Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Improved Clinical Outcomes Associated With Vitamin D Supplementation During Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients With HER2+ Nonmetastatic Breast Cancer

Vitamin D (VD) supplementation has pleiotropic effects that extend beyond their impact on bone health, including the disruption of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) signaling through the ErbB2/AKT/ERK pathway. We performed a retrospective review of patients who received VD supplementation during neoadjuvant chemotherapy (n = 134) and those who did not (n = 112). In our final multivariate model, VD use was associated with improved disease-free survival (DFS) (hazard ratio [HR], 0.36; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.15-0.88); P = .026). To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to report a significant improvement in DFS for patients who received VD supplementation concurrently with trastuzumab-based chemotherapy for HER2-positive (HER2+) nonmetastatic breast cancer. Vitamin D (VD) supplementation has pleiotropic effects that extend beyond their impact on bone health, including the disruption of downstream VD receptor signaling and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) signaling through the ErbB2/AKT/ERK pathway. In the present study, we examined our institutional experience with patients having nonmetastatic HER2-positive (HER+) breast cancer and hypothesized that those patients who received VD supplementation during neoadjuvant chemotherapy would have improved long-term outcomes. We performed a retrospective review of all patients (n = 308) given trastuzumab-based chemotherapy between 2006 and 2012 at the University of Miami/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (UM/SCCC). We identified 2 groups of patients for comparison—those who received VD supplementation during neoadjuvant chemotherapy (n = 134) and those who did not (n = 112). Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression models were fitted to overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). More than half of the patients received VD during neoadjuvant chemotherapy (54.5%), with 60% receiving a dose < 10,000 units/wk and 33.3% having a VD deficiency at the start of therapy. In our final multivariate model, VD use was associated with improved DFS (hazard ratio [HR], 0.36; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.15-0.88; P = .026], whereas larger tumor size was associated with worse DFS (HR, 3.52; 95% CI, 1.06-11.66; P = .04). There were no differences in OS based on any of the categories, including VD use, tumor size, number of metastatic lymph nodes, age at diagnosis, or lymphovascular invasion (LVI). VD supplementation in patients with nonmetastatic HER2+ breast cancer is associated with improved DFS