Targeted anti-vascular therapies for ovarian cancer: current evidence

Ovarian cancer presents at advanced stage in around 75% of women, and despite improvements in treatments such as chemotherapy, the 5-year survival from the disease in women diagnosed between 1996 and 1999 in England and Wales was only 36%. Over 80% of patients with advanced ovarian cancer will relapse and despite a good chance of remission from further chemotherapy, they will usually die from their disease. Sequential treatment strategies are employed to maximise quality and length of life but patients eventually become resistant to cytotoxic agents. The expansion in understanding of the molecular biology that characterises cancer cells has led to the rapid development of new agents to target important pathways but the heterogeneity of ovarian cancer biology means that there is no predominant defect. This review attempts to discuss progress to date in tackling a more general target applicable to ovary cancer-angiogenesis.

Osteochemonecrosis: an overview

Osteonecrosis of the jaw to a certain extent has been with us for many years. But recently the advent of various medications such as bisphosphonates, VEGF inhibitors, tyrosine kinase inhibitors and humanized antibodies to osteoclastic action have resulted in thousands of cases. While the bisphosphonates continue to be the most common medication associated with osteochemonecrosis antibodies such as denosumab which irreversibly act on osteoclastic action are also being reported. This narrative review will serve as an update with a focus on some of the histopathologic features discussed and reviewed. Perhaps even more uncommonly seen in past reports a discussion of features possibly observed while grossing specimens will be discussed. At the end of this report is hoped that the pathologist will have a better understanding of the historical features, clinical settings, gross examination features as well as histopathologic features associated with osteochemonecrosis.

Eruptive Necrotizing Infundibular Crystalline Folliculitis: An Expression of an Abortive Sebaceous Follicular Repair Pathway Linked to Committed Infundibular Stem Cells?

ABSTRACT

Necrotizing infundibular crystalline folliculitis is a rare entity, which is a distinctive clinical and histopathological entity. Eruptive yellow waxy umbilicated folliculocentric plugs clinically correspond to pale crystalline filaments embedded in an amorphous sebum-rich material. Remarkably, only the superficial infundibular ostia remain, and the distended cavity is devoid of a follicular or sebaceous gland remnant. The pathogenesis of this enigmatic event remains to be established. The emergence of necrotizing infundibular crystalline folliculitis (NICF) as a paradoxical side effect of antitumor inhibitors epidermal growth factor receptor vascular endothelial growth factor and more recently programmed death-1 represents the expression of altered molecular pathways that underpin the pathogenesis of NICF. To explore these pathways, it is necessary to explore the hierarchy of follicular stem cells, particularly the potential role of committed infundibular stem cells that play a key role in wound healing. Committed infundibular stem cells are closely linked to the sebaceous gland stem cell axis, and this has relevance in the process of homeostatic repair of sebaceous follicles in the wake of folliculitis. The unscheduled modulation of this infundibular homeostatic sebaceous repair axis by epidermal growth factor receptor vascular endothelial growth factor, and programmed death-1 may lead to an aberrant outcome with metaplasia of infundibular keratinocytes to sebocytes. In the absence of sebaceous gland differentiation, these metaplastic infundibular sebocyte cells would lead to the consumption and loss of the infundibulum as a result of holocrine sebum production. This conceptual pathogenic pathway for NICF is constructed by incorporating recent advances in the fields of follicular stem cells, wound repair, follicular homeostasis, regulatory T cells, and molecular pathways linked to the biologicals inducing NICF.

Transient Ischemic Attack and Hypoventilation 12 Hours After Intra-vitreal Aflibercept Injection

Given the role the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays in controlling and preserving the integrity of the vascular endothelium intravitreal administration of anti-VEGF agents may affect the risk of thromboembolic events. This is particularly noticeable in patients who are at risk for atherosclerosis. Here, we present one of the first case reports of transient ischemic attack (TIA) together with hypoventilation secondary to aflibercept injection. A 63-year-old female suffered TIA together with hypoventilation about 12 hours after the third administration of intravitreal aflibercept, which is a VEGF inhibitor for diabetic macular edema (DME). Upon presentation, she was confused, had right-sided weakness and her respiratory rate was six breaths per minute, all of these resolved within the next 24 hours. The serum tests, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis, brain imaging, and carotid Doppler ultrasound were unremarkable. An ophthalmic exam revealed signs of bilateral proliferative diabetic retinopathy with left macular edema. Detailed reports of similar cases are lacking in the literature. Hypoventilation and thromboembolic could be possible side effects of aflibercept that necessitate more investigation.