bims-mesote 2022-08-28 papers

Br J Cancer. 2022 Aug 23.

A combination of intrinsic and extrinsic features improves prognostic prediction in malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Thinh T Nguyen, Hyun-Sung Lee, Bryan M Burt, Christopher I Amos, Chao Cheng.

BACKGROUND: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a lung pleural cancer with very poor disease outcome. With limited curative MPM treatment available, it is vital to study prognostic biomarkers to categorise different patient risk groups.
METHODS: We defined gene signatures to separately characterise intrinsic and extrinsic features, and investigated their interactions in MPM tumour samples. Specifically, we calculated gene signature scores to capture the downstream pathways of major mutated driver genes (BAP1, NF2, SETD2 and TP53) as tumour-intrinsic features. Similarly, we inferred the infiltration levels for major immune cells in the tumour microenvironment to characterise tumour-extrinsic features. Lastly, we integrated these features with clinical factors to predict prognosis in MPM.
RESULTS: The gene signature scores were more prognostic than the corresponding genomic mutations, mRNA and protein expression. High immune infiltration levels were associated with prolonged survival. The integrative model indicated that tumour features provided independent prognostic values than clinical factors and were complementary with each other in survival prediction.
CONCLUSIONS: By using an integrative model that combines intrinsic and extrinsic features, we can more correctly predict the clinical outcomes of patients with MPM.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-022-01950-z

Nat Cancer. 2022 Aug;3(8): 902-904

Accelerating innovations in systemic therapy for pleural mesothelioma.

Dean A Fennell, Aleksandra Bzura.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-022-00419-5

J Exp Clin Cancer Res. 2022 Aug 20. 41(1): 255

Artichoke phytocomplex modulates serum microRNAs in patients exposed to asbestos: a first step of a phase II clinical trial.

Paola Muti, Andrea Sacconi, Claudio Pulito, Giulia Orlandi, Sara Donzelli, Aldo Morrone, James Jiulian, Gerard P Cox, Martin Kolb, Gregory Pond, Peter Kavsak, Mark Norman Levine, Giovanni Blandino, Sabrina Strano.

BACKGROUND: Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a highly aggressive tumor associated with asbestos exposure. There are few effective treatment options for mesothelioma, and patients have a very poor prognosis. Mesothelioma has the potential to represent an appropriate disease to prevent because of its strong association with asbestos exposure and the long latency from exposure to the disease on-set.
METHODS: In the present study, we tested biological activity and toxicity of an artichoke freeze-dried extract (AWPC) as potential complementary preventive/early stage treatment agent for mesothelioma. This phase II clinical study then was conducted in 18 male-patients with evidence of radiographic characteristics related to asbestos exposure such as asbestosis or benign pleural disease as surrogate disease for mesothelioma clinical model.
RESULTS: We investigate AWPC biological activity assessing its effect on mesothelin serum level, a glycoprotein with low expression in normal mesothelial cells and high expression in mesothelioma and asbestos related diseases. We also assess the AWPC effect on circulating miRNAs, as novel biomarkers of both cancer risk and response to therapeutic targets. While we found a small and not significant effect of AWPC on mesothelin serum levels, we observed that AWPC intake modulated 11 serum miRNAs related to gene-pathways connected to mesothelioma etiology and development. In terms of toxicity, we also did not observe any severe adverse effects associated to AWPC treatment, only gastro-intestinal symptoms were reported by five study participants.
CONCLUSIONS: We observed an interesting AWPC effect on miRNAs which targets modulate mesothelioma development. New and much larger clinical studies based on follow-up of workers exposed to asbestos are needed to corroborate the role of AWPC in prevention and early treatment of mesothelioma.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02076672 . Registered 03/03/2014.

Keywords: Artichoke; Asbestosis; Biomarker; Malignant pleura mesothelioma; Mesothelin; miRNA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13046-022-02455-6

Lancet Respir Med. 2022 Aug 18. pii: S2213-2600(22)00301-0. [Epub ahead of print]

NICE guidelines on nivolumab plus ipilimumab for untreated, unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Amanda I Adler, Samuel Slayen, Heather Stegenga, Yelan Guo, Richard Diaz, Nicky J Welton, Nigel Westwood, Iolo Doull, Charles Crawley.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(22)00301-0

Med Lav. 2022 Aug 25. 113(4): e2022035

A case of localized peritoneal malignant mesothelioma with ovarian metastasis and literature review.

Jingwen Wang, Rong Hu, Qian He.

Peritoneal malignant mesothelioma (PMM) is a rare mesothelial cell-derived malignant tumor, which is clinically distinguished into a localized and diffuse forms, the latter being more common. The onset of PMM is insidious, so it is not easy to make a preoperative diagnosis of PMM. Clinicians must pay more attention to this disease in view of its poor prognosis. In order to improve the understanding of PMM, a case of patient with localized PMM metastasizing to the ovary is reported and discussed, along with a review of relevant literature to further explore the etiology, epidemiology, clinical manifestations, examination methods, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of PMM.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23749/mdl.v113i4.13142