A rising frequency of thymic epithelial tumors has been noted recent years,however limited drugs can be chosen for recurrent and metastatic thymic epithelial tumors patients.Treatment patterns in mul-tiple tumors have been rapidly developing in parallel with the growing use of immune checkpoint inhibitors(ICIs).Although ICIs have showed certain efficacy in thymic epithelial tumors patients,the relatively high in-cidence of immune-related adverse events(irAEs)limited its application.This review aims to summary the ef-ficacy,side effects and related mechanisms of ICIs for treating thymic epithelial tumors patient,which may shed light on the predicament of immunotherapy for thymic epithelial tumors patients.

The combination of the immunotherapy (i.e., the use of monoclonal antibodies) and the conventional chemotherapy increases the long-term survival of patients with lymphoma. However, for patients with relapsed or treatment-resistant lymphoma, a novel treatment approach is urgently needed. Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells were introduced as a treatment for these patients. Based on recent clinical data, approximately 50% of patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma achieved complete remission after receiving the CD19 CAR-T cell therapy. Moreover, clinical data revealed that some patients remained in remission for more than two years after the CAR-T cell therapy. Other than the CD19-targeted CAR-T, the novel target antigens, such as CD20, CD22, CD30, and CD37, which were greatly expressed on lymphoma cells, were studied under preclinical and clinical evaluations for use in the treatment of lymphoma. Nonetheless, the CAR-T therapy was usually associated with potentially lethal adverse effects, such as the cytokine release syndrome and the neurotoxicity. Therefore, optimizing the structure of CAR, creating new drugs, and combining CAR-T cell therapy with stem cell transplantation are potential solutions to increase the effectiveness of treatment and reduce the toxicity in patients with lymphoma after the CAR-T cell therapy.
Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy ; Humans ; Immunotherapy, Adoptive ; Lymphoma/therapy* ; Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell ; Receptors, Chimeric Antigen

BACKGROUND: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutation is closely related to the EGFR-TKI target treatment and prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma patients. The mutation status of EGFR is limited by tissue detection. The purpose of this study was to investigate the difference of EGFR mutants in plasmacirculating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) obtained from patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in three groups: pre-therapy, after traditional chemotherapy and targeted therapy. The aim of this study was to analyze whether the plasma cfDNA could effectively determine the EGFR mutations and monitor the drug resistant gene T790M, as well as its prognostic prediction value in patients with targeted therapy. METHODS: ARMS (amplification refractory mutation system)-PCR was used to detect EGFR mutations in 107 (50 of pre-therapy, 29 after traditional chemotherapy and 28 after targeted therapy) cases of paired plasma and tumor tissue specimens, followed by comparing their concordance. The sensitivity, specificity and the prognostic value of plasma cfDNA detection were also observed. RESULTS: The total rate of EGFR mutation was 56% (60/107) in all plasma samples and 77.6% (83/107) in corresponding tumor tissues. Completely the same mutants and wild-type EGFR were found in 68.2% cases of paired specimens. The sensitivity of plasma cfDNA detection was 72.3% and the specificity was up to 100%. Patients were sub-categorized according to therapy. The results showed that the highest consistent rate of cfDNA and tumor tissues was found in the group of pre-therapy (74%, 37/50). Whereas, the lowest consistent rate was observed in the targeted therapy group (57.1%, 16/28). It indicated that the targeted treatment could change the EGFR status in plasma cfDNA. Further analyses on inconsistent cases in this group revealed that 50% of them were compound EGFR mutations with T790M. Thereby, it suggested that targeted therapy might induce the emergence of drug resistance gene T790M. This speculation was confirmed by survival analyses. Based on plasma cfDNA results, patients with T790M mutant had significantly worse progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). CONCLUSIONS For EGFR testing, ARMS-PCR on plasma cfDNA is a promising methodology with the highest specificity and effective sensitivity. It is useful for EGFR testing in patients before treatment, especially the late-stage patients. Simultaneously, plasma cfDNA could be used to monitor the drug resistant mutation, T790M status and predict prognosis after targeted therapy.
Adenocarcinoma ; blood ; drug therapy ; genetics ; mortality ; Adenocarcinoma of Lung ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Cell-Free Nucleic Acids ; blood ; ErbB Receptors ; genetics ; Female ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; blood ; drug therapy ; genetics ; mortality ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Molecular Targeted Therapy ; Mutation, Missense ; Prognosis

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of high frequency ultrasound in sebaceous gland carcinoma of eyelid (SC).Methods The ultrasonic characteristic for 11 cases with eyelid SC were respectively analyzed by using 13 MHz high frequency ultrasound and 22 MHz ultra-high frequency ultrasound.Results Through 13 MHz high frequency ultrasound,in 7 patients who exhibited Pagetoid invasion the lid shin thickness of tumor side displays no significant alteration in a comparison with normal side.Furthermore,the color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) evealed a branch-like blood flow surrounding the masses in all cases,but the blood flow of seven patients with Pagetoid invasion had no difference compared with the healthy side.On 22 MHz ultra-high frequency ultrasound examination,slit-like low echo was found in 9 ;transition zone of tumor infiltration can be identified in 9 ; the echo of tumors with Pagetoid invasion was lower than the healthy side and the skin thickness of tumors with Pagetoid invasion was thicker (0.6 ±0.1) mm than the healthy side.CDFI revealed that mesh-basket like blood flow was rich in all patients,the small branch blood vessels arrived at subcutaneous,and vasa vasorum were found in some patients.The region with Pagetoid invasion was rich in blood flow.The sonography findings on 13 MHz and 22 MHz high frequency ultrasound examination were compared with chisquare test.There were significant differences on homogeneous echo,slit-like low echo,transition zone of tumor infiltration,infiltration skin thickness,blood distribution,central blood vessels,vasa vasorum,blood flow in the region with Pagetoid invasion (x2 =12.571,15.231,15.231,4.701,22.000,15.231,4.899,10.267,P＜0.05).Conclusions Slit-like low echo in the mass is a main finding of eyelid sebaceous gland cercinoma on the 22 MHz ultra-high frequency ultrasound.The ultra-high frequency ultrasound can accurately reveal the skin depth infiltrated by the eyelid sebaceous gland cercinoma and this method can provide solid guidance for clinical treatment strategies.

In this research, the effects of two new retinoids, SX-115 and CHU-012, on promyelocytic leukemia cell line NB4 were studied in vitro. Cell proliferation, cell morphologic characters, cell cycle kinetics, reduction ability of NBT, differentiation antigens, immunofluorescence staining and RT-PCR were adopted as the observational parameters. The results showed that SX-115 and CHU-012 induced differentiation of NB4 cells at concentration of 10(-6) mol/L. Comparing the effects of the two retinoids with all trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) at same concentration, there was no significant difference among the three agents. The mechanism of the 2 new retinoids remains possibly the same as ATRA.