Deregulated systemic IL-10/IL-12 balance in advanced and poor prognosis paediatric soft tissue sarcomas

High Expression of Interleukin-12A and Its Association with the Clinicopathology and Prognosis of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer

BACKGROUND

The inflammatory microenvironment is closely related to the occurrence and development of cancer. Members of the interleukin-12 (IL-12) cytokine family play synergistic or antagonistic roles in the tumor microenvironment, in the form of classic heterodimers or newly discovered monomers or homodimers.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between IL-12A and the clinicopathology and prognosis of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC).

METHODS

A total of 101 pathologically confirmed DTC patients were included in this study. Immunohistochemistry was performed to assess IL-12A expression in DTC and corresponding paracancerous tissues. The associations of IL-12A with clinicopathology and prognosis were evaluated.

RESULTS

IL-12A was expressed in both normal thyroid tissues and DTC, but its expression level was significantly higher in DTC than in normal thyroid tissues (p < 0.001). IL-12A was positively correlated with tumor size (p = 0.027), risk stratification (p = 0.020), and TNM (Tumor-Node-Metastasis) stage (p = 0.024), but not with age, sex, pathological type, multifocality, extrathyroid extension, lymph node metastasis, and distant metastasis (all p > 0.05). Lymphocytic thyroiditis was found in 26/101 patients (25.7%), which was negatively associated with IL-12A expression (p = 0.018). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that risk stratification was the significant independent predictor of IL-12A expression. The rate of disease persistence or recurrence (P&R) was 13/101 (12.9%), and a positive relationship was found between IL-12A expression and P&R (p = 0.020). Disease-free survival was affected by factors such as tumor size, extrathyroid extension, tumor stage (T stage), and IL-12A expression, with p values of 0.006, 0.048, 0.002, and 0.012, respectively. Multivariate Cox proportional-hazards analysis showed that tumor size ≥2 cm (hazard ratio [HR] = 4.041 [95% CI: 1.144-14.274], p = 0.031) and high IL-12A expression (HR = 4.027 [95% CI 1.014-15.994], p = 0.049) were independent predictors of prognosis of DTC patients.

CONCLUSIONS

IL-12A is highly expressed in DTC and is associated with disease aggressiveness. In addition, IL-12A is an independent predictor of the outcome of DTC.

Liposomal prednisolone phosphate potentiates the antitumor activity of liposomal 5-fluorouracil in C26 murine colon carcinoma in vivo

The antitumor efficacy of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) is hindered not only by the low therapeutic index, but also by tumor cell resistance to this cytotoxic drug. Therefore, to enhance the 5-FU antitumor activity, the present research used a novel tumor-targeted therapy based on the co-administration of 5-FU encapsulated in long-circulating liposomes (LCL-5-FU) together with liposomal prednisolone phosphate (LCL-PLP), a formulation with known anti-angiogenic actions on C26 murine colon carcinoma cells. Thus, we assessed the in vivo effects of the combined liposomal drug therapy on C26 carcinoma growth as well as on the production of molecular markers with key roles in tumor development such as angiogenic, inflammatory, and oxidative stress molecules. To get further insight into the polarization state of tumor microenvironment after the treatment, we determined the IL-10/IL-12p70 ratio in tumors. Our results showed that combined liposomal drug therapy inhibited almost totally tumor growth and was superior as antitumor activity to both single liposomal drug therapies tested. The antitumor efficacy of the combined therapy was mainly related to the anti-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory actions on C26 carcinoma milieu, being favored by its controlling effect on intratumor oxidative stress and the skewing of polarization of tumor microenvironmental cells toward their antineoplastic phenotypes. Thus, our study unveils a promising treatment strategy for CRC that should be furthermore considered.

Effect of Repeat Dosing of Engineered Oncolytic Herpes Simplex Virus on Preclinical Models of Rhabdomyosarcoma

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a tumor of skeletal muscle origin, is the most common sarcoma of childhood. Despite multidrug chemotherapy regimens, surgical intervention, and radiation treatment, outcomes remain poor, especially in advanced disease, and novel therapies are needed for the treatment of these aggressive malignancies. Genetically engineered oncolytic viruses, such as herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV), are currently being explored as treatments for pediatric tumors. M002, an oncolytic HSV, has both copies of the γ₁34.5 gene deleted, enabling replication in tumor cells but thwarting infection of normal, postmitotic cells. We hypothesized that M002 would infect human RMS tumor cells and lead to decreased tumor cell survival in vitro and impede tumor growth in vivo. In the current study, we demonstrated that M002 could infect, replicate in, and decrease cell survival in both embryonal (ERMS) and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS) cells. Additionally, M002 reduced xenograft tumor growth and increased animal survival in both ARMS and ERMS. Most importantly, we showed for the first time that repeated dosing of oncolytic virus coupled with low-dose radiation provided improved tumor response in RMS. These findings provide support for the clinical investigation of oncolytic HSV in pediatric RMS.