The therapeutic landscape in locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) has undergone a significant paradigm shift in recent years with the rising adoption of total neoadjuvant treatment (TNT). This comprehensive approach entails administering chemotherapy and radiation therapy before surgery, followed by optional adjuvant chemotherapy. To establish and deliver the optimal tailored treatment regimen to the patient, it is crucial to foster collaboration among a multidisciplinary team comprising healthcare professionals from various specialties, including medical oncology, radiation oncology, surgical oncology, radiology, and pathology. This review aims to provide insights into the current state of TNT for LARC and new emerging strategies to identify potential directions for future research and clinical practice, such as circulating tumor-DNA, immunotherapy in mismatch-repair-deficient tumors, and nonoperative management.

Importance: This was a clinical study of total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT) for rectal cancer.Objective: To assess the use and outcomes of TNT in routine practice.Design, Setting, and Participants: This international, multicenter study was conducted at 61 centers across 21 countries and included consecutive patients treated off trial with TNT for stage II/III rectal adenocarcinoma from September 2012 to December 2023. Data were analyzed between August and October 2024.Exposure: TNT, defined as the delivery of radiotherapy and nonradiosensitizing chemotherapy before surgery or watch and wait.Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was type of TNT administered. Secondary outcomes were patient characteristics, treatment adherence, safety, and efficacy overall and by type of TNT in the entire population and after propensity vector matching.Results: A total of 1585 patients (588 female [37.1%]; median [IQR] age, 61 [53-68] years) were included, 1260 (79.5%) of whom had 1 or more high-risk features (eg, cT4, cN2, extramural venous invasion, threatened/involved mesorectal fascia, and lateropelvic lymphadenopathy). Patients were treated with the PRODIGE 23–like regimen (FOLFIRINOX/FOLFOXIRI followed by long-course chemoradiotherapy) (271 [17.7%]), RAPIDO-like regimen (short-course radiotherapy followed by consolidation FOLFOX/CAPOX) (529 [33.4%]), OPRA induction-like (induction FOLFOX/CAPOX followed by long-course chemoradiotherapy) (190 [12.0%]), OPRA consolidation-like (long-course chemoradiotherapy followed by consolidation FOLFOX/CAPOX) (257 [16.2%]), and other regimens (360 [22.7%]). After TNT, 192 (12.1%) underwent watch and wait, and 30 (1.9%) underwent local excision. Pathological or clinical complete response was reported in 23.2% of cases. At treatment failure, 8.5% was local and 16.4% was distant progression. Three-year event-free survival (EFS) was 68% (95% CI, 64%-71%), and 5-year overall survival (OS) was 79% (95% CI, 75%-83%). In the overall population, patients treated with the PRODIGE 23–like regimen were most likely to have serious adverse events (61 [23.5%]) but had better local control and survival outcomes than those treated with the RAPIDO-like (EFS: hazard ratio [HR], 0.68; 95% CI, 0.49-0.95; P = .03; OS: HR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.27-0.97; P = .04), OPRA induction-like (EFS: HR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.44-0.98; P = .04; OS: HR, 0.35; 95% CI, 0.18-0.70; P = .003), and OPRA consolidation-like (EFS: HR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.44-0.93; P = .02; OS: HR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.25-1.00; P = .05) regimens. In the matched population (928 patients [58.5%]), no differences in survival outcomes were observed between the TNT regimens.Conclusions and Relevance: The findings of this case series study show substantial variation in the choice of the TNT regimen and were overall aligned with those reported in clinical trials, suggesting the efficacy of TNT in a clinical setting regardless of the specific regimen.

CD200 has been recently indicated as a robust marker of well-differentiated neuroendocrine neoplasms. Here, we evaluate its role in differential diagnosis of solid pancreatic neoplasms. We immunostained for CD200 22 solid pseudopapillary neoplasms (SPNs), 8 acinar carcinomas (ACs), 2 pancreatoblastomas (PBs), 138 neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs), and 48 ductal adenocarcinomas. All SPNs showed strong cytoplasmic and membranous staining for CD200, while only one case of AC had focal positivity. The two PBs showed focal CD200 positivity, mainly located in squamoid nests. The vast majority of PanNETs (96%) showed strong cytoplasmic and membranous staining for CD200, whereas all PDACs were negative. As both PanNETs and SPNs express CD200, it has no role in the differential diagnosis between these two entities.

Available treatments for colorectal cancer are limited. However, in the last few years several advances and new treatment options became available and expanded the continuum of care in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Fruquintinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has been shown to be effective in heavily pretreated mCRC progressing to trifluridine-tipiracil (FTD/TPI) or regorafenib or both. Preclinical studies have shown that fruquintinib inhibits with high selectivity VEGFR 1-2-3, leading to a blockade in angiogenesis process, but also acts, with weak inhibition, on RET, FGFR-1, and c-kit kinases. Fruquintinib demonstrated good efficacy and tolerance in chemorefractory mCRC in two phase III trial: FRESCO and FRESCO 2. These results led to FDA approval of fruquintinib for pretreated mCRC patients who received prior fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin-, and irinotecan-based chemotherapy. Fruquintinib is a valid therapeutic option for heavily pretreated mCRC patients. However, an optimal sequence of treatments is yet to be defined. In this review, we propose an algorithm for later lines of treatment to integrate fruquintinib as a standard of care together with the new therapeutic combinations that recently showed clinical benefit for chemorefractory mCRC, in both molecularly selected (e.g. KRAS^G12C or HER2 amplification) and in non-oncogenic driven patients.

Objective: The human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are endogenous retroviruses that were inserted into the germ cell DNA of humans over 30 million years ago. Insertion of HERVs into the chromosomal DNA can influence a number of host genes in various modes during human evolution and their proviral long terminal repeats can participate in the transcriptional regulation of various cellular genes. Our aim was to evaluate the pol gene expression of HERV-K and HERV-H in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in relation with the expression of stemness genes such as NANOG, OCT-4, and SOX-2. Methods: MSCs were isolated from bone marrow of healthy donors and expanded until the 5th passage in α-MEM with 10% fetal bovine serum. HERV-K, HERV-H pol gene, NANOG, OCT-4, SOX-2, and GAPDH expression was quantified by real-time PCR in MSCs during the expansion. Results: HERV-K and HERV-H expression was always higher at p1 compared to other passages and this difference reached a high statistical significance when passage p1 was compared with passage 3. In addition, NANOG, OCT-4, and SOX-2 expression at p1 was significantly higher than their expression at p3. Pearson’s test demonstrated a strong correlation between the expression of HERV-K and HERV-H and the expression of NANOG, OCT-4, and SOX-2. Conclusions: Our findings showed that HERV-K and H were concurrently expressed with pluripotency biomarkers NANOG, OCT-4, and SOX-2.