It is now clear that human neoplasms form, progress, and respond to therapy in the context of an intimate crosstalk with the host immune system. In particular, accumulating evidence demonstrates that the efficacy of most, if not all, chemo- and radiotherapeutic agents commonly employed in the clinic critically depends on the (re)activation of tumor-targeting immune responses. One of the mechanisms whereby conventional chemotherapeutics, targeted anticancer agents, and radiotherapy can provoke a therapeutically relevant, adaptive immune response against malignant cells is commonly known as “immunogenic cell death.” Importantly, dying cancer cells are perceived as immunogenic only when they emit a set of immunostimulatory signals upon the activation of intracellular stress response pathways. The emission of these signals, which are generally referred to as “damage-associated molecular patterns” (DAMPs), may therefore predict whether patients will respond to chemotherapy or not, at least in some settings. Here, we review clinical data indicating that DAMPs and DAMP-associated stress responses might have prognostic or predictive value for cancer patients.

Key Points: Malignant cells from patients with AML expose danger signals on the plasma membrane regardless of chemotherapy. Such danger signals correlate with markers of a clinically relevant tumor-specific immune response and with improved disease outcome.

To establish an optimum combination of molecular markers resulting in best overall diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for evaluation of suspicious pancreatic mass. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided fine needle aspiration cytology (FNA) was performed on 101 consecutive patients (63 males, 38 females, 60 +/- 12 years; 81 with subsequently diagnosed pancreatic cancer, 20 with chronic pancreatitis) with focal pancreatic mass. Samples were evaluated on-site by an experienced cytopathologist. DNA was extracted from Giemsa stained cells selected by laser microdissection and the presence of K-ras, p53 and p16 somatic mutations was tested by cycling-gradient capillary electrophoresis (CGCE) and single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) techniques. In addition, allelic losses of tumor suppressor genes p16 (INK4, CDKN2A) and DPC4 (MADH4, SMAD4) were detected by monitoring the loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at 9p and 18q, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity of EUS-guided FNA were 75% and 85%, positive and negative predictive value reached 100%. The remaining 26% samples were assigned as inconclusive. Testing of molecular markers revealed sensitivity and specificity of 70% and 100% for K-ras mutations (P < 0.001), 24% and 90% for p53 mutations (NS), 13% and 100% for p16 mutations (NS), 85% and 64% for allelic losses at 9p (P < 0.001) and 78% and 57% for allelic losses at 18q (P < 0.05). When tests for different molecular markers were combined, the best results were obtained with K-ras + LOH at 9p (92% and 64%, P < 0.001), K-ras + LOH at 18q (92% and 57%, P < 0.001), and K-ras + LOH 9q + LOH 18q (96% and 43%, P < 0.001). When the molecular markers were used as complements to FNA cytology to evaluate inconclusive samples only, the overall sensitivity of cancer detection was 100% in all patients enrolled in the study. EUS-guided FNA cytology combined with screening of K-ras mutations and allelic losses of tumor suppressors p16 and DPC4 represents a very sensitive approach in screening for pancreatic malignancy. Molecular markers may find its use particularly in cases where FNA cytology has been inconclusive.

Compared to solid tumors, the role of PD-L1 in hematological malignancies is less explored, and the knowledge in this area is mostly limited to lymphomas. However, several studies indicated that PD-L1 is also overexpressed in myeloid malignancies. Successful treatment of the acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is likely associated with elimination of the residual disease by the immune system, and possible involvement of PD-L1 in this process remains to be elucidated. We analyzed PD-L1 expression on AML primary cells by flow cytometry and, in parallel, transcript levels were determined for the transcription variants v1 and v2. The ratio of v1/v2 cDNA correlated with the surface protein amount, and high v1/v2 levels were associated with worse overall survival (p = 0.0045). The prognostic impact of PD-L1 was limited to AML with mutated nucleophosmin and concomitant internal tandem duplications in the FLT3 gene (p less than 0.0001 for this particular AML subgroup).

Objective: Somatic mutations in UBA1 have recently been causally linked to a severe adult‐onset inflammatory condition referred to as VEXAS (vacuoles, E1 enzyme, X‐linked, autoinflammatory, somatic) syndrome. Ubiquitin‐activating enzyme E1 (UBA‐1) is of fundamental importance to the modulation of ubiquitin homeostasis and to the majority of downstream ubiquitylation‐dependent cellular processes. Direct sequencing analysis of exon 3 containing the prevalent variants p.Met41Leu, p.Met41Val, and/or p.Met41Thr is usually used to confirm the disease‐associated mutations.Methods: We studied the clinical, biochemical, and molecular genetic characteristics of a 59‐year‐old man with a 2‐year history of arthritis, fever, night sweats, nonspecific skin rash, lymphadenopathy, and myelodysplastic syndrome with multilineage dysplasia.Results: The mutational analysis revealed a previously undescribed sequence variant c.1430G>C in exon 14 (p.Gly477Ala) in the gene UBA1. In vitro enzymatic analyses showed that p.Gly477Ala led to both decreased E1 ubiquitin thioester formation and E2 enzyme charging.Conclusion: We report a case of a patient of European ancestry with clinical manifestations of VEXAS syndrome associated with a newly identified dysfunctional UBA‐1 enzyme variant. Due to the patient's insufficient response to various immunosuppressive treatments, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation was performed, which resulted in significant improvement of clinical and laboratory manifestations of the disease. image