Statement of Translational RelevanceSurvival rates for patients with glioblastoma (GBM) are abysmal, with median overall survival of approximately 15 months. Immunotherapy of GBM is a promising area of investigation, although challenges around identification of novel and immunogenic target antigens exist. IMA950 is a GBM specific vaccine comprising 11 tumor-associated peptides (TUMAPs) developed to address this challenge. We have performed a phase 1 safety and immunogenicity study in newly diagnosed GBM patients using IMA950 plus GM-CSF alongside standard of care chemo-radiotherapy. Our results demonstrate that IMA950 is well tolerated with 90% of patients having a CD8+ T-cell immune response to at least one TUMAP, with 50% responding to two or more TUMAPs. No effect of pre-treatment regulatory T-cell levels on IMA950 immunogenicity was found and steroids did not appear to affect immune responses to the TUMAPs. This data provides evidence to support further development and optimization of IMA950 together with other immunotherapies for GBM. were multi-TUMAP responders, with no important differences between cohorts. No effect of pre-treatment Treg levels on IMA950 immunogenicity was observed and steroids did not affect TUMAP responses. PFS was 74% at 6 months and 31% at 9 months. CONCLUSION: IMA950 plus GM-CSF was well tolerated with the primary immunogenicity endpoint of observing multi-TUMAP responses in at least 30% of patients exceeded.Further development of IMA950 is encouraged.

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In men with locally advanced/high-risk prostate cancer, there is an ongoing challenge to achieve improved results. Dose escalation studies using three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) or intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) have shown benefit particularly in the intermediate and poor risk groups of patients. Of concern, however, is the increase in documented rectal toxicity. High-dose rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT) as a boost in combination with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) is an alternative strategy of dose escalation that can potentially achieve an even higher biological equivalent dose (BED) to the tumour. The results so far are very encouraging for men with poor prognosis disease. Moreover the technique is associated with very low rates of acute and late toxicity.

We report a rare case of a metastatic mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) arising from the accessory parotid gland in a 14-year-old male. In the pre-surgical assessment, the MR and CT showed no other abnormalities apart from the primary lesion. The lesion was excised and confirmed as a high-grade MEC. Four months later, he presented with a recurrence in his right temple. A (18)F-FDG PET-CT showed distal metastases in cervical nodes and lungs. In view of the findings and poor prognosis of the patient, surgical intervention and radiotherapy were not given and palliative measures offered. This case shows the potential of molecular imaging with (18)F-FDG PET-CT in these patients.