Journal of Clinical Haematology

Balanced translocation resulting in fusion of the Abelson gene (ABL₁) from chromosome 9q34 with the breakpoint cluster region (BCR) gene on chromosome 22q11.2 is the pathognomonic molecular driver of CML. The resulting BCRABL 1 fusion gene is both the diagnostic as well as therapeutic target of CML. The first agent with tyrosine kinase inhibitor activity that was licenced in 2000 for treatment of CML patients, was Imatinib, gradually followed by multiple agents with higher efficacy.

Although NK cells are recognized as effector lymphocytes of the innate immune system, they also regulate the adaptive immune response by releasing inflammatory cytokines and developing immunological memory. Unlike other lymphocytes such as T or B cells, NK cells do not express rearrangeable, antigen-specific receptors. 

Angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma (AITL) is one of the most common T-cell lymphomas, second only to peripheral T-cell lymphoma not otherwise specified (PTCL-NOS). Initially AITL was considered a non-malignant lymphadenopathy with immune hyperactivation, nowadays being classified as a PTCL.

Our modern world is facing extraordinary circumstances while passing through a serious pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) which may lead to multi-organ system failure & death. Bcell depletion could compromise antiviral immunity, which makes the safety of rituximab use in the COVID19 era unclear.

During the last few decades, immunotherapy is considered to be an important approach to help our immune system to fight various kinds of diseases, such as tumor. Sometimes, it works very well for some types of cancers, for example: bladder cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer and lymphoma.

In the manuscript entitled “The ion channels and transporters gene expression profile indicates a shift in excitability and metabolisms during malignant progression of Follicular Lymphoma”, we reported recent advances in our understanding of how the gene expression profile of ion channels and transporters (ICT-GEP) contributes to identify specific signatures associated with Follicular Lymphoma (FL), with those FL that acquire chemoresistance after a relapsing-remitting course, and with the more aggressive Diffuse Large Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL), which in some cases represent the evolution of FLs. 

The gut microbiome or gut flora is a vast community of microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and fungi that inhabit the digestive tract of the human and other animals. In the human body, bacterial species colonize into the oral cavity, skin, vagina, and placenta, however, the largest population of microorganisms resides in the intestine. The majority of gut microbiota belong to the phyla Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria.

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide, affecting nearly one in eight women. Accurate cancer staging is essential for determining the patient’s prognosis and for choosing the appropriate treatment. The staging system most often used is the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) TNM system, where T refers to the size of the tumor, N refers to spread of the primary cancer to nearby lymph nodes, and M refers to the spread of metastasis to distant sites in the body.

Peripheral nerves have been shown to modulate the growth and spread of tumours in the prostate, feeding both cancer cells and the stroma in the tumour environment. Several in vitro and in vivo studies have reported the effect of botulinum toxin (BT) on tumour tissue in the prostate. BT in humans has been observed to cause increased apoptosis of cancer cells, with morphological changes characterized by extensive degenerative and atrophic areas of cancer, reduced cytoplasm, and pyknotic nuclei, compared to the characteristics of cancer tissues injected with saline solution.

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) is a clonal disorder originated by a pluripotent hematopoietic stem cell, which presents the translocation t(9;22) (q34;q11) in 90% of the cases. This genetic abnormality is a balanced translocation between Abelson Murine Leukemia (ABL) located in chromosome 9 with the Breakpoint Cluster Region (BCR) gene at chromosome 22, generating Philadelphia chromosome (Ph) or BCR-ABL1, which codes an oncoprotein of 210 kDa. This alteration represents a hallmark in oncology and for CML research, diagnosis, and prognosis. 

NOXA is a critical mediator of stress responses to anticancer drugs. This BH3-only protein sets the apoptotic threshold in cancer cells in response to chemotherapies by counteracting the prosurvival BCL-2 family protein MCL-1. A complex and dynamic network relying on both highly controlled gene transcription activity and protein degradation by proteasome, regulates cellular NOXA levels from low in steady state to rapidly enhanced upon stressful condition.

In 2020 we published a series of 18 patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and vaginal radical trachelectomy (VRT) as a fertility sparing alternative in stage 1B2 cervical cancer.

The immune system developed certain checks and balance to control or inhibit the reactivity against normal cells of the body. Uncontrolled immune responses to the non-self entities such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, or mutated self-antigens can cause an inflammatory reaction and autoimmune diseases.

Cancer nanomedicine was originally developed for more efficient delivery of chemotherapeutic agents into tumor, and has been extensively employed as a therapeutic for cancer treatment owing to its unique features in drug delivery, diagnosis and imaging, as well as the therapeutic nature of some nanomaterials themselves.

Cells of the innate and adaptive arm of the immune system including macrophages, natural killer (NK) cells, neutrophils, T cells, and B cells, etc. are crucial for the maintenance of the body’s homeostatic balance and prevention of multiple diseases including cancer.

Introducing cisplatin-based therapy into testicular cancer treatment represents a substantial progress in therapy leading to a longer survival of patients and less adverse effects; currently it represents the standard therapy.

Leukemia is the most common childhood malignancy and cause of pediatric cancer death. Significant advances in the cure rates of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) have been achieved; however, patients with refractory or relapsed B-ALL or T-ALL continue to have poor outcomes. Immunotherapy is a revolutionary treatment aimed to improve survival and reduce the toxicity of chemotherapy by harnessing the patient’s own immune system to target cancer cells.

Since the discovery of escaping mechanism of tumor from negative immune regulation, the paradigm of drug discovery for anti-cancer agents has been dramatically shifted to cancer immunotherapy (e.g., dendritic cell therapy, CAR-T cell therapy, or antibody therapy) by stimulating patient’s immune system to treat cancer. 

Leukemia is a tumor of the primary blood-forming cells. leukemia is not only a cancer of the white blood cells but also it originates in other blood cell types. Types of leukemia are categorized based on the rate of growth to acute (fastgrowing) or chronic (slower growing), and whether it arises in myeloid cells or lymphoid cells. Different types of leukemia have a different line of treatment and prognosis.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a heterogeneous disease with variable outcomes. The majority of patients benefit from chemo-immunotherapy; however, 30 to 40% relapse after first-line treatment, and 10% are refractory to first-line treatment. This variability in outcome has led to the identification of prognostic factors to stratify patients based on their risk of relapse. The five-factor international prognostic index (IPI) was formulated for such risk stratification more than 20 years ago, based on clinical information obtained from patients with aggressive lymphomas treated with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP)-like chemotherapy. The addition of rituximab to CHOP chemotherapy led to improved outcomes, diminishing the discriminatory capacity of IPI amongst risk groups. Efforts to enhance the prognostic model by adding or defining new factors have only led to minor improvements without the ability to identify patients at risk of an inferior outcome.