Background: Programmed death-1 (PD-1) and programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression is associated with prognostic and respond to immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitor in several solid malignancies. However, the prognostic roles of PD-1 and PD-L1 expression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) are less clear. This study aims to investigate PD-1 and PD-L1 mRNA expression levels in peripheral blood of Indonesian NPC patients and its association with clinicopathological features.Materials and Methods: This study used blood samples of 21 NPC patients and 10 healthy volunteers as controls. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to measure mRNA expression of PD-1 and PD-L1.Results: PD-1 mRNA expression levels were significantly lower in NPC patients (∆CT mean: 9.65±2.04) compared to healthy individuals (∆CT mean: 8.04±1.51) (p=0.031). In contrast, PD-L1 mRNA expression levels were higher in NPC patients (∆CT mean: 6.96±1.32) compared to healthy individuals (∆CT mean: 7.11±0.55), but the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.554). The expression of PD-1 was associated with tumour-node-metastasis (TNM) stage (p=0.030) but not associated with age (p=1.000), sex (p=1.000), body mass index (p=0.350), tumor stage (p=0.338), nodal stage (p=0.579), metastasis stage (p=0.371), and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) status (p=0.228). Meanwhile PD-L1 expression was not associated with all clinicophatological features.Conclusion: The PD-1 mRNA expression levels were significantly lower, while PD-L1 expression levels were higher in NPC patients compared to healthy controls. PD-1 expression was correlated with TNM stage.Keywords: nasopharyngeal carcinoma, immune checkpoint inhibitors, PD-1, PD-L1

Background: Immunotherapy using immune checkpoint inhibitors has currently emerged as an effective treatment for a subset of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. The roles of PD-1 and PD-L1 expression levels in peripheral blood to predict patient’s response to immune checkpoint inhibitors are not well established. Therefore, we analyzed PD-1 and PD-L1 mRNA expression levels of peripheral blood in Indonesian CRC patients and explored the association with the clinicopathological features.Methods: Peripheral blood of 25 CRC patients and 10 healthy individuals were collected in Dharmais Hospital-National Cancer Center from 2017 to 2018. PD-1 and PD-L1 mRNA expression levels were analyzed using real time PCR. The associations with clinicopathological variables were analyzed with fisher-exact test or chi square test.Results: PD-1 mRNA expression levels were significantly lower in CRC patients compared to healthy individuals (HI) (mean: 0.0015 ± 0.0013 and 0.017 ± 0.010 respectively, p < 0.001). Although PD-L1 mRNA expression levels were lower in CRC patients, the difference was not statistically significant (mean in CRC and HI: 0.021 ± 0.013 and 0.034 ± 0.028 respectively, p = 0.125). The expression of PD-L1 was higher in CRC females compared to males (p = 0.03). The expression levels of PD-L1 were not associated with different ages (p = 0.673), stages (p = 0.298), histological type of colorectal cancer (p=0.852), patient status (p = 1.000), and body mass index (p = 0.514).Conclusions: The mRNA expression levels of PD-1 and PD-L1 were lower in CRC patients compared to healthy controls. Expression of PD-L1 were correlated with sex, but not correlated with ages, stages, histological type of CRC, patient status, and body mass index.

Types of therapies commonly used to treat breast cancer are radiotherapy, surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and targeted therapy. However, these therapies are not effective enough to treat breast cancer (Zhang et al., 2017).Currently there is a growing interest of immunotherapy in cancer treatment. The use of immune checkpoint

Background: BCR-ABL1 fusion gene, which originated from t (9;22), is an important biomarker for diagnosis, therapeutic approach, and prognosis in childhood leukemia. However, there are no data in Indonesia about the profile of BCR-ABL1 fusion gene for this disease. This study intends to demonstrate the profile of the BCR-ABL1 fusion gene in childhood leukemia at “Dharmais” Cancer Hospital.Methods: This descriptive retrospective study included 79 patients with childhood leukemia who performed the BCR-ABL1 examination in “Dharmais” Cancer Hospital during 2008–2018. Demographic data, leukemia types, BCR-ABL1 examination results, and protein isoforms developed by BCR-ABL1 fusion were obtained from Cancer Registry Data.Results: Among 79 patients’ data recorded in this study, 65.8% (52/79) were male and 34.2% (27/79) were female. A total of 74.7% (59/79) patients were diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML), 21.5% (17/79) with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), and 3.8% (3/79) with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML). The profile of positive BCR-ABL1 in CML patients was 72.8% (43/59). About 97.7% (42/43) of CML patients with positive BCR-ABL1 fusion gene expressed 210-kDa protein, while only 2.3% (1/43) expressed 190-kDa protein.Conclusions: This study found that, from a total of 79 respondents, 45 of them showed a positive BCR-ABL result, with details of 43 in CML and 2 in ALL. Among the total of 43 CML patients with positive BCR-ABL1, 42 (97.7%) of them expressed 210-kDa protein isoform. Further research to investigate the relationship between protein isoforms and their clinical effects may also be important to discuss. The valuable recommendation suggests that BCR-ABL1 examination should be performed for all childhood leukemia patients in Indonesia, especially for CML and ALL.