Oral squamous cell carcinoma, the most frequently occurring malignant head and neck tumour, generally exhibits poor prognosis and metastases are the main cause of death. The discovery of reliable prognostic indicators of tumour progression could greatly improve clinical practice. MicroRNAs are involved in the regulation of basic cellular processes such as cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Since miRNAs have been shown to be abnormally expressed in different tumours their importance as potential cancer prognostic indicators is increasing. To define the role of miRNA in OSCC tumours we investigated the expression profile of 15 OSCC (8 without metastasis and 7 with lymph node metastasis) using microarray analysis. Thirteen miRNA were significantly overexpressed (miR-489, miR-129, miR-23a, miR-214, miR-23b, miR-92, miR-25, miR-210, miR-212, miR-515, miR-146b, miR-21, miR-338) and 6 miRNA were underexpressed (miR-520h, miR-197, miR-378, miR-135b, miR-224, miR-34a) in oral tumours. Underexpression of mir-155, let-7i, mir-146a was found to characterize progression to metastastatic tumours. Further investigations will elucidate whether differentially expressed miRNAs will help to better classify OSCCs, thus improving diagnoses and patient care.

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Breast cancer (BC) is a complex disease with primary or acquired incurability characteristics in a significant part of patients. Immunotherapeutical agents represent an emerging option for breast cancer treatment, including the human epidermal growth factor 2 positive (HER2+) subtype. The immune system holds the ability to spontaneously implement a defensive response against HER2+ BC cells through complex mechanisms which can be exploited to modulate this response for obtaining a clinical benefit. Initial immune system modulating strategies consisted mostly in vaccine therapies, which are still being investigated and improved. However, the entrance of trastuzumab into the scenery of HER2+ BC treatment was the real game changing event, which embodied a dominant immune-mediated mechanism. More recently, the advent of the immune checkpoint inhibitors has caused a new paradigm shift for immuno-oncology, with promising initial results also for HER2+ BC. Breast cancer has been traditionally considered poorly immunogenic, being characterized by relatively low tumor mutation burden (TMB). Nevertheless, recent evidence has revealed high tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in a considerable proportion of HER2+ BC patients. This may translate into a higher potential to elicit anti-cancer response and, therefore, wider possibilities for the use and implementation of immunotherapy in this subset of BC patients. We are herein presenting and critically discussing the most representative evidence concerning immunotherapy in HER2+ BC cancer, both singularly and in combination with therapeutic agents acting throughout HER2-block, immune checkpoint inhibition and anti-cancer vaccines. The reader will be also provided with hints concerning potential future projection of the most promising immutherapeutic agents and approaches for the disease of interest.

Introduction: Molecular characterization studies revealed recurrent kelch like ECH associated protein 1 gene (KEAP1)/nuclear factor, erythroid 2 like 2 gene (NFE2L2) alterations in NSCLC. These genes encode two interacting proteins (a stress response pathway [SRP]) that mediate a cytoprotective response to oxidative stress and xenobiotics. Nevertheless, whether KEAP1/NFE2L2 mutations have an impact on clinical outcomes is unclear. Methods: We performed amplicon-based next-generation sequencing to characterize the SRP in patients with metastatic NSCLC (Regina Elena National Cancer Institute cohort [n ¼ 88]) treated with first-line chemotherapy. Mutations in the DNA damage response (tumor protein p53 gene [TP53], ATM serine/threonine kinase gene [ATM], and ATR serine/threonine kinase gene [ATR]) were concomitantly analyzed. In lung adenocarcinoma (LAC), we also determined the expression of phosphorylated ataxia telangiectasia mutated kinase and ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein. Two independent cohorts (the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center cohort and The Cancer Genome Atlas cohort) with data from approximately 1400 patients with advanced LAC were used to assess the reproducibility of the results.Results: In the Regina Elena National Cancer Institute cohort, patients whose tumors carried mutations in the KEAP1/NFE2L2 pathway had significantly shorter progression-free survival and overall survival than their wild-type counterparts did (log-rank p ¼ 0.006 and p ¼ 0.018, respectively). This association was driven by LAC in which KEAP1/NFE2L2 mutations were overrepresented in