Benefits of Urologic-Dermatologic Consultations for the Diagnosis of Cutaneous Penile Lesions: A Prospective Study

INTRODUCTION: We evaluated the benefits of a specialized consultation created in 2014 for cutaneous penile lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a descriptive prospective study evaluating all patients sent for a monthly urologic-dermatologic consultation at a French university hospital from September 2014 to September 2015 for cutaneous penile lesions. All patients evaluated were included. We collected the demographic data, clinical examination findings, and the proposed diagnosis and treatment for every patient. RESULTS: A total of 27 patients were included; 4 (14.8%) had been referred by a general physician and 23 (85.2%) by a specialist. Cutaneous penile lesions had evolved within 12 months in 15 patients (55.6%). Penile cancer was diagnosed in 5 patients (18.5%), of which 3 were squamous cell carcinoma (11.1%), 1 was metastasis of melanoma (3.7%), and 1 was extramammary Paget disease (3.7%). In addition, 1 patient (3.7%) had a premalignant lesion on a condyloma, 12 (44.4%) had balanitis, 2 (7.4%) had psoriasis lesions, 3 (11.1%) had condylomas, 1 (3.7%) had genital melanosis, and 3 (11.2%) had normal findings. Four patients (16.6%) underwent biopsy, 8 (33.3%) underwent surgery, and 12 (50%) received local treatment. CONCLUSION: The use of urologic-dermatology specialized consultations resulted in encouraging findings. Patients can benefit from multidisciplinary expertise and rapid treatment of various disorders. Thus, it seems important to develop reference centers created specifically for cancerous disease

A trivial observation on time reversal in random matrix theory

It is commonly thought that a state-dependent quantity, after being averaged over a classical ensemble of random Hamiltonians, will always become independent of the state. We point out that this is in general incorrect: if the ensemble of Hamiltonians is time reversal invariant, and the quantity involves the state in higher than bilinear order, then we show that the quantity is only a constant over the orbits of the invariance group on the Hilbert space. Examples include fidelity and decoherence in appropriate models.Comment: 7 pages 3 figure

Iron causes lipid oxidation and inhibits proteasome function in multiple myeloma cells: A proof of concept for novel combination therapies

Adaptation to import iron for proliferation makes cancer cells potentially sensitive to iron toxicity. Iron loading impairs multiple myeloma (MM) cell proliferation and increases the efficacy of the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib. Here, we defined the mechanisms of iron toxicity in MM.1S, U266, H929, and OPM-2 MM cell lines, and validated this strategy in preclinical studies using Vk*MYC mice as MM model. High-dose ferric ammonium citrate triggered cell death in all cell lines tested, increasing malondialdehyde levels, the by-product of lipid peroxidation and index of ferroptosis. In addition, iron exposure caused dose-dependent accumulation of polyubiquitinated proteins in highly iron-sensitive MM.1S and H929 cells, suggesting that proteasome workload contributes to iron sensitivity. Accordingly, high iron concentrations inhibited the proteasomal chymotrypsin-like activity of 26S particles and of MM cellular extracts in vitro. In all MM cells, bortezomib-iron combination induced persistent lipid damage, exacerbated bortezomib-induced polyubiquitinated proteins accumulation, and triggered cell death more efficiently than individual treatments. In Vk*MYC mice, addition of iron dextran or ferric carboxymaltose to the bortezomib-melphalan-prednisone (VMP) regimen increased the therapeutic response and prolonged remission without causing evident toxicity. We conclude that iron loading interferes both with redox and protein homeostasis, a property that can be exploited to design novel combination strategies including iron supplementation, to increase the efficacy of current MM therapies

Hamiltonian dynamics and geometry of phase transitions in classical XY models

The Hamiltonian dynamics associated to classical, planar, Heisenberg XY models is investigated for two- and three-dimensional lattices. Besides the conventional signatures of phase transitions, here obtained through time averages of thermodynamical observables in place of ensemble averages, qualitatively new information is derived from the temperature dependence of Lyapunov exponents. A Riemannian geometrization of newtonian dynamics suggests to consider other observables of geometric meaning tightly related with the largest Lyapunov exponent. The numerical computation of these observables - unusual in the study of phase transitions - sheds a new light on the microscopic dynamical counterpart of thermodynamics also pointing to the existence of some major change in the geometry of the mechanical manifolds at the thermodynamical transition. Through the microcanonical definition of the entropy, a relationship between thermodynamics and the extrinsic geometry of the constant energy surfaces $\Sigma_E$ of phase space can be naturally established. In this framework, an approximate formula is worked out, determining a highly non-trivial relationship between temperature and topology of the $\Sigma_E$. Whence it can be understood that the appearance of a phase transition must be tightly related to a suitable major topology change of the $\Sigma_E$. This contributes to the understanding of the origin of phase transitions in the microcanonical ensemble.Comment: in press on Physical Review E, 43 pages, LaTeX (uses revtex), 22 PostScript figure