Immune Biomarkers in Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) is a heterogeneous disease in which molecular stratification is needed to improve clinical outcomes. The identification of predictive biomarkers can have a major impact on the care of these patients, but the availability of metastatic tissue samples for research in this setting is limited. OBJECTIVE: To study the prevalence of immune biomarkers of potential clinical utility to immunotherapy in mCRPC and to determine their association with overall survival (OS). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: From 100 patients, mCRPC biopsies were assayed by whole exome sequencing, targeted next-generation sequencing, RNA sequencing, tumor mutational burden, T-cell-inflamed gene expression profile (TcellinfGEP) score (Nanostring), and immunohistochemistry for programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1), ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM), phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), SRY homology box 2 (SOX2), and the presence of neuroendocrine features. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The phi coefficient determined correlations between biomarkers of interest. OS was assessed using Kaplan-Meier curves and adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) from Cox regression. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: PD-L1 and SOX2 protein expression was detected by immunohistochemistry (combined positive score ≥1 and >5% cells, respectively) in 24 (33%) and 27 (27%) mCRPC biopsies, respectively; 23 (26%) mCRPC biopsies had high TcellinfGEP scores (>-0.318). PD-L1 protein expression and TcellinfGEP scores were positively correlated (phi 0.63 [0.45; 0.76]). PD-L1 protein expression (aHR: 1.90 [1.05; 3.45]), high TcellinfGEP score (aHR: 1.86 [1.04; 3.31]), and SOX2 expression (aHR: 2.09 [1.20; 3.64]) were associated with worse OS. CONCLUSIONS: PD-L1, TcellinfGEP score, and SOX2 are prognostic of outcome from the mCRPC setting. If validated, predictive biomarker studies incorporating survival endpoints need to take these findings into consideration. PATIENT SUMMARY: This study presents an analysis of immune biomarkers in biopsies from patients with metastatic prostate cancer. We describe tumor alterations that predict prognosis that can impact future studies

Consensus guidelines for the use and interpretation of angiogenesis assays

The formation of new blood vessels, or angiogenesis, is a complex process that plays important roles in growth and development, tissue and organ regeneration, as well as numerous pathological conditions. Angiogenesis undergoes multiple discrete steps that can be individually evaluated and quantified by a large number of bioassays. These independent assessments hold advantages but also have limitations. This article describes in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro bioassays that are available for the evaluation of angiogenesis and highlights critical aspects that are relevant for their execution and proper interpretation. As such, this collaborative work is the first edition of consensus guidelines on angiogenesis bioassays to serve for current and future reference

An application on the relation of managerial control and information technology in hotels

This study aims to analyze the relation between information technology and management control processes in hospitality enterprises. Findings of this study indicate that use of information technology in hotels have crucial impacts on the control of service processes and enlargement of control area. Likewise, front-office/back-office applications, restaurant and banquet service management systems are significantly affected from information technology use. The independent variable having greatest relation with the control of service processes has been restaurant/banquet management systems. Front office and backoffice applications followed these systems in lesser degrees. The variable explaining best the enlargement of control process has been front-office/back-office applications, followed by restaurant/banquet service systems

Visitors' perception of a tourism destination: The case of Pamukkale

This study's goal is to examine perceptions of tourists visiting the destination Pamukkale (Denizli-Turkey). For this purpose, a field survey has been undertaken in Pamukkale as a thermal tourism center. Surveys were received from 515 participants, but 207 of them were not filled out as required for this survey; thus, the analysis was made of 308 survey forms. Following the analysis of demographic variables of tourists, an assessment was made about perceptions of visitors in the area. One way in which variance analysis was used was to research the effects of age, education, and income status on the visitor attitude regarding Pamukkale as a tourist destination. Research findings reveal that there are significant levels of differences regarding certain visitor attitudes in terms of age, education level, and income level. © University of the Aegean

Extradural Hematoma After Continuous Extradural Anesthesia

We report a case of extradural haematoma occurring after extradural anaesthesia in an anticoagulated patient. The diagnosis was confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging and the haematoma was evacuated surgically. A search of the literature revealed only five previous reports of extradural haematoma in association with extradural anaesthesia.WoSScopu