The effects of breastfeeding on retinoblastoma development: Results from an international multicenter retinoblastoma survey

The protective effects of breastfeeding on various childhood malignancies have been established but an association has not yet been determined for retinoblastoma (RB). We aimed to further investigate the role of breastfeeding in the severity of nonhereditary RB development, assessing relationship to (1) age at diagnosis, (2) ocular prognosis, measured by International Intraocular RB Classification (IIRC) or Intraocular Classification of RB (ICRB) group and success of eye salvage, and (3) extraocular involvement. Analyses were performed on a global dataset subgroup of 344 RB patients whose legal guardian(s) consented to answer a neonatal questionnaire. Patients with undetermined or mixed feeding history, family history of RB, or sporadic bilateral RB were excluded. There was no statistically significant difference between breastfed and formula-fed groups in (1) age at diagnosis (p = 0.20), (2) ocular prognosis measures of IIRC/ICRB group (p = 0.62) and success of eye salvage (p = 0.16), or (3) extraocular involvement shown by International Retinoblastoma Staging System (IRSS) at presentation (p = 0.74), lymph node involvement (p = 0.20), and distant metastases (p = 0.37). This study suggests that breastfeeding neither impacts the sporadic development nor is associated with a decrease in the severity of nonhereditary RB as measured by age at diagnosis, stage of disease, ocular prognosis, and extraocular spread. A further exploration into the impact of diet on children who develop RB is warranted

Direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy with standard fluorescent probes

van de Linde S, Löschberger A, Klein T, et al. Direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy with standard fluorescent probes. Nature Protocols. 2011;6(7):991-1009

Epithelial stem cell repertoire in the gut: clues to the origin of cell lineages, proliferative units and cancer

Gastrointestinal stem cells are shown to be pluripotential and to give rise to all cell lineages in the epithelium. After damage, gut stem cells produce reparative cell lineages that produce a wide range of peptides with important actions on cell proliferation and migration, and promote regeneration and healing. Increase in stem cell number is considered to induce crypt fission, and lead to increases in the number of crypts, even in the adult; it is also the mode of spread of mutated clones in the colorectal mucosa. Stem cell repertoire is defined by both intrinsic programming of the stem cell itself, but signalling from the mesenchyme is also vitally important for defining both stem cell progeny and proliferation. Carcinogenesis in the colon occurs through sequential mutations, possibly occurring in a single cell. A case is made for this being the stem cell, but recent studies indicate that several stem cells may need to be so involved, since early lesions appear to be polyclonal in derivation