EUROPEAN ONCOLOGY & HAEMATOLOGY – VOLUME 11 ISSUE 2 – WINTER 2015

Welcome to the latest edition of European Oncology & Haematology, which features a wide variety of topical articles. This issue begins with an article by Harbeck et al. on the Prosigna® (PAM50) Gene Signature Assay as a new-generation genomic test for treatment decision-making in early breast cancer, which is indicated for post-menopausal women with early-stage […]

While the incidence of primary breast cancer has increased recently, most patients are diagnosed with early-stage disease and good prognosis. Around 80 % of patients with early breast cancer have estrogen receptor (ER)-positive disease and their prognosis will be improved substantially by endocrine therapy.1 Nevertheless, the rate of distant recurrence (DR) in these patients can […]

Over the last decade, targeted agents have clearly improved treatment options for molecularly selected patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harbouring an oncogene driver, such as an activating epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutation or an anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene translocation.1,2 But for the majority of Caucasian patients, standard chemotherapy remains […]

Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) are a group of rare and heterogeneous malignancies that arise from neuroendocrine cells in most organs of the body. The presence, rather than absence of symptoms due to neuropeptides or hormones hypersecretion, distinguishes NENs in functioning and non-functioning tumours, respectively. The term NEN is used to denote any type of neuroendocrine malignancies, […]

During the last decade, significant therapeutic progress has been made in the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM). MM is the second most common haematological malignancy. It is a highly symptomatic disease with the following common symptoms: osteolytic skeletal damage, renal impairment, anaemia, hypercalcaemia and severe infections. Historically, the outcome of MM patients was very dismal […]

Multiple myeloma (MM) therapy has undergone dramatic changes over the last decades, including the use of autologous haematopoietic cell transplants and the development of generations of cereblonand proteasome-inhibiting drugs. This progress has translated into a significant improvement in survival for standard risk patients and, even long-term disease control, and maybe a cure, can be achieved […]

Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable disease characterised by accumulation of clonal plasma cells in the bone marrow and accounts for approximately 10 % of all haematological malignancies.1 Advances in the understanding of MM, better identification of high-risk patients, and the recent development of several novel agents have improved response and nearly doubled the length […]

Approximately 10 % of patients with localised Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL) and 20 % with disseminated HL fail to respond to or relapse after a first-line treatment. The standard of care indicated by a randomised study1 is salvage chemotherapy followed by consolidation with autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT). Salvage chemotherapy followed by ASCT induces long-term remission […]

Antibody-based therapeutics have become an essential component of cancer therapy since the introduction of rituximab in the late 1990s. However, although they can confer clinical benefits, especially when combined with chemotherapy, many monoclonal antibodies do not provide long-term beneficial effects.1 There is therefore a need to improve the therapeutic efficiency of monoclonal antibodies. Antibody–drug conjugates […]

Chemotherapy achieves excellent response rates and long progressionfree survival (PFS) in classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma (cHL) and systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (sALCL).1 However, up to 30 % of patients with advanced HL do not achieve remission or relapse within a few years of initial treatment.2 Salvage chemotherapy followed by high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell […]

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) comprises ~6 % of all Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) with a median age at presentation of mid-60s. It is characterised by the t(11;14)(q13:32) translocation, which leads to overexpression of cyclin D1 resulting in subsequent dysregulation of the cell cycle and of several intracellular survival pathways.1 Although the survival of MCL patients has […]

Myelodysplastic Syndromes and 5q Deletion Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a group of rare blood disorders that occur as a result of abnormal development of blood cells within the bone marrow. MDS may progress to life-threatening failure of the bone marrow or develop into an acute leukaemia. It affects, most commonly, the elderly population, with median […]

Hereditary hyperferritinemia-cataract syndrome (HHCS) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder associated with high plasma ferritin concentration without iron overload and early-onset bilateral cataract. HHCS was first described in 1995,1–3 and since then over 30 mutations, mainly point mutations and deletions, associated with HHCS have been reported.4–6 Isolated hyperferritinemia with plasma ferritin concentrations above 300 μg/l […]