Oncotarget (a primarily oncology-focused, peer-reviewed, open access journal) aims to maximize research impact through insightful peer-review; eliminate borders between specialties by linking different fields of oncology, cancer research and biomedical sciences; and foster application of basic and clinical science.
Its scope is unique. The term "oncotarget" encompasses all molecules, pathways, cellular functions, cell types, and even tissues that can be viewed as targets relevant to cancer as well as other diseases. The term was introduced in the inaugural Editorial, Introducing Oncotarget.
As of January 1, 2022, Oncotarget has shifted to a continuous publishing model. Papers will now be published continuously within yearly volumes in their final and complete form and then quickly released to Pubmed.
Publication Alerts
Subscribe to receive alerts once a paper has been published by Oncotarget.
On December 23, 2022, Oncotarget server experienced a DDoS attack. As a result, Oncotarget site was inaccessible for a few hours. Oncotarget team swiftly dealt with the situation and took it under control.
This malicious action will be reported to the FBI.
Oncotarget | Site of Analysis Matters - Ongoing Complete Response to Nivolumab in Patient With HIV/HPV Related Metastatic Anal Cancer and MLH1 Mutation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2022-09-29
“This case report represents an HIV infected patient with anal cancer, MSI high status, a high mutation frequency regarding tumor mutational burden (TMB), and an ongoing response to Nivolumab.”
Anal cancer is a rare disease with increasing incidence. In patients with locally recurrent or metastatic disease, which cannot be treated with chemoradiotherapy or salvage surgery, systemic first-line chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel is standard of care. For patients who progress after first-line therapy and are still eligible for second-line therapy, programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibodies are potential therapeutic options. However, prediction of response to immunotherapy is still challenging, including in patients with anal cancer.
“Altogether, there is little data on PD-1 treatment in HIV infected patients.”
In a new study, researchers Melanie Demes, Ursula Pession, Jan Jeroch, Falko Schulze, Katrin Eichler, Daniel Martin, Peter Wild, and Oliver Waidmann from Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt and Centrum für Hämatologie und Onkologie reported a case of an HIV infected patient with anal cancer, microsatellite instability (MSI) high status, a high mutation frequency regarding tumor mutational burden (TMB) and an ongoing response to Nivolumab.
“We report here to our knowledge the first anal cancer case with microsatellite instability (MSI) due to MLH1 mutation and a deep and ongoing response to Nivolumab treatment.”
Thorough analysis of the primary tumor as well as metastatic sites by next generation sequencing (NGS) revealed that MSI was formally only found in the metastatic sites but not in the primary tumor. Concomitantly, tumor mutational burden (TMB) was higher in the metastatic site than in the primary tumor. The researchers concluded that all anal cancer patients should be tested for MSI and whenever possible molecular analysis should be performed rather from metastatic sites than from the primary tumor.
“According to our results, we propose to assess mutational status in tissue from metastasis rather than from the primary site when additional molecular analyses are performed for treatment decisions.”
Oncotarget (a primarily oncology-focused, peer-reviewed, open access journal) aims to maximize research impact through insightful peer-review; eliminate borders between specialties by linking different fields of oncology, cancer research and biomedical sciences; and foster application of basic and clinical science.
To learn more about Oncotarget, visit Oncotarget.com and connect with us on social media:
