Role of kinase-independent and -dependent functions of FAK in endothelial cell survival and barrier function during embryonic development

Vascular development in mice only requires kinase-independent functions of FAK until E13.5, but kinase activity is needed for embryogenesis to complete

Search for B -> h(*) nu nubar Decays at Belle

We present a search for the rare decays B -> h(*) nu nubar, where h(*) stands for a light meson. A data sample of 535 million BBbar pairs collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- collider is used. Signal candidates are required to have an accompanying B meson fully reconstructed in a hadronic mode and signal-side particles consistent with a single h(*) meson. No significant signal is observed and we set upper limits on the branching fractions at 90% confidence level. The limits on B0 -> K*0 nu nubar and B+ -> K+ nu nubar decays are more stringent than the previous constraints, while the first searches for B0 -> K0 nu nubar, pi0 nu nubar, rho0 nu nubar, phi nu nubar and B+ -> K*+ nu nubar, rho+ nu nubar are reported.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submit to PR

Observation of B_s0->D_s*- pi+, B_s0->D_s(*)- rho+ Decays and Measurement of B_s0->D_s*- rho+ Polarization

First observations of the B_s0->D_s*- pi+, B_s0->D_s- rho+ and B_s0->D_s*- rho+ decays are reported together with measurements of their branching fractions: B(B_s0->D_s*- pi+)=(2.4 +0.5-0.4(stat.) +-0.3(syst.) +-0.4(fs))x10^(-3), B(Bs->D_s- rho+)=(8.5 +1.3-1.2(stat.) +-1.1(syst.) +-1.3(fs))x10^(-3) and B(Bs->D_s*- rho+)=(11.8 +2.2-2.0(stat.) +-1.7(syst.) +-1.8(fs))x10^(-3) (f_s=N(B_s(*)B_s(*)-bar)/N(b b-bar)). From helicity-angle distributions, we measured the longitudinal polarization fraction in B_s0->D_s*- rho+ decays to be f_L(Bs->D_s*- rho+)=1.05 +0.08-0.10(stat.) +0.03-0.04(syst.). These results are based on a 23.6 /fb data sample collected at the Y(5S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- collider.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett

Evidence for Neutral B Meson Decays to wK*0

We present the results of a study of the charmless vector-vector decay B0->wK*0 with 657x10^6 BB(bar) pairs collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- collider. We measure the branching fraction to be B(B0->wK*0)=[1.8+/-0.7(stat)+/-0.3(syst)]x10^-6 with 3.0sigma significance. We also perform a helicity analysis of the w and K*0 vector mesons, and obtain the longitudinal polarization fraction fL(B0->wK*0)=0.56+/-0.29(stat)+0.18-0.08(syst). Finally, we measure a large non-resonant branching fraction B[B->wK+pi-; M(Kpi)\in(0.755,1.250) GeV/c^2]=[5.1+/-0.7(stat)+/-0.7(syst)]x10^-6 with a significance of 9.5sigma.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures (7 figure files

Search for Lepton-Flavor-Violating tau Decays into a Lepton and a Vector Meson

We search for lepton-flavor-violating tau-> ell V^0 decays, where ell is an electron or muon and V^0 is one of the vector mesons rho^0, phi, omega, K*0 and K*0-bar. We use 854 fb^{-1} of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e^+e^- collider. No evidence for a signal is found in any decay mode, and we obtain 90% confidence level upper limits on the individual branching fractions in the range (1.2-8.4)*10^{-8}.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Study of the decay mechanism for B+ to p pbar K+ and B+ to p pbar pi+

We study the characteristics of the low mass ppbar enhancements near threshold in the three-body decays B+ to p pbar K+ and B+ to p pbar pi+. We observe that the proton polar angle distributions in the ppbar helicity frame in the two decays have the opposite polarity, and measure the forward-backward asymmetries as a function of the ppbar mass for the p pbar K+ mode. We also search for the intermediate two-body decays, B+ to pbar Delta++ and B+ to p Delta0bar, and set upper limits on their branching fractions. These results are obtained from a 414 fb^{-1} data sample that contains 449 times 10^6 BBbar events collected near the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+ e- collider.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures (14 figure files), revisions to Phys. Lett.

Global surveillance of cancer survival 1995-2009: analysis of individual data for 25,676,887 patients from 279 population-based registries in 67 countries (CONCORD-2)

BACKGROUND: Worldwide data for cancer survival are scarce. We aimed to initiate worldwide surveillance of cancer survival by central analysis of population-based registry data, as a metric of the effectiveness of health systems, and to inform global policy on cancer control. METHODS: Individual tumour records were submitted by 279 population-based cancer registries in 67 countries for 25·7 million adults (age 15-99 years) and 75,000 children (age 0-14 years) diagnosed with cancer during 1995-2009 and followed up to Dec 31, 2009, or later. We looked at cancers of the stomach, colon, rectum, liver, lung, breast (women), cervix, ovary, and prostate in adults, and adult and childhood leukaemia. Standardised quality control procedures were applied; errors were corrected by the registry concerned. We estimated 5-year net survival, adjusted for background mortality in every country or region by age (single year), sex, and calendar year, and by race or ethnic origin in some countries. Estimates were age-standardised with the International Cancer Survival Standard weights. FINDINGS: 5-year survival from colon, rectal, and breast cancers has increased steadily in most developed countries. For patients diagnosed during 2005-09, survival for colon and rectal cancer reached 60% or more in 22 countries around the world; for breast cancer, 5-year survival rose to 85% or higher in 17 countries worldwide. Liver and lung cancer remain lethal in all nations: for both cancers, 5-year survival is below 20% everywhere in Europe, in the range 15-19% in North America, and as low as 7-9% in Mongolia and Thailand. Striking rises in 5-year survival from prostate cancer have occurred in many countries: survival rose by 10-20% between 1995-99 and 2005-09 in 22 countries in South America, Asia, and Europe, but survival still varies widely around the world, from less than 60% in Bulgaria and Thailand to 95% or more in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and the USA. For cervical cancer, national estimates of 5-year survival range from less than 50% to more than 70%; regional variations are much wider, and improvements between 1995-99 and 2005-09 have generally been slight. For women diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005-09, 5-year survival was 40% or higher only in Ecuador, the USA, and 17 countries in Asia and Europe. 5-year survival for stomach cancer in 2005-09 was high (54-58%) in Japan and South Korea, compared with less than 40% in other countries. By contrast, 5-year survival from adult leukaemia in Japan and South Korea (18-23%) is lower than in most other countries. 5-year survival from childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is less than 60% in several countries, but as high as 90% in Canada and four European countries, which suggests major deficiencies in the management of a largely curable disease. INTERPRETATION: International comparison of survival trends reveals very wide differences that are likely to be attributable to differences in access to early diagnosis and optimum treatment. Continuous worldwide surveillance of cancer survival should become an indispensable source of information for cancer patients and researchers and a stimulus for politicians to improve health policy and health-care systems

Ultra-rare sarcomas: a consensus paper from the Connective Tissue Oncology Society community of experts on the incidence threshold and the list of entities

Background Among sarcomas, which are rare cancers, many types are exceedingly rare; however, a definition of ultra-rare cancers has not been established. The problem of ultra-rare sarcomas is particularly relevant because they represent unique diseases, and their rarity poses major challenges for diagnosis, understanding disease biology, generating clinical evidence to support new drug development, and achieving formal authorization for novel therapies.Methods The Connective Tissue Oncology Society promoted a consensus effort in November 2019 to establish how to define ultra-rare sarcomas through expert consensus and epidemiologic data and to work out a comprehensive list of these diseases. The list of ultra-rare sarcomas was based on the 2020 World Health Organization classification, The incidence rates were estimated using the Information Network on Rare Cancers (RARECARENet) database and NETSARC (the French Sarcoma Network's clinical-pathologic registry). Incidence rates were further validated in collaboration with the Asian cancer registries of Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.Results It was agreed that the best criterion for a definition of ultra-rare sarcomas would be incidence. Ultra-rare sarcomas were defined as those with an incidence of approximately <= 1 per 1,000,000, to include those entities whose rarity renders them extremely difficult to conduct well powered, prospective clinical studies. On the basis of this threshold, a list of ultra-rare sarcomas was defined, which comprised 56 soft tissue sarcoma types and 21 bone sarcoma types.conclusions Altogether, the incidence of ultra-rare sarcomas accounts for roughly 20% of all soft tissue and bone sarcomas. This confirms that the challenges inherent in ultra-rare sarcomas affect large numbers of patients.Experimentele farmacotherapi

The Influence of Age and Sex on Genetic Associations with Adult Body Size and Shape : A Large-Scale Genome-Wide Interaction Study

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 100 genetic variants contributing to BMI, a measure of body size, or waist-to-hip ratio (adjusted for BMI, WHRadjBMI), a measure of body shape. Body size and shape change as people grow older and these changes differ substantially between men and women. To systematically screen for age-and/or sex-specific effects of genetic variants on BMI and WHRadjBMI, we performed meta-analyses of 114 studies (up to 320,485 individuals of European descent) with genome-wide chip and/or Metabochip data by the Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits (GIANT) Consortium. Each study tested the association of up to similar to 2.8M SNPs with BMI and WHRadjBMI in four strata (men 50y, women 50y) and summary statistics were combined in stratum-specific meta-analyses. We then screened for variants that showed age-specific effects (G x AGE), sex-specific effects (G x SEX) or age-specific effects that differed between men and women (G x AGE x SEX). For BMI, we identified 15 loci (11 previously established for main effects, four novel) that showed significant (FDR= 50y). No sex-dependent effects were identified for BMI. For WHRadjBMI, we identified 44 loci (27 previously established for main effects, 17 novel) with sex-specific effects, of which 28 showed larger effects in women than in men, five showed larger effects in men than in women, and 11 showed opposite effects between sexes. No age-dependent effects were identified for WHRadjBMI. This is the first genome-wide interaction meta-analysis to report convincing evidence of age-dependent genetic effects on BMI. In addition, we confirm the sex-specificity of genetic effects on WHRadjBMI. These results may providefurther insights into the biology that underlies weight change with age or the sexually dimorphism of body shape.Peer reviewe