Optimizing anticancer therapy in metastatic non-castrate prostate cancer: American society of clinical oncology clinical practice guideline

Purpose This clinical practice guideline addresses abiraterone or docetaxel with androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) for metastatic prostate cancer that has not been treated (or has been minimally treated) with testosterone-lowering agents. Methods Standard therapy for newly diagnosed metastatic prostate cancer has been ADT alone. Three studies have compared ADT alone with ADT and docetaxel, and two studies have compared ADT alone with ADT and abiraterone. Results Three prospective randomized studies (GETUG-AFU 15, STAMPEDE, and CHAARTED) examined overall survival (OS) with adding docetaxel to ADT. STAMPEDE and CHAARTED favored docetaxel (hazard ratio [HR], 0.78; 95% CI, 0.66 to 0.93; n = 2,962 and HR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.59 to 0.89; n = 790, respectively). GETUG-AFU 15 was negative. LATITUDE and STAMPEDE examined the impact on OS of adding abiraterone (with prednisone or prednisolone) to ADT. LATITUDE and STAMPEDE favored abiraterone (HR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.51 to 0.76; n = 1,199 and HR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.52 to 0.76; n = 1,917, respectively). Recommendations ADT plus docetaxel or abiraterone in newly diagnosed metastatic non-castrate prostate cancer offers a survival benefit as compared with ADT alone. The strongest evidence of benefit with docetaxel is in men with de novo high-volume (CHAARTED criteria) metastatic disease. Similar survival benefits are seen using abiraterone acetate in high-risk patients (LATITUDE criteria) and in the metastatic population in STAMPEDE. ADT plus abiraterone and ADT plus docetaxel have not been compared, and it is not known if some men benefit more from one regimen as opposed to the other. Fitness for chemotherapy, patient comorbidities, toxicity profiles, quality of life, drug availability, and cost should be considered in this decision. Additional information is available at www.asco.org/genitourinary-cancer-guidelines

Psychosocial Treatment of Children in Foster Care: A Review

A substantial number of children in foster care exhibit psychiatric difficulties. Recent epidemiologi-cal and historical trends in foster care, clinical findings about the adjustment of children in foster care, and adult outcomes are reviewed, followed by a description of current approaches to treatment and extant empirical support. Available interventions for these children can be categorized as either symptom-focused or systemic, with empirical support for specific methods ranging from scant to substantial. Even with treatment, behavioral and emotional problems often persist into adulthood, resulting in poor functional outcomes. We suggest that self-regulation may be an important mediat-ing factor in the appearance of emotional and behavioral disturbance in these children

Precipitation Estimation: From the RAO to EURAINSAT and Beyond

The key objective of the project “Use of the MSG SEVIRI channels in a combined SSM/I, TRMM and geostationary IR method for rapid updates of rainfall” is the development of algorithms for rapid-update of satellite rainfall estimations at the geostationary (GEO) scale. The new channels available with the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) radiometer in the visible (VIS), near infrared (NIR) and infrared (IR) portions of the spectrum provide new insights into the microphysical and dynamic structure of precipitating clouds thus allowing for a more precise identification of precipitation intensities. Passive microwave (PMW) radiometers on board low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellites are used to determine information on the vertical cloud structure. Key features of the new method(s) are: 1. Microphysical characterization of precipitating clouds with VIS/IR sensors; 2. Creation of cloud microphysical and radiative databases from cloud model outputs and aircraft penetrations; 3. Tuning of PMW algorithms for different cloud systems (maritime, continental, convective, stratiform,...); 4. Combination of data from different algorithms and application to a rapid update cycle at the GEO scale. The project provided the background for EURAINSAT “European Satellite Rainfall Estimation and Monitoring at the Geostationary Scale”, a research project co-funded by the Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Programme of the European Commission within the topic “Development of generic Earth observation technologies”. The project web site is accessible at http://www.isac.cnr.it/~eurainsat/. Moreover, it has represented the European framework for the launch of the International Precipitation Working Group (IPWG)

Nuclear temperature measurements with helium isotopes

Temperatures extracted with the family of (He-3, He-4) isotope ratio thermometers, T-He, have been studied and cross-checked with temperatures, T(He-4*) constructed from excited and ground state populations of He-4. Empirical correction factors provide baseline corrections for sequential decay effects for T-He < 4.5 MeV, independent of projectile, target and incident energies. After corrections for fluctuations due to sequential decay, statistical calculations predict that T-He, and T(He-4*) should agree. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved