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Making a Killer: Selecting the Optimal Natural Killer Cells for Improved ImmunotherapiesOver the past 20 years natural killer (NK) cell-based immunotherapies have emerged as a safe and effective treatment option for patients with relapsed or refractory leukemia. Unlike T cell-based therapies, NK cells harbor an innate capacity to eliminate malignant cells without prior sensitization and can be adoptively transferred between individuals without the need for extensive HLA matching.
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Improving compliance with swallowing exercise to decrease radiotherapy-related dysphagia in patients with head and neck cancerDysphagia, one of the most common complications in head and neck cancer (HNC) treated with radiotherapy, can severely affect patients’ quality of life. Currently, because no “gold standard” treatment exists, swallowing exercise remains the main rehabilitation strategy for dysphagia. However, patients’ compliance with long-term swallowing exercise is only 40%, thus, greatly compromising outcomes. This article aims to analyze thefactors influencing swallowing exercise compliance in patients with HNC and explains strategies developed to date for improved rehabilitation outcomes.
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Anoctamins and Calcium Signalling: An Obstacle to EGFR Targeted Therapy in Glioblastoma?Glioblastoma is the most common form of high-grade glioma in adults and has a poor survival rate with very limited treatment options. There have been no significant advancements in glioblastoma treatment in over 30 years. Epidermal growth factor receptor is upregulated in most glioblastoma tumours and, therefore, has been a drug target in recent targeted therapy clinical trials.
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Comprehensive Testing of Chemotherapy and Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Preclinical Cancer Models Identifies Additive CombinationsAntibodies that target immune checkpoints such as cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA‐4) and the programmed cell death protein 1/ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) are now a treatment option for multiple cancer types. However, as a monotherapy, objective responses only occur in a minority of patients. Chemotherapy is widely used in combination with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). Although a variety of isolated immunostimulatory effects have been reported for several classes of chemotherapeutics, it is unclear which chemotherapeutics provide the most benefit when combined with ICB.
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Kids are not small adults, Identifying age-dependent drug targets in paediatric oncologyCancers in children are very different to cancers in adults. However, most therapeutic strategies are designed explicitly for adult cancers, and then used in children if proven safe.
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The interplay between sarcoma and surgery-induced wound healingIn this project, we are using systems biology approaches to map the wound healing response in sarcoma following surgery to identify new treatments that can prevent sarcoma relapse.
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Understanding acute burn injury as a chronic diseaseThe review will outline evidence of long-term health effects, possible mechanisms linking burn injury to long-term health and current research into burns as a chronic disease
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Most clinical anti-EGFR antibodies do not neutralize both wtEGFR and EGFRvIII activation in gliomaWe discovered a previously unknown major resistance mechanism in glioma in that most EGFR domain III-targeting antibodies do not neutralize EGFRvIII
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Activation of ERBB4 in Glioblastoma Can Contribute to Increased Tumorigenicity and Influence Therapeutic ResponseThe functional effects of increased ERBB4 activation identify ERBB4 as a potential prognostic and therapeutic target
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Timing of excision after a non-severe burn has a significant impact on the subsequent immune response in a murine modelEarly excision of the wound, during the phase of immune down-regulation initiated by the burn, maintains an innate and adaptive immune cell response