected.
  • our results may also explain the “field effect” in cancer biology,5 as hydrogen peroxide secreted by cancer cells, and the propagation of ROS production, from cancer cells to fibroblasts, would create an increasing “mutagenic field” of ROS production, due to the resulting DNA damage
  • Interruption of this process, by addition of catalase (an enzyme that detoxifies hydrogen peroxide) to the tissue culture media, blocks ROS activity in cancer cells and leads to apoptotic cell death in cancer cells
  • In this new paradigm, cancer cells induce oxidative stress in neighboring cancer-associated fibroblasts
  • cancer-associated fibroblasts have the largest increases in glucose uptake
  • cancer cells secrete hydrogen peroxide, which induces ROS production in cancer-associated fibroblasts
  • Then, oxidative stress in cancer-associated fibroblast leads to decreases in functional mitochondrial activity, and a corresponding increase in glucose uptake, to fuel aerobic glycolysis
  • cancer cells show significant increases in mitochondrial activity, and decreases in glucose uptake
  • fibroblasts and cancer cells in co-culture become metabolically coupled, resulting in the development of a “symbiotic” or “parasitic” relationship.
  • cancer-associated fibroblasts undergo aerobic glycolysis (producing lactate), while cancer cells use oxidative mitochondrial metabolism.
  • We have previously shown that oxidative stress in cancer-associated fibroblasts drives a loss of stromal Cav-1, due to its destruction via autophagy/lysosomal degradation
  • a loss of stromal Cav-1 is sufficient to induce further oxidative stress, DNA damage and autophagy, essentially mimicking pseudo-hypoxia and driving mitochondrial dysfunction
  • loss of stromal Cav-1 is a powerful biomarker for identifying breast cancer patients with early tumor recurrence, lymph-node metastasis, drug-resistance and poor clinical outcome
  • this type of metabolism (aerobic glycolysis and autophagy in the tumor stroma) is characteristic of a lethal tumor micro-environment, as it fuels anabolic growth in cancer cells, via the production of high-energy nutrients (such as lactate, ketones and glutamine) and other chemical building blocks
  • the upstream tumor-initiating event appears to be the secretion of hydrogen peroxide
  • one such enzymatically-active protein anti-oxidant that may be of therapeutic use is catalase, as it detoxifies hydrogen peroxide to water
  • numerous studies show that “catalase therapy” in pre-clinical animal models is indeed sufficient to almost completely block tumor recurrence and metastasis
  • by eliminating oxidative stress in cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment,55 we may be able to effectively cut off the tumor's fuel supply, by blocking stromal autophagy and aerobic glycolysis
  • breast cancer patients show systemic evidence of increased oxidative stress and a decreased anti-oxidant defense, which increases with aging and tumor progression.68–70 Chemotherapy and radiation therapy then promote further oxidative stress.69 Unfortunately, “sub-lethal” doses of oxidative stress during cancer therapy may contribute to tumor recurrence and metastasis, via the activation of myofibroblasts.
  • a loss of stromal Cav-1 is associated with the increased expression of gene profiles associated with normal aging, oxidative stress, DNA damage, HIF1/hypoxia, NFκB/inflammation, glycolysis and mitochondrial dysfunction
  • cancer-associated fibroblasts show the largest increases in glucose uptake, while cancer cells show corresponding decreases in glucose uptake, under identical co-culture conditions
  • Thus, increased PET glucose avidity may actually be a surrogate marker for a loss of stromal Cav-1 in human tumors, allowing the rapid detection of a lethal tumor microenvironment.
  • it appears that astrocytes are actually the cell type responsible for the glucose avidity.
  • In the brain, astrocytes are glycolytic and undergo aerobic glycolysis. Thus, astrocytes take up and metabolically process glucose to lactate.7
  • Then, lactate is secreted via a mono-carboxylate transporter, namely MCT4. As a consequence, neurons use lactate as their preferred energy substrate
  • both astrocytes and cancer-associated fibroblasts express MCT4 (which extrudes lactate) and MCT4 is upregulated by oxidative stress in stromal fibroblasts.34
  • In accordance with the idea that cancer-associated fibroblasts take up the bulk of glucose, PET glucose avidity is also now routinely used to measure the extent of fibrosis in a number of human diseases, including interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, postsurgical scars, keloids, arthritis and a variety of collagen-vascular diseases.
  • PET glucose avidity and elevated serum inflammatory markers both correlate with poor prognosis in breast cancers.
  • PET signal over-estimates the actual anatomical size of the tumor, consistent with the idea that PET glucose avidity is really measuring fibrosis and inflammation in the tumor microenvironment.
  • human breast and lung cancer patients can be positively identified by examining their exhaled breath for the presence of hydrogen peroxide.
  • tumor cell production of hydrogen peroxide drives NFκB-activation in adjacent normal cells in culture6 and during metastasis,103 directly implicating the use of antioxidants, NFκB-inhibitors and anti-inflammatory agents, in the treatment of aggressive human cancers.
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    Good description of the communication between cancer cells and fibroblasts.  This theory is termed the "reverse Warburg effect".
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Role of maximum standardized uptake value in fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomog... - 0 views

  • 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) is an effective and popular technique for evaluating patients before and after breast cancer surgery.
  • Quantitative FDG-PET/CT imaging is becoming prevalent in cancer treatment as it measures glucose metabolism that reflects the growth potential and metabolic activity of malignant tumors
  • The FDG-PET/CT findings of primary lesions in colorectal and lung cancers correlate with metastasis and prognosis because FDG reflects tumor viability
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  • The technique is valuable for predicting the prognosis of patients with recurrent breast cancer and for determining and predicting the outcomes of neoadjuvant chemotherapy
  • FDG-PET/CT is useful not only for evaluating metastasis but also for predicting the prognosis of recurrent breast cancer and measuring treatment effects
  • reports remain limited to small-scale clinical trials of about 100 patients.
  • MaxSUV, which is the most popular FDG-PET/CT value, can vary up to 30 % because of differences among PET/CT devices and among the operators who create the images
  • the degree of malignancy would increase with an increase in maxSUV when ER or HER-2 signaling is involved.
  • Factors that determine the rate of cancer progression include T-factor (tumor diameter) and N-factor (presence or absence/number of lymph node metastasis)
  • The prognostic factors applied in breast cancer can be broadly divided into those that determine staging and those that determine biological tumor characteristics
  • Prognosis was previously predicted based on T, N, and M staging, which indicates the degree of progression. However, prognosis is now predicted and treatment regimes are presently selected by also considering ER and HER-2 levels, which determine the nature of the tumor
  • maxSUV presently serves as an indicator of metabolic activity during cancer therapy. For instance, the maxSUV of primary lung and hematological cancer lesions correlates with metastasis and prognosis, whereas maxSUV also seems useful for predicting the prognosis of recurrent breast cancer and in determining and predicting the outcome of neoadjuvant chemotherapy
  • The maxSUV cut-off calculated from ROC curves for recurrence was 3.0
  • Factors that determine the nature of tumors also include ER, HER-2, Ki-67 labeling index, and nuclear grade
  • both ER status and maxSUV as independent prognostic factors
  • maxSUV has a closer correlation with prognosis
  • maxSUV, clinical T-factor and ER were significant prognostic factors
  • Our results showed that maxSUV has the potential to be a novel prognostic factor and that it can be used to determine future therapies
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    Retrospective, multi-facility finds maxSUV can be used in prognosis in cancer.  Others have shown benefit in recurrence risk.  MaxSUV was found to be an independent factor.
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FDG-PET/CT imaging biomarkers in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma - 0 views

  • F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT is sensitive for the diagnosis and initial staging of several types of malignancies
  • SUV is a semiquantitative measure of the normalized concentration of radioactivity in a tumor or lesion
  • As FDG is the most common radiotracer used clinically and reflects tumor glucose metabolism, SUV is used as a surrogate marker for tumor metabolism.
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  • The association between FDG uptake and tumor burden or stage has been well documented
  • advanced tumors tend to have higher FDG uptake (and thus higher SUV values)
  • the impact of the SUV on treatment outcome has been observed even within a given tumor stage
  • primary tumor SUVmax >10 predicted survival, independent of the tumor stage and diameter
  • FDG uptake not only reflects tumor burden/stage but also expresses, at least in part, some intrinsic biologic characteristic(s) of the tumor
  • SUVmax reflects the highest voxel value within the ROI or VOI. It is the most widely used parameter to measure metabolic tumor activity in oncologic FDG-PET/CT imaging
  • Several studies suggest that primary tumor baseline SUVmax also has predictive value in assessing the tumor burden, lymph node involvement and local extension
  • According to EORTC, a drop (delta between baseline and post-therapy) of 15–25% in SUVmax may represent a good treatment response
  • PERCIST criteria was proposed by the investigators at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and suggested that a decrease in SUV normalized to lean body mass of at least 30% should be achieved before considering partial tumor response
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    Good review of PET/CT scan and MaxSUV in head and neck cancers.
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