Search

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains deadly despite advances in systemic therapies and surgical techniques. While there is increasing utilization of immune therapies across diverse cancer types, PDAC remains generally resistant to these treatments. We report a case of locally advanced PDAC treated with preoperative radiation and anti-PD-1 immunotherapy guided by preoperative PD-L1 tumor analysis. After 4 months of preoperative therapy, the patient was submitted to resection, demonstrating a near-complete pathologic response on final tumor analysis. We will discuss the relevant literature and current state of immunotherapeutics for PDAC.

The therapeutic landscape of multiple myeloma (MM) has benefited from an emergence of novel therapies over the last decade. By inducing T-cell kill of target cancer cells, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies have improved outcomes of patients with hematologic malignancies. B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) is the current target antigen of choice for most CAR T-cell products under investigation for MM. However, their shortcomings deal with logistical and clinical challenges, including limited availability, manufacturing times, and toxicities. This article provides an overview of recently developed and investigational CAR T-cell therapies for MM, highlighting current evidence and challenges.

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a severe systemic inflammatory syndrome that is often fatal. In the adult population, it is believed to develop secondary to immune dysregulation due to rheumatologic, infectious, malignant, and recently, immunomodulatory drugs. It has been well documented that infectious etiologies can lead to HLH however to date there is a paucity of case reports of HLH stemming from the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Furthermore, it is well established that overlap exists between the extensive hyper-inflammatory syndromes produced from both HLH and severe COVID-19 infection. Here, we present a case of COVID-19-associated HLH with recurrent neutropenic fever in a patient with controlled follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma who received treatment with etoposide after continued hospital admissions with refractory medical treatment.

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a severe systemic inflammatory syndrome that is often fatal. In the adult population, it is believed to develop secondary to immune dysregulation due to rheumatologic, infectious, malignant, and recently, immunomodulatory drugs. It’s co-occurrence with phagocytosis by non-macrophage cells has not been previously well defined. We present a case of lenalidomide-associated HLH with concurrent plasma cell hemophagocytosis in a patient with controlled multiple myeloma (MM).