Serum sclerostin levels in renal cell carcinoma patients with bone metastases.

Sclerostin has been proposed as a potent inhibitor of bone formation. Sclerostin antibodies are under clinical development to treat osteoporosis and metastatic bone disease. Serum sclerostin level is elevated in multiple myeloma, an osteolytic malignancy, where it might serve as predictive marker for the use of sclerostin-directed antibodies. As renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients often present with osteolytic metastases, we aimed to investigate serum sclerostin levels in RCC patients. Our study included 53 RCC patients (19 with bone metastases, 25 with visceral metastases and 9 with localized disease) and 53 age- and gender-matched non-osteoporotic controls. Frozen serum samples were subjected to sclerostin quantitative sandwich ELISA. The mean serum sclerostin levels of RCC patients and controls were 45.8 pmol/l and 45.1 pmol/l, respectively (p = 0.86). Analysis of variance showed no difference between the subgroups of RCC patients with regard to visceral or bone metastases or localized disease (p = 0.22). There was no significant association between eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate) and serum sclerostin levels in RCC patients (r = 0.05; p = 0.74) and controls (r = 0.06; p = 0.68). Our results indicate that serum sclerostin levels appear not to be a valuable biomarker to assess the occurrence of bone metastases in RCC patients.

Molecular phenotype is associated with survival in breast cancer patients with spinal bone metastases.

To aid in therapy selection for patients with spinal bone metastases (SBM), predictive models have been developed. These models consider SBM from breast cancer a positive predictive factor, but do not take phenotypes based on estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR) and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) receptors into account. The aim of this study was to ascertain whether receptors are associated with survival, when the disease has progressed up to SBM. All patients who were treated for SBM from breast cancer between 2005 and 2012 were included in this international multi-center retrospective study (n = 111). Reports were reviewed for ER, PR and HER2 status and subsequently subdivided into one of four categories; luminal A, luminal B, HER2 and triple negative. Survival time was calculated as the difference between start of treatment for SBM and date of death. Analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank tests. Median follow-up was 3.7 years. Survival times in the luminal B and HER2 categories were not significantly different to the luminal A category and were joined into a single receptor positive category. Eighty-five patients (77 %) had a receptor positive phenotype and 25 (23 %) had a triple negative phenotype. Median survival time was 22.5 months (95 %CI 18.0-26.9) for the receptor positive category and 6.7 months (95 %CI 2.4-10.9) for the triple negative category (p < 0.001). Patients with SBM from breast cancer with a triple negative phenotype have a shorter survival time than patients with a receptor positive phenotype. Models estimating survival should be adjusted accordingly.

Evolution of an HIV glycan-dependent broadly neutralizing antibody epitope through immune escape.

Neutralizing antibodies are likely to play a crucial part in a preventative HIV-1 vaccine. Although efforts to elicit broadly cross-neutralizing (BCN) antibodies by vaccination have been unsuccessful, a minority of individuals naturally develop these antibodies after many years of infection. How such antibodies arise, and the role of viral evolution in shaping these responses, is unknown. Here we show, in two HIV-1-infected individuals who developed BCN antibodies targeting the glycan at Asn332 on the gp120 envelope, that this glycan was absent on the initial infecting virus. However, this BCN epitope evolved within 6 months, through immune escape from earlier strain-specific antibodies that resulted in a shift of a glycan to position 332. Both viruses that lacked the glycan at amino acid 332 were resistant to the Asn332-dependent BCN monoclonal antibody PGT128 (ref. 8), whereas escaped variants that acquired this glycan were sensitive. Analysis of large sequence and neutralization data sets showed the 332 glycan to be significantly under-represented in transmitted subtype C viruses compared to chronic viruses, with the absence of this glycan corresponding with resistance to PGT128. These findings highlight the dynamic interplay between early antibodies and viral escape in driving the evolution of conserved BCN antibody epitopes.

Increasing incidence rates of soft tissue sarcomas? A population-based epidemiologic study and literature review.

BACKGROUND: Increasing incidence rates of soft tissue sarcomas (STS) have been reported. In the present study, the authors have analyzed the incidence of STS in Austria in a population-based study for the period 1984-2004. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Age-adjusted incidence rates, gender and age predilection and geographic differences were analyzed, comprising data from the Austrian National Cancer Registry. RESULTS: A total of 5333 cases were registered; male-to-female ratio was 0.8. The most common histotypes were sarcoma not otherwise specified (36%), leiomyosarcoma (24%), liposarcoma (12%), malignant fibrous histiocytoma (9%) and fibrosarcoma (5%). Age-adjusted incidence rate was 2.4 per 100,000 per year. Analysis of annual incidence rates and 3-year periods showed no increase (annual increasing gradient = -0.0025). CONCLUSIONS: This study has analyzed the most recent data from a European population in comparison with seven international studies. An increase, as postulated elsewhere, could not be confirmed. The incidence rate of STS in Austria ranges in the lower half of the international incidence rates (1.8-5.0 per 100,000 per year). Different inclusion criteria (Kaposi's sarcoma and dermatofibrosarcoma) and classifications in the various studies explain the increase of incidence in some studies rather than true increase of STS due to new or accumulated risk factors.