Effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy with or without zoledronic acid on pathological response: A meta-analysis of randomised trials

Purpose The addition of bisphosphonates to adjuvant therapy improves survival in postmenopausal breast cancer (BC) patients. We report a meta-analysis of four randomised trials of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (CT) +/– zoledronic acid (ZA) in stage II/III BC to investigate the potential for enhancing the pathological response. Methods Individual patient data from four prospective randomised clinical trials reporting the effect of the addition of ZA on the pathological response after neoadjuvant CT were pooled. Primary outcomes were pathological complete response in the breast (pCRb) and in the breast and lymph nodes (pCR). Trial-level and individual patient data meta-analyses were done. Predefined subgroup-analyses were performed for postmenopausal women and patients with triple-negative BC. Results pCRb and pCR data were available in 735 and 552 patients respectively. In the total study population ZA addition to neoadjuvant CT did not increase pCRb or pCR rates. However, in postmenopausal patients, the addition of ZA resulted in a significant, near doubling of the pCRb rate (10.8% for CT only versus 17.7% with CT+ZA; odds ratio [OR] 2.14, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01–4.55) and a non-significant benefit of the pCR rate (7.8% for CT only versus 14.6% with CT+ZA; OR 2.62, 95% CI 0.90–7.62). In patients with triple-negative BC a trend was observed favouring CT+ZA. Conclusion This meta-analysis shows no impact from the addition of ZA to neoadjuvant CT on pCR. However, as has been seen in the adjuvant setting, the addition of ZA to neoadjuvant CT may augment the effects of CT in postmenopausal patients with BC

Quantizing N=2 Multicenter Solutions

N=2 supergravity in four dimensions, or equivalently N=1 supergravity in five dimensions, has an interesting set of BPS solutions that each correspond to a number of charged centers. This set contains black holes, black rings and their bound states, as well as many smooth solutions. Moduli spaces of such solutions carry a natural symplectic form which we determine, and which allows us to study their quantization. By counting the resulting wavefunctions we come to an independent derivation of some of the wall-crossing formulae. Knowledge of the explicit form of these wavefunctions allows us to find quantum resolutions to some apparent classical paradoxes such as solutions with barely bound centers and those with an infinitely deep throat. We show that quantum effects seem to cap off the throat at a finite depth and we give an estimate for the corresponding mass gap in the dual CFT. This is an interesting example of a system where quantum effects cannot be neglected at macroscopic scales even though the curvature is everywhere small.Comment: 49 pages + appendice

Eternal Black Holes in AdS

We propose a dual non-perturbative description for maximally extended Schwarzschild Anti-de-Sitter spacetimes. The description involves two copies of the conformal field theory associated to the AdS spacetime and an initial entangled state. In this context we also discuss a version of the information loss paradox and its resolution.Comment: v4: New section added on black holes with only one asymptotic boundary, v5,6: More references adde

Niet alles kan : Eerste advies van het Adviescollege Stikstofproblematiek: aanbevelingen voor korte termijn 25 september 2019

Dit rapport is het eerste advies van Het Adviescollege Stikstofproblematiek. Het Adviescollege Stikstofproblematiek heeft de opdracht gekregen om de Minister van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit te adviseren over hoe om te gaan met de stikstofproblematiek in Nederland

Niet alles kan : Eerste advies van het Adviescollege Stikstofproblematiek: aanbevelingen voor korte termijn 25 september 2019

Dit rapport is het eerste advies van Het Adviescollege Stikstofproblematiek. Het Adviescollege Stikstofproblematiek heeft de opdracht gekregen om de Minister van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit te adviseren over hoe om te gaan met de stikstofproblematiek in Nederland

Niet alles kan overal : Eindadvies over structurele aanpak op lange termijn

Het Adviescollege Stikstofproblematiek heeft de opdracht gekregen de minister van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit te adviseren over hoe om te gaan met de stikstofproblematiek in Nederland. Na het uitbrengen van het eerste advies ‘Niet alles kan’, het tussentijdse advies over ‘Bemesten en beweiden in 2020’ en het ‘Advies Luchtvaartsector’ is het Adviescollege van start gegaan met de tweede fase van de opdracht. Opdracht voor deze tweede fase betreft het adviseren over een structurele aanpak van de stikstofproblematiek op de lange termijn. Dit advies is verwoord in deze eindrapportage

Adjuvant hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced colon cancer (COLOPEC): a multicentre, open-label, randomised trial

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