Advances in the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors

Gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs) are a rare and heterogeneous class of neoplasms. While surgical resection is the mainstay of treatment, non-surgical therapies play a role in the setting of unresectable and metastatic disease. The goals of medical therapy are directed both at alleviating symptoms of peptide release and shrinking tumor mass. Biotherapies such as somatostatin analogs and interferon can decrease the secretion of peptides and inhibit their end-organ effects. A second objective for treatment of unresectable GEP-NETs is limiting tumor growth. Options for limiting tumor growth include somatostatin analogs, systemic chemotherapy, locoregional therapies, ionizing radiation, external beam radiation, and newer targeted agents. In particular, angiogenesis inhibitors, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and mTOR inhibitors have shown early promising results. The rarity of these tumors, their resistance to standard chemotherapy, and the excellent performance status of most of these patients, make a strong argument for consideration of novel therapeutic trials

A Prediction Model for Chronic Kidney Disease Includes Periodontal Disease

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142173/1/jper0016.pd

Correlation Tests of the Ditching Behavior of an Army B-24D Airplane and a 1/16-size Model

Behaviors of both model and full-scale airplanes were ascertained by making visual observations, by recording time histories of decelerations, and by taking motion picture records of ditchings. Results are presented in form of sequence photographs and time-history curves for attitudes, vertical and horizontal displacements, and longitudinal decelerations. Time-history curves for attitudes and horizontal and vertical displacements for model and full-scale tests were in agreement; maximum longitudinal decelerations for both ditchings did not occur at same part of run; full-scale maximum deceleration was 50 percent greater

Neural Correlates of Suspiciousness and Interactions with Anxiety During Emotional and Neutral Word Processing

Suspiciousness is usually classified as a symptom of psychosis, but it also occurs in depression and anxiety disorders. Though how suspiciousness overlaps with depression is not obvious, suspiciousness does seem to overlap with anxious apprehension and anxious arousal (e.g., verbal iterative processes and vigilance about environmental threat). However, suspiciousness also has unique characteristics (e.g., concern about harm from others and vigilance about social threat). Given that both anxiety and suspiciousness have been associated with abnormalities in emotion processing, it is unclear whether it is the unique characteristics of suspiciousness or the overlap with anxiety that drive abnormalities in emotion processing. Event-related brain potentials were obtained during an emotion-word Stroop task. Results indicated that suspiciousness interacts with anxious apprehension to modulate initial stimulus perception processes. Suspiciousness is associated with attention to all stimuli regardless of emotion content. In contrast, anxious arousal is associated with a later response to emotion stimuli only. These results suggest that suspiciousness and anxious apprehension share overlapping processes, but suspiciousness alone is associated with a hyperactive early vigilance response. Depression did not interact with suspiciousness to predict response to emotion stimuli. These findings suggest that it may be informative to assess suspiciousness in conjunction with anxiety in order to better understand how these symptoms interact and contribute to dysfunctional emotion processing

Predictive Values of Self‐Reported Periodontal Need: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142204/1/jper1551.pd

The accuracy and completeness for receipt of colorectal cancer care using Veterans Health Administration administrative data.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American Society of Clinical Oncology have established guidelines for the treatment and surveillance of colorectal cancer (CRC), respectively. Considering these guidelines, an accurate and efficient method is needed to measure receipt of care

Sociodemographic characteristics and diabetes predict invalid self-reported non-smoking in a population-based study of U.S. adults

BACKGROUND: Nearly all studies reporting smoking status collect self-reported data. The objective of this study was to assess sociodemographic characteristics and selected, common smoking-related diseases as predictors of invalid reporting of non-smoking. Valid self-reported smoking may be related to the degree to which smoking is a behavior that is not tolerated by the smoker's social group. METHODS: True smoking was defined as having serum cotinine of 15+ng/ml. 1483 "true" smokers 45+ years of age with self-reported smoking and serum cotinine data from the Mobile Examination Center were identified in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Invalid non-smoking was defined as "true" smokers self-reporting non-smoking. To assess predictors of invalid self-reported non-smoking, odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for age, race/ethnicity-gender categories, education, income, diabetes, hypertension, and myocardial infarction. Multiple logistic regression modeling took into account the complex survey design and sample weights. RESULTS: Among smokers with diabetes, invalid non-smoking status was 15%, ranging from 0% for Mexican-American (MA) males to 22%–25% for Non-Hispanic White (NHW) males and Non-Hispanic Black (NHB) females. Among smokers without diabetes, invalid non-smoking status was 5%, ranging from 3% for MA females to 10% for NHB females. After simultaneously taking into account diabetes, education, race/ethnicity and gender, smokers with diabetes (OR(Adj )= 3.15; 95% CI: 1.35–7.34), who did not graduate from high school (OR(Adj )= 2.05; 95% CI: 1.30–3.22) and who were NHB females (OR(Adj )= 5.12; 95% CI: 1.41–18.58) were more likely to self-report as non-smokers than smokers without diabetes, who were high school graduates, and MA females, respectively. Having a history of myocardial infarction or hypertension did not predict invalid reporting of non-smoking. CONCLUSION: Validity of self-reported non-smoking may be related to the relatively slowly progressing chronic nature of diabetes, in contrast with the acute event of myocardial infarction which could be considered a more serious, major life changing event. These data also raise questions regarding the possible role of societal desirability in the validity of self-reported non-smoking, especially among smokers with diabetes, who did not graduate from high school, and who were NHB females