SEOM-GEICAM-SOLTI clinical guidelines for early-stage breast cancer (2022)

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer in women in Spain and its annual incidence is rapidly increasing. Thanks to the screening programs in place, nearly 90% of breast cancer cases are detected in early and potentially curable stages, despite the COVID-19 pandemic possibly having impacted these numbers (not yet quantified). In recent years, locoregional and systemic therapies are increasingly being directed by new diagnostic tools that have improved the balance between toxicity and clinical benefit. New therapeutic strategies, such as immunotherapy, targeted drugs, and antibody-drug conjugates have also improved outcomes in some patient subgroups. This clinical practice guideline is based on a systematic review of relevant studies and on the consensus of experts from GEICAM, SOLTI, and SEOM.

Breast Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy: Current Status and Future Perspectives

Cancer immunology has gained renewed interest in the past few years due to emerging findings on mechanisms involved in tumoral immune evasion. Indisputably, immune edition is currently considered a critical hallmark of cancer. Basic research has revealed new targets which can be modulated in the clinical setting with new compounds and strategies. As recent evidence confirms, breast cancer (BC) is a complex and heterogeneous disease in which host immune responses play a substantial role. T-infiltrating lymphocytes measurement is suggested as a powerful new tool necessary to predict early BC evolution, especially in HER2-positive and triple negative subtypes. However, T-infiltrating lymphocytes, genomic platforms, and many other biomarkers in tissue and peripheral blood (e.g., regulatory T cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells) are not the only factors being evaluated regarding their potential role as prognostic and/or predictive factors. Many ongoing clinical trials are exploring the activity of immune checkpoint modulators in BC treatment, both in the advanced and neoadjuvant setting. Although this field is expanding with exciting new discoveries and promising clinical results-and creating great expectations-there remain many uncertainties yet to be addressed satisfactorily before this long awaited therapeutic promise can come to fruition.

Role of immune escape mechanisms in Hodgkin's lymphoma development and progression: a whole new world with therapeutic implications

Hodgkin's lymphoma represents one of the most frequent lymphoproliferative syndromes, especially in young population. Although HL is considered one of the most curable tumors, a sizeable fraction of patients recur after successful upfront treatment or, less commonly, are primarily resistant. This work tries to summarize the data on clinical, histological, pathological, and biological factors in HL, with special emphasis on the improvement of prognosis and their impact on therapeutical strategies. The recent advances in our understanding of HL biology and immunology show that infiltrated immune cells and cytokines in the tumoral microenvironment may play different functions that seem tightly related with clinical outcomes. Strategies aimed at interfering with the crosstalk between tumoral Reed-Sternberg cells and their cellular partners have been taken into account in the development of new immunotherapies that target different cell components of HL microenvironment. This new knowledge will probably translate into a change in the antineoplastic treatments in HL in the next future and hopefully will increase the curability rates of this disease.

Comparative morphologic and histochemical studies on the collagen of vertebrate arteries

Arteries of representative species from the main vertebrate classes were studied by a method that quantitates collagen-proteoglycans interaction, by the histochemical Picrosirius polarization method and by electron microscopy. The collagen of the adventitia presents features which are characteristic of collagen type I. The collagen in the tunica media revealed histochemical and ultrastructural aspects which are typical of collagen type III. As these results were consistently observed in all species studied, they suggest the presence of a general structural pattern of collagen distribution in vertebrate arteries.