Department of Oncology-Pathology
The Department of Oncology-Pathology conducts basic, translational and clinical research and educational activities related to cancer.
Lars Holmgren on X
Follow the chair of the department of Oncology-Pathology Lars Holmgren on X.
A new review article on p53 biology and reactivation for improved therapy in MDS and AML
Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are cognate, clonal hematological neoplasms and have variable outcomes despite the recent, successful implementation of targeted therapies.
In patients with TP53 mutations, the most inferior outcomes were observed. Myeloid malignancies with TP53 mutations have complex cytogenetics and extensive structural variants. These factors contribute to worse responses to induction therapy, demethylating agents, or venetoclax-based treatments.
In the clinical trial setting, the wild-type p53 protein is reactivated pharmacologically by targeting p53/MDM2/MDM4 interactions and mutant p53 reactivation is achieved by refolding the DNA binding domain to wild-type-like conformation or via targeted degradation of the mutated protein.
In this review in the journal Biomarker Research, Docent Joanna Zawacka discusses our current understanding of p53 biology in MDS and AML and the promises and failures of wild-type and mutant p53 reactivation in the clinical trial setting.
Impact of melanoma on life expectancy
In a recent study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, PhD student Sofi Vikström with supervisor Hanna Eriksson, and colleagues examined the impact of stage II-III cutaneous melanoma (CM) on life expectancy (LE) in Sweden, using data from 8061 patients diagnosed between 2005 and 2018. It employs a flexible parametric survival model to estimate LE and loss in life expectancy (LLE). They found that younger individuals diagnosed with CM have a higher LLE due to having more potential years to lose. For example, 60-year-old women with stage III CM lost almost double the life years (10.9) compared to their stage II counterparts (5.2). Overall, LLE provides valuable insights into the impact of CM on survival, but it also summarizes the prognosis over a patient’s lifetime.
Guest Professor
Professor Henrik Druid has been designated guest professor in forensic medicine at the newly established School of Forensic Sciences at Argentine Catholic University (UCA) in Buenos Aires.