Background:We aimed to investigate the prognostic value of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes' (TILs) expression in pretreatment specimens from patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) treated with definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT).Methods:The prevalence of CD3+, CD8+, CD4+ and FOXP3+ TILs was assessed using immunohistochemistry in tumour tissue obtained from 101 patients before CRT and was correlated with clinicopathological characteristics as well as local failure-free- (LFFS), distant metastases free- (DMFS), progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Survival curves were measured using the Kaplan–Meier method, and differences in survival between the groups were estimated using the log-rank test. Prognostic effects of TIL subset density were determined using the Cox regression analysis.Results:With a mean follow-up of 25 months (range, 2.3–63 months), OS at 2 years was 57.4% for the entire cohort. Patients with high immunohistochemical CD3 and CD8 expression had significantly increased OS (P=0.024 and P=0.028), PFS (P=0.044 and P=0.047) and DMFS (P=0.021 and P=0.026) but not LFFS (P=0.90 and P=0.104) in multivariate analysis that included predictive clinicopathologic factors, such as age, sex, T-stage, N-stage, tumour grading and localisation. Neither CD4 nor FOXP3 expression showed significance for the clinical outcome. The lower N-stage was associated with improved OS in the multivariate analysis (P=0.049).Conclusion:The positive correlation between a high number of infiltrating CD3+ and CD8+ cells and clinical outcome indicates that TILs may have a beneficial role in HNSCC patients and may serve as a biomarker to identify patients likely to benefit from definitive CRT.

BackgroundPreclinical studies demonstrate synergism between cancer immunotherapy and local radiation, enhancing anti-tumor effects and promoting immune responses. BI1361849 (CV9202) is an active cancer immunotherapeutic comprising protamine-formulated, sequence-optimized mRNA encoding six non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)-associated antigens (NY-ESO-1, MAGE-C1, MAGE-C2, survivin, 5T4, and MUC-1), intended to induce targeted immune responses.MethodsWe describe a phase Ib clinical trial evaluating treatment with BI1361849 combined with local radiation in 26 stage IV NSCLC patients with partial response (PR)/stable disease (SD) after standard first-line therapy. Patients were stratified into three strata (1: non-squamous NSCLC, no epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation, PR/SD after ≥4 cycles of platinum- and pemetrexed-based treatment [n = 16]; 2: squamous NSCLC, PR/SD after ≥4 cycles of platinum-based and non-platinum compound treatment [n = 8]; 3: non-squamous NSCLC, EGFR mutation, PR/SD after ≥3 and ≤ 6 months EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment [n = 2]). Patients received intradermal BI1361849, local radiation (4 × 5 Gy), then BI1361849 until disease progression. Strata 1 and 3 also had maintenance pemetrexed or continued EGFR-TKI therapy, respectively. The primary endpoint was evaluation of safety; secondary objectives included assessment of clinical efficacy (every 6 weeks during treatment) and of immune response (on Days 1 [baseline], 19 and 61).ResultsStudy treatment was well tolerated; injection site reactions and flu-like symptoms were the most common BI1361849-related adverse events. Three patients had grade 3 BI1361849-related adverse events (fatigue, pyrexia); there was one grade 3 radiation-related event (dysphagia). In comparison to baseline, immunomonitoring revealed increased BI1361849 antigen-specific immune responses in the majority of patients (84%), whereby antigen-specific antibody levels were increased in 80% and functional T cells in 40% of patients, and involvement of multiple antigen specificities was evident in 52% of patients. One patient had a partial response in combination with pemetrexed maintenance, and 46.2% achieved stable disease as best overall response. Best overall response was SD in 57.7% for target lesions.ConclusionThe results support further investigation of mRNA-based immunotherapy in NSCLC including combinations with immune checkpoint inhibitors.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01915524.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s40425-019-0520-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The importance of the economic aspects of Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes management is increasing due to the rising health care costs, limited health care resources, increasing incidence and prevalence, and the potential to reduce incidence and progression of diabetes-related complications with optimal management [1±3]. Most clinical trials focus on short-to medium-term outcomes requiring the development of methods for forecasting long-term outcomes based on known short-term data. Additionally, improved diabetes management ofteninvolvesrelatively highamounts of short-term expenditure to avoid long-term complications, with the overall effect on total long-term costs being difficult to quantify empirically [4±6]. Diabetologia (2000)

As the detection rate of HPV-DNA in anal carcinoma commonly exceeds 90%, a comparison between sole HPV-positive and HPV-negative cancers with respect to treatment response following chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and long-term oncological outcome is challenging. Against this background, we aimed to assess HPV types and HPV DNA load in formalin-fixed paraffinembedded tissue (FFPE) of 95 patients treated with standard CRT for anal cancer to correlate viral load ( /> median) with local failure, distant metastases, cancer-specific (CSS) and overall survival (OS) rates. Various clinicopathologic parameters and the immunohistochemical marker p16 INK4a were evaluated for any correlation with HPV16 DNA load and were included in uni-and multivariate analyses. The overall prevalence of HPV DNA was 95.8% with HPV16 monoinfection being the most commonly encountered HPV type (78.9%), followed by HPV16 and 31,35,39,44, 58, 66 and 81 dual infection in 9 patients (9.5%). HPV16 DNA load was significantly associated with p16 INK4a expression (p 5 0.001). Patients with HPV16 DNA load median and low p16 INK4a expression showed significantly worse local control (HPV16 DNA load: univariate p 5 0.023, multivariate p 5 0.042; p16 INK4a : univariate p 5 0.021), and OS (HPV16 DNA load: univariate p 5 0.02, multivariate p 5 0.03). Moreover, a combined HPV16 DNA load and p16 INK4a variable revealed a significant correlation to decreased local failure, and increased CSS and OS (p 5 0.019, p 5 0.04 and p 5 0.031). In conclusion, these data indicate that HPV16 DNA load and p16 INK4a expression are significant prognostic factors for local tumor control and overall survival of patients with anal SCC following CRT.The majority of anal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is considered to originate from infection with human papilloma viruses (HPV). 1,2 Especially the role of high-risk oncogenic HPV types, most prominently HPV type 16 (HPV16), in the etiology of anal SCC is well established by a multitude of epidemiological and experimental investigations. 3,4 As a consequence, technologies for the detection of HPV DNA may constitute valuable screening tools for anal malignancies and are of important clinical relevance, especially after the development of a preventive vaccine for both men and women. 5 Depending on the method used, the prevalence of HPV DNA in anal carcinoma ranges from 75% to 100% with HPV16 (>75%) and less frequent HPV18 (<10%) detection in the majority of cases. 6,7 In clinical series of head and neck as well as cervical SCC, recent data indicate that treatment response to radiotherapy (RT) or chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is superior in HPV-positive tumors as compared with their HPV-negative counterparts. [8][9][10] An increased sensitivity of HPV-positive tumor cells towards irradiation and chemotherapeutic agents was also observed in vitro and in animal studies. [11][12][13] However, as the detection rate of HPV DNA in anal SCC commonly exceeds 90%, a comparison between sole HPV-positive and HPV-negative cancers with respect to treatment respon...

Abstract-In outdoor environments, there is a variety of different types of ground surfaces. If some of them are slippery or bumpy, for example, the ground surface itself is a possible hazard for an autonomous mobile vehicle traversing the surface. Therefore, it is beneficial if the vehicle is able to estimate, which terrain it is currently traversing. Using this estimation, the vehicle can adapt its driving style to the terrain. In this paper, we present a method for terrain classification based on vibration induced in the vehicle's body. An accelerometer mounted on the vehicle measures the vibration perpendicular to the ground surface. We experimentally compare representations of the data based on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and on the Power Spectral Density (PSD). Additionally, we suggest a simpler and more compact representation based on features calculated from the raw data vectors and a combination of this representation with the PSD. We train and classify the data with a Support Vector Machine (SVM). Experiments on a large real-world dataset containing seven different terrain types evaluate our approach.