Here at The Pathologist, we have covered almost ten years worth of cancer content. From technological innovations to scientific breakthroughs, we have seen rapid progress in cancer detection and diagnosis across the globe. So, join us today as we delve into the world of oncology – rediscovering some of our most interesting articles, news stories, and interviews with experts from the field.
In this article, we discuss hairy cell leukemia – a rare cancer that makes up about one in every 50 leukemia cases. We spoke to Graeme Quest from the Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation to find out more about the experiences of professionals treating patients with HCL.
“It’s still a bit of a mystery where hairy cells come from – they are memory B cells, but don’t seem to pass through germinal centers or gain CD27 like most memory B cells. We know that the BRAF V600E mutation is found in the early hematopoietic stem cells in HCL and some histiocytic neoplasms, though the two virtually never coexist or occur sequentially – so there is some added mystery in what commits these stem cells to their path.”
Researchers from Nagoya University, Japan, have turned to ovarian cancer extracellular vesicles (EVs) – including exosomes – as promising biomarkers.
“Originally, the challenge was to find ovarian cancer-specific proteins in ovarian cancer EVs. We tested multiple methods, including unique ELISA for EV detection, western blotting or referring database for discovering targets and validating them,” says Yokoi.
Adil Menon discusses the current state of antiangiogenic therapy and the potential of vascular normalization.
“The potential benefits of vascular normalization as a treatment strategy have been experimentally demonstrated. Tumor vasculature is more complex, dilated, tortuous, hyperpermeable, and disorganized than normal blood vessels. These complex, leaky vessels represent a limiting factor for the efficacy of combination therapy – but normalizing doses of an anti-VEGFR2 antibody helps reverse this phenotype in favor of a more homogeneous distribution of functional tumor vessels.”
We sit down with HRH Princess Dina Mired of Jordan, President of the Union for International Cancer Control, humanitarian, and health activist, to discuss cancer advocacy, her role at the Union for International Cancer Control, and much more!
“I am probably the first non-medical person to be at the helm of such an institution but, given my own experiences, I felt that I truly understood the patient’s perspective. I also come from the developing world, and I thought it was important for the UICC to have someone who had experienced the challenges and inadequacies faced by the places that they were aiming to help.”
Mark Kruzel talks about how closer pathology-oncology care team coordination is vital to fully benefit from the value of precision therapies and improve patient outcomes.
“One of the tools clinicians have at their disposal to inform a patient’s care is the companion diagnostic, which helps match a patient to a specific therapy, by identifying if a patient’s tumor has a specific gene change or biomarker that can be targeted by a certain treatment. Often, a companion diagnostic can supplement a biopsy.”
Dean Bitan emphasizes the role of deep learning and artificial intelligence to democratize genomic screening and transform patient care.
“Leveraging AI to reduce testing costs and make genomic screening available to everyone, everywhere, will make a real impact on the quality of patient care – not only by helping to select the most appropriate treatments, but also by speeding up the selection process to reduce wait times and anxiety for patients and families.”
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