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Nab-paclitaxel is active in this group of patients with recurrent ovarian, peritoneal, or fallopian tube cancer. The ORR was 64%. Toxicities were manageable. Further studies of nab-paclitaxel in combination with platinum are warranted.

BackgroundWe examined the phenotype and function of lymphocytes collected from the peripheral blood (PBL) and tumor (TIL) of patients with two different solid malignancies: colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRLM) and ovarian cancer (OVC).MethodsTumor and corresponding peripheral blood were collected from 16 CRLM and 22 OVC patients; immediately following resection they were processed and analyzed using a multi-color flow cytometry panel. Cytokine mRNA from purified PBL and TIL CD4+ T cells were also analyzed by qPCR.ResultsOverall, we found similar changes in the phenotypic and cytokine profiles when the TIL were compared to PBL from patients with two different malignancies. The percentage of Treg (CD4+/CD25+/FoxP3+) in PBL and TIL was similar: 8.1% versus 10.2%, respectively in CRLM patients. However, the frequency of Treg in primary OVC TIL was higher than PBL: 19.2% versus 4.5% (p <0.0001). A subpopulation of Treg expressing HLA-DR was markedly increased in TIL compared to PBL in both tumor types, CRLM: 69.0% versus 31.7% (p = 0.0002) and OVC 74.6% versus 37.0% (p <0.0001), which suggested preferential Treg activation within the tumor. The cytokine mRNA profile showed that IL-6, a cytokine known for its immunosuppressive properties through STAT3 upregulation, was increased in TIL samples in patients with OVC and CRLM. Both TIL populations also contained a significantly higher proportion of activated CD8+ T cells (HLA-DR+/CD38+) compared to PBL (CRLM: 30.2% vs 7.7%, (p = 0.0012), OVC: 57.1% vs 12.0%, (p <0.0001)).ConclusionThis study demonstrates that multi-color flow cytometry of freshly digested tumor samples reveals phenotypic differences in TIL vs PBL T cell sub-populations. The TIL composition in primary and metastatic tumors from two distinct histologies were remarkably similar, showing a greater proportion of activated/suppressive Treg (HLA-DR+, CD39+, CTLA-4+ and Helios+) and activated cytotoxic T cells (CD8+/HLA-DR+/CD38+) when compared to PBL and an increase in IL-6 mRNA from CD4 TIL.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40425-014-0038-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Nine patients from 34 to 74 years of age (median, 67 years of age) with uterine papillary serous carcinoma (UPSC) were treated with whole‐abdominal radiation therapy (WART) on an adjuvant basis after cytoreductive surgery. All patients were treated with megavoltage photons to an abdominopelvic field to a median dose of 2500 cGy, with continued treatment to a whole pelvic field to a median dose of 4500 cGy. Three patients received additional boost to the vaginal apex. Follow‐up time ranged from 6 to 31 months (median, 25 months) after completion of WART. Six patients had recurrent disease at 5 to 20 months (median, 7.5 months). Four of these patients died of their disease during the follow‐up period. Three of six patients in whom treatment failed had disease at the vaginal apex. None of these patients received boost radiation therapy to that site. In contrast, two of three patients remaining disease free were treated with additional vaginal apex irradiation. Based on these results, the authors do not routinely recommend WART for adjuvant treatment of UPSC. They do, however, recommend vaginal apex irradiation for these patients.