Background: The aim of study was to determine the relative frequency of malignant lymphoma according to World Health Organization (WHO) classification in Korea. Methods: A total of 3,998 cases diagnosed at 31 institutes between 2005 and 2006 were enrolled. Information including age, gender, pathologic diagnosis, site of involvement and immunophenotypes were obtained. Results: The relative frequency of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) was 95.4% and 4.6%, respectively. B-cell lymphomas accounted for 77.6% of all NHL, while T/ natural killer (T/NK)-cell lymphomas accounted for 22.4%. The most frequent subtypes of NHL were diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (42.7%), extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma (MZBCL) of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (19.0%), NK/T-cell lymphoma (6.3%) and peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL), unspecified (6.3%), in decreasing order. The relative frequency of HL was nodular sclerosis (47.4%), mixed cellularity (30.6%), and nodular lymphocyte predominant (12.1%) subtypes. Compared with a previous study in 1998, increase in gastric MZBCL and nodular sclerosis HL, and slight decrease of follicular lymphoma, PTCL, and NK/T-cell lymphoma were observed. Conclusions: Korea had lower rates of HL and follicular lymphoma, and higher rates of extranodal NHL, extranodal MZBCL, and NK/T-cell lymphoma of nasal type compared with Western countries. Changes in the relative frequency of lymphoma subtypes are likely ascribed to refined diagnostic criteria and a change in national health care policy.

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Postoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio change (NLRc) reflects the dynamic change of balance between host inflammatory response and immune response after treatment. In gastric cancer, an elevated initial NLR (iNLR) is reported to be a prognostic predictor, but the clinical application of the NLRc remains unclear. The NLRc was assessed in 734 patients undergoing total/subtotal gastrectomy and endoscopic submucosal dissection for gastric adenocarcinoma. The iNLR and NLRc were recorded within 10 days of the first diagnosis and 3–6 months after surgery, respectively. Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, we investigated the relationship between NLRc or iNLR and patient survival. The analysis revealed a higher predictive power for correlating patient survival with the NLRc compared with iNLR. NLRc was defined as negative (lower than iNLR) and positive (higher than iNLR). A positive NLRc was frequently observed in patients with advanced AJCC stage, local recurrence, distant metastasis, perineural invasion, and adjuvant chemotherapy (all p < 0.05). Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed a significant relationship between patient survival and NLRc (all p < 0.05) but no association between survival and iNLR. The NLRc could be a better indicator than iNLR for predicting survival in patients with gastric cancer.

Cyclin‐dependent kinase 12 (CDK12) has emerged as an effective therapeutic target due to its ability to regulate DNA damage repair in human cancers, but little is known about the role of CDK12 in driving tumorigenesis. Here, we demonstrate that CDK12 promotes tumor initiation as a novel regulator of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and induces anti‐HER2 therapy resistance in human breast cancer. High CDK12 expression caused by concurrent amplification of CDK12 and HER2 in breast cancer patients is associated with disease recurrence and poor survival. CDK12 induces self‐renewal of breast CSCs and in vivo tumor‐initiating ability, and also reduces susceptibility to trastuzumab. Furthermore, CDK12 kinase activity inhibition facilitates anticancer efficacy of trastuzumab in HER2+ tumors, and mice bearing trastuzumab‐resistant HER2+ tumor show sensitivity to an inhibitor of CDK12. Mechanistically, the catalytic activity of CDK12 is required for the expression of genes involved in the activation of ErbB‐PI3K‐AKT or WNT‐signaling cascades. These results suggest that CDK12 is a major oncogenic driver and an actionable target for HER2+ breast cancer to replace or augment current anti‐HER2 therapies.

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