The induction of apoptosis, a physiological type of cell death, is currently the primary therapeutic aim of most cancer therapies. As resistance to apoptosis is an early hallmark of developing cancer, the success of this treatment strategy is already potentially compromised at treatment initiation. In this review, we discuss the tumor in Darwinian terms and describe it as a complex, yet highly unstable, ecosystem. Current therapeutic strategies often focus on directly killing the dominant subclone within the population of mutated cancer cells while ignoring the subclonal complexity within the ecosystem tumor, the complexity of the direct tumor/ microenvironment interaction and the contribution of the ecosystem human - that is, the global environment which provides the tumor with both support and challenges. The Darwinian view opens new possible therapeutic interventions, such as the disruption of the microenvironment by targeting nonmutated cells within the tumor or the interaction points of mutant tumor cells with their environment, and it forces us to reevaluate therapeutic endpoints. It is our belief that a central future challenge of apoptosis-inducing therapies will be to understand better under which preconditions which treatment strategy and which therapeutic endpoint will lead to the highest quality and quantity of a patient's life.

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Background Covid-19 causes a wide range of symptoms, with particularly high risk of severe respiratory failure and death in patients with predisposing risk factors such as advanced age or obesity. Recipients of solid organ transplants, and in particular lung transplantation, are more susceptible to viral infection due to immune suppressive medication. As little is known about the SARS-CoV-2 infection in these patients, this study was undertaken to describe outcomes and potential management strategies in early COVID-19 infection early after lung transplantation. Methods We describe the incidence and outcome of COVID-19 in a cohort of recent lung transplant recipients in Munich. Six of 186 patients who underwent lung transplantation in the period between March 2019 until March 2021 developed COVID-19 within the first year after transplantation. We documented the clinical course and laboratory changes for all patients showing differences in the severity of the infection with COVID-19 and their outcomes. Results Three of six SARS-CoV-2 infections were hospital-acquired and the patients were still in inpatient treatment following lung transplantation. All patients suffered from symptoms. One patient did not received antiviral therapy. Remdesivir was prescribed in four patients and the remaining patient received remdesivir, bamlanivimab and convalescent plasma. Conclusion COVID-19 does not appear to cause milder disease in lung transplant recipients compared to the general population. Immunosuppression is potentially responsible for the delayed formation of antibodies and their premature loss. Several comorbidities and a general poor preoperative condition showed an extended hospital stay.

Aim: To analyze immune cell populations in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors and matched tumor-bearing and non-tumor-bearing lymph nodes (ntbLNs) to predict prognosis. Patients & methods: 71 patients with long-term disease-free survival and 80 patients with relapse within 3 years were included in this study. We used Cox regression to identify factors associated with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Results: Sinus histiocytosis and tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte density in the tumor were positively associated with PFS and OS. CD4 expression in N1 (hazard ratio = 0.72; p = 0.02) and N2 (hazard ratio = 0.91; p = 0.04) ntbLNs were positively correlated with OS and PFS, respectively. Discussion: Immunological markers in ntbLNs could be used to predict survival in NSCLC.

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