The Anti-Inflammatory Effect of Cheongseoikki-Tang Ethanol Extract on Allergic Reactions Mediated by Bone Marrow-Derived Mast Cells

Objective： Cheongseoikki-tang （CIT, Korean）, also called Qingshu Yiqi decoction（清署益气汤）and Seisho-ekki-to （Japanese）, is well known as an effective traditional combination of herbs for treating cardiovascular diseases. This study was to research its effects on bone marrow-derived mast cell （BMMC）-mediated allergy and inflammation mechanisms. Methods： In this study, the biological effect of Cheongseoikki-tang ethanol extract （CITE） was evaluated, focusing on its effects on the production of allergic mediators by phorbol 12-myfistate 13-acetate （PMA） plus calcium ionophore A23187 （A23187）-stimulated BMMCs. These allergic mediators included intedeukin-6 （IL-6）, prostaglandin D2 （PGD2）, leukotfiene （34 （LTC4）, and β-hexosaminidase （13-hex）. Results： Our data revealed that CITE inhibited the production of IL-6, PGD2,/TC4, and 15-hex induced by PMA plus A23187 （P〈0.05）. Conclusion： These findings indicate that CITE has the potential for use in the treatment of allergy.

Therapeutic DC vaccination with IL-2 as a consolidation therapy for ovarian cancer patients： a phase Ⅰ/Ⅱ trial

While ovarian cancer （OvCa） responds well to surgery and conventional chemotherapy, a high recurrence rate of advanced OvCa is observed. In this phase Ⅰ/Ⅱ study, 10 OvCa patients with minimal residual disease were treated with autologous dendritic cells （DCs） and IL-2 to evaluate the safety and feasibility of this therapeutic strategy and to characterize the antigen-specific immune alterations induced through this treatment. Approximately 4 months after initial debulking and chemotherapy, patients received two subcutaneous doses of autologous monocyte-derived DCs pulsed with autologous tumor lysate and keyhole limpet hemocyanin （KLH） at 4-week intervals. After each DC inoculation, low-dose （200 mlU） IL-2 was introduced for 14 consecutive days as an immune adjuvant. The vaccination was well tolerated. In three out of 10 patients, the inclusion status after the initial therapy showed the maintenance of complete remission （CR） after DC vaccination for 83, 80.9 and 38.2 months without disease relapse. One patient with stable disease （SD） experienced the complete disappearance of tumor after DC vaccination, and this status was maintained for 50.8 months until tumor recurrence. In two patients with partial response （PR） was not responding to DC vaccination and their disease recurred. In the three patients with disease free long-term survival, significant immune alterations were observed, including increased natural killer （NK） activity, IFN-γ-secreting T cells, immune-stimulatory cytokine secretion and reduced immune-suppressive factor secretion after DC vaccination. Thus, in patients with NED status and increased overall survival, DC vaccination induced tumor-related immunity, potentially associated with long-term clinical responses against OvCa.

Quality of life outcomes including neuropathy-associated scale from a phase II,multicenter,randomized trial of eribulin plus gemcitabine versus paclitaxel plus gemcitabine as first-line chemotherapy for HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer:Korean Cancer Study Group Trial(KCSG BR13-11)

Background: A phase II clinical trial of the comparison between eribulin plus gemcitabine (EG) and paclitaxel plus gemcitabine (PG) as first-line chemotherapy for patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) found that the EG regimen was less neurotoxic, but was similar in efficacy to the PG regimen. In the present study, we analyzed functional assessment of cancer therapy-taxane (FACT-Taxane) questionnaires from patients in this clinical trial to determine their quality of life (QoL). Methods: QoL was assessed using the Korean version of the FACT-Taxane questionnaires. After baseline assessment, QoL was assessed every 2 cycles for 12 cycles and every 3 cycles thereafter. The linear mixed model was used to evaluate the difference in QoL between the EG and PG arms. Results: Of the 118 enrolled patients, 117 responded to the FACT-Taxane questionnaires at baseline, 1 in the PG arm did not. Baseline QoL scores were not different between the EG and PG arms. During treatment, taxane subscale scores were significantly higher in the PG arm than in the EG arm after 2-13 cycles of chemotherapy (all P < 0.05), except for the 11th cycle. Neuropathy-specific analysis showed that patients in the PG arm had earlier and more severe neuropathic symptoms than those in the EG arm (P < 0.001). Conclusions: In our QoL analysis, the EG regimen delayed and decreased neuropathy as compared with the PG regimen. Therefore, eribulin would be a reasonable substitute for paclitaxel as first-line chemotherapy for MBC.