Discontinuation of first-line bevacizumab in metastatic colorectal cancer: the BEAWARE Italian Observational Study

BEAWARE investigated the pattern of first-line bevacizumab early interruption in the Italian real-world setting of metastatic colorectal cancer

Multiple Myeloma Treatment in Real-world Clinical Practice : Results of a Prospective, Multinational, Noninterventional Study

Funding Information: The authors would like to thank all patients and their families and all the EMMOS investigators for their valuable contributions to the study. The authors would like to acknowledge Robert Olie for his significant contribution to the EMMOS study. Writing support during the development of our report was provided by Laura Mulcahy and Catherine Crookes of FireKite, an Ashfield company, a part of UDG Healthcare plc, which was funded by Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc, and Janssen Global Services, LLC. The EMMOS study was supported by research funding from Janssen Pharmaceutical NV and Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Funding Information: The authors would like to thank all patients and their families and all the EMMOS investigators for their valuable contributions to the study. The authors would like to acknowledge Robert Olie for his significant contribution to the EMMOS study. Writing support during the development of our report was provided by Laura Mulcahy and Catherine Crookes of FireKite, an Ashfield company, a part of UDG Healthcare plc, which was funded by Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc, and Janssen Global Services, LLC. The EMMOS study was supported by research funding from Janssen Pharmaceutical NV and Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Funding Information: M.M. has received personal fees from Janssen, Celgene, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi, Novartis, and Takeda and grants from Janssen and Sanofi during the conduct of the study. E.T. has received grants from Janssen and personal fees from Janssen and Takeda during the conduct of the study, and grants from Amgen, Celgene/Genesis, personal fees from Amgen, Celgene/Genesis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis, and Glaxo-Smith Kline outside the submitted work. M.V.M. has received personal fees from Janssen, Celgene, Amgen, and Takeda outside the submitted work. M.C. reports honoraria from Janssen, outside the submitted work. M. B. reports grants from Janssen Cilag during the conduct of the study. M.D. has received honoraria for participation on advisory boards for Janssen, Celgene, Takeda, Amgen, and Novartis. H.S. has received honoraria from Janssen-Cilag, Celgene, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis, and Takeda outside the submitted work. V.P. reports personal fees from Janssen during the conduct of the study and grants, personal fees, and nonfinancial support from Amgen, grants and personal fees from Sanofi, and personal fees from Takeda outside the submitted work. W.W. has received personal fees and grants from Amgen, Celgene, Novartis, Roche, Takeda, Gilead, and Janssen and nonfinancial support from Roche outside the submitted work. J.S. reports grants and nonfinancial support from Janssen Pharmaceutical during the conduct of the study. V.L. reports funding from Janssen Global Services LLC during the conduct of the study and study support from Janssen-Cilag and Pharmion outside the submitted work. A.P. reports employment and shareholding of Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) during the conduct of the study. C.C. reports employment at Janssen-Cilag during the conduct of the study. C.F. reports employment at Janssen Research and Development during the conduct of the study. F.T.B. reports employment at Janssen-Cilag during the conduct of the study. The remaining authors have stated that they have no conflicts of interest. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 The AuthorsMultiple myeloma (MM) remains an incurable disease, with little information available on its management in real-world clinical practice. The results of the present prospective, noninterventional observational study revealed great diversity in the treatment regimens used to treat MM. Our results also provide data to inform health economic, pharmacoepidemiologic, and outcomes research, providing a framework for the design of protocols to improve the outcomes of patients with MM. Background: The present prospective, multinational, noninterventional study aimed to document and describe real-world treatment regimens and disease progression in multiple myeloma (MM) patients. Patients and Methods: Adult patients initiating any new MM therapy from October 2010 to October 2012 were eligible. A multistage patient/site recruitment model was applied to minimize the selection bias; enrollment was stratified by country, region, and practice type. The patient medical and disease features, treatment history, and remission status were recorded at baseline, and prospective data on treatment, efficacy, and safety were collected electronically every 3 months. Results: A total of 2358 patients were enrolled. Of these patients, 775 and 1583 did and did not undergo stem cell transplantation (SCT) at any time during treatment, respectively. Of the patients in the SCT and non-SCT groups, 49%, 21%, 14%, and 15% and 57%, 20%, 12% and 10% were enrolled at treatment line 1, 2, 3, and ≥ 4, respectively. In the SCT and non-SCT groups, 45% and 54% of the patients had received bortezomib-based therapy without thalidomide/lenalidomide, 12% and 18% had received thalidomide/lenalidomide-based therapy without bortezomib, and 30% and 4% had received bortezomib plus thalidomide/lenalidomide-based therapy as frontline treatment, respectively. The corresponding proportions of SCT and non-SCT patients in lines 2, 3, and ≥ 4 were 45% and 37%, 30% and 37%, and 12% and 3%, 33% and 27%, 35% and 32%, and 8% and 2%, and 27% and 27%, 27% and 23%, and 6% and 4%, respectively. In the SCT and non-SCT patients, the overall response rate was 86% to 97% and 64% to 85% in line 1, 74% to 78% and 59% to 68% in line 2, 55% to 83% and 48% to 60% in line 3, and 49% to 65% and 36% and 45% in line 4, respectively, for regimens that included bortezomib and/or thalidomide/lenalidomide. Conclusion: The results of our prospective study have revealed great diversity in the treatment regimens used to manage MM in real-life practice. This diversity was linked to factors such as novel agent accessibility and evolving treatment recommendations. Our results provide insight into associated clinical benefits.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Transformer Models for Question Answering at BioASQ 2019

We describe our experiments in building a system to tackle task B of the BioASQ 2019 challenge on semantic question answering. We built separate systems to handle the five different types of questions in the dataset. We explored using transformer-based models using both ELMo, BERT and BioBERT. For the yesno questions, the results of our submissions using BERT ranked first in batches 3 and 4, while second best in batch 5

Non-binary decoding of structured LDPC codes: Density evolution

International audienc

Nonbinary decoding of structured LDPC codes

International audienc

The association between arterial hypertension and rotator cuff tear: The influence on rotator cuff tear sizes

Background: This study was conducted to establish whether hypertension increases the risk of occurrence of rotator cuff tear and influences its size. Materials and methods: A case-control design was used. We studied 408 consecutive patients (228 men, 180 women) who underwent arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. Tear size was determined during surgery. The control group included 201 individuals. For the study purpose, participants were divided into 2 groups by presence or absence of hypertension. We applied a logistic regression model to investigate if hypertension affects the risk of cuff tear. A multinomial logistic regression model was applied to explore the association between hypertension and tear size. We used the analysis of covariance method to determine if the duration of hypertension influences the severity of the tear; finally, we compared mean duration of antihypertensive therapy in patients with small, large, and massive tears. All analyses were adjusted for age and sex. Results: Hypertension was associated with a 2-fold higher risk of tear occurrence (odds ratio [OR], 2.05; 95% confidence interval [CI], 41-2.98). No association was detected between hypertension and the probability of a small tear (OR, 0.63, 95% CI, 0.33-1.19). Hypertensive individuals were 2 times more likely to experience large tear (OR, 02.09; 95% CI, 1.39-3.16) and 4 times more likely to experience massive tear (OR, 04.30; 95% CI, 2.44-7.58) than normotensive individuals. Mean duration of antihypertensive therapy significantly increased from small tear (1.08 years) to large tear (3.20 years) to massive tear (6.34 years) patients (analysis of covariance: F(2,403) = 16.357, P = 1.48 × 10-7). Conclusions: Our data provide evidence that hypertension is a significant risk factor for the occurrence and severity of rotator cuff tears. © 2013 Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Board of Trustees

Introduction of a triphenylamine substituent on pyridyl rings as a springboard for a new appealing brightly luminescent 1,3-di-(2-pyridyl)benzene platinum(ii) complex family

International audienceThe preparation and characterization of three new complexes, namely [Pt(1,3-bis(4-triphenylamine-pyridin-2-yl)-4,6-difluoro-benzene)Cl] ([(PtLCl)-Cl-1]), [Pt(1,3-bis(4-triphenylamine-pyridin-2-yl)-5-triphenylamine-benzene)Cl] ([(PtLCl)-Cl-2]), and [Pt(1,3-bis(4-triphenylamine-pyridin-2-yl)-5-mesityl-benzene)Cl] ([(PtLCl)-Cl-3]), is reported. All of them are highly luminescent in dilute deaerated dichloromethane solution (phi(lum) = 0.88-0.90, in the yellow-green region; the lambda(max,em) in nm for the monomers are: 562, 561 and 549 for [(PtLCl)-Cl-1], [(PtLCl)-Cl-2] and [(PtLCl)-Cl-3], respectively).[(PtLCl)-Cl-1] is the most appealing, being characterized by a very long lifetime (103.9 mu s) and displaying intense NIR emission in concentrated deaerated solution (phi(lum) = 0.66) with essentially no "contamination" by visible light < 600 nm. This complex allows the fabrication of both yellow-green and deep red/NIR OLEDs; OLED emissions are in the yellow-green (CIE = 0.38, 0.56) and deep red/NIR (CIE = 0.65, 0,34) regions, for [(PtLCl)-Cl-1] 8 wt% (with 11% ph/e EQE) and pure [(PtLCl)-Cl-1] (with 4.3% ph/e EQE), respectively

Surgical treatment of gastric cancer liver metastases: systematic review and meta-analysis of long-term outcomes and prognostic factors

The prognosis of patients with metastatic gastric cancer remains dismal, with palliative treatment as standard of care. However, encouraging results have been reported for surgical resection of liver only metastatic gastric cancer in carefully selected patients. A systematic review of articles published from 2000 onwards was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. Twenty-nine studies were included in qualitative and quantitative analysis. Meta-analysis of proportions pointed out 29.1% 5ySR (I 2 = 39%). The pooled weighted median of MSTs was 31.1 months. T stage > 2, metastasis greatest dimension ≥ 5 cm, the presence of multiple metastases and bilobar disease resulted among the strongest predictors of mortality. Funnel plots, Egger's tests, and P-curve analyses failed to show significant publication bias. Based on strict selection criteria and robust statistical analyses, our results show that, in very carefully selected patients without extrahepatic disease, surgical resection with curative intent may significantly improve overall survival

An attractive family of cyclometalated Ir(III) dyes functionalized with tryptophan for potential neuroimaging applications

International audienceThree novel luminescent iridium(III) dyes functionalized with a tryptophan amino acid and bearing two cyclometalated 2-phenylpyridines, 2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)pyridines or 2-phenylquinolines have been prepared and well characterized. They emit at 522-561 nm with a luminescence quantum yield in the range 0.33-0.98. All the dyes are able to stain neuronal cells in rat cerebellum tissue, as evidenced by fluorescence microscopy, showing affinity for granule neurons. The complexes bearing cyclometalated 2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)pyridines or 2-phenylquinolines also have a good affinity for brain white matter. The dye with two cyclometalated 2-phenylquinolines is characterized by the best luminescence quantum yield (0.98). Besides, giving the greatest image contrast, the dye with two cyclometalated 2-phenylquinolines shows the strongest affinity for a distinct subtype of neurons found in cerebellum tissue, the purkinje neurons (as evidenced with fluorescence microscopy)