German Ageing Survey (DEAS) - the second half of life: research instruments of the third wave

Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. Main research areas; 3. Sampling; 4. Survey methods; 5. Project management and staff; 6. Data access; 7. Survey documents

German Ageing Survey (DEAS) - the second half of life: research instruments of the third wave

Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. Main research areas; 3. Sampling; 4. Survey methods; 5. Project management and staff; 6. Data access; 7. Survey documents

Deutscher Alterssurvey - die zweite Lebenshälfte: Erhebungsdesign und Instrumente der dritten Befragungswelle

Der Deutsche Alterssurvey (DEAS) ist eine bundesweit repräsentative Quer- und Längsschnittbefragung von Personen, die sich in der zweiten Lebenshälfte befinden, und wird aus Mitteln des Bundesministeriums für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ) gefördert. Die umfassende Untersuchung von Personen im mittleren und höheren Erwachsenenalter dient dazu, Mikrodaten bereitzustellen, die sowohl für die sozial- und verhaltenswissenschaftliche Forschung als auch für die Sozialberichterstattung genutzt werden. Die DEAS-Daten bilden damit eine Informationsgrundlage für politische Entscheidungsträger, die interessierte Öffentlichkeit und für die wissenschaftliche Forschung. Die erste Welle wurde im Jahr 1996 durchgeführt, die zweite Welle im Jahr 2002. Die aktuelle dritte Welle wurde im Jahr 2008 verwirklicht. Wie bereits in den vorangegangenen Erhebungswellen wurden auch in der dritten Welle Personen umfassend zu ihrer Lebenssituation befragt - unter anderem zu ihrem beruflichen Status oder ihrem Leben im Ruhestand, zu gesellschaftlicher Partizipation und nachberuflichen Aktivitäten, wirtschaftlicher Lage und Wohnsituation, familiären und außerfamiliären sozialen Beziehungen sowie zu Gesundheit, Wohlbefinden und Lebenszielen. Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt einen kurzen Überblick über die Befragungsschwerpunkte, die Stichproben, die Befragungsmethoden, die beteiligten Personen, die Nutzung der Daten und die Erhebungsunterlagen. (ICI2). Inhaltsverzeichnis: 1. Einleitung; 2. Befragungsschwerpunkte; 3. Stichproben; 4. Befragungsmethoden; 5. Beteiligte Personen und Kontakt; 6. Nutzung der Daten; 7. Erhebungsunterlagen

Deutscher Alterssurvey - die zweite Lebenshälfte: Erhebungsdesign und Instrumente der dritten Befragungswelle

Der Deutsche Alterssurvey (DEAS) ist eine bundesweit repräsentative Quer- und Längsschnittbefragung von Personen, die sich in der zweiten Lebenshälfte befinden, und wird aus Mitteln des Bundesministeriums für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ) gefördert. Die umfassende Untersuchung von Personen im mittleren und höheren Erwachsenenalter dient dazu, Mikrodaten bereitzustellen, die sowohl für die sozial- und verhaltenswissenschaftliche Forschung als auch für die Sozialberichterstattung genutzt werden. Die DEAS-Daten bilden damit eine Informationsgrundlage für politische Entscheidungsträger, die interessierte Öffentlichkeit und für die wissenschaftliche Forschung. Die erste Welle wurde im Jahr 1996 durchgeführt, die zweite Welle im Jahr 2002. Die aktuelle dritte Welle wurde im Jahr 2008 verwirklicht. Wie bereits in den vorangegangenen Erhebungswellen wurden auch in der dritten Welle Personen umfassend zu ihrer Lebenssituation befragt - unter anderem zu ihrem beruflichen Status oder ihrem Leben im Ruhestand, zu gesellschaftlicher Partizipation und nachberuflichen Aktivitäten, wirtschaftlicher Lage und Wohnsituation, familiären und außerfamiliären sozialen Beziehungen sowie zu Gesundheit, Wohlbefinden und Lebenszielen. Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt einen kurzen Überblick über die Befragungsschwerpunkte, die Stichproben, die Befragungsmethoden, die beteiligten Personen, die Nutzung der Daten und die Erhebungsunterlagen. (ICI2). Inhaltsverzeichnis: 1. Einleitung; 2. Befragungsschwerpunkte; 3. Stichproben; 4. Befragungsmethoden; 5. Beteiligte Personen und Kontakt; 6. Nutzung der Daten; 7. Erhebungsunterlagen

The histone deacetylase inhibitor SAHA acts in synergism with fenretinide and doxorubicin to control growth of rhabdoid tumor cells

Background: Rhabdoid tumors are highly aggressive malignancies affecting infants and very young children. In many instances these tumors are resistant to conventional type chemotherapy necessitating alternative approaches. Methods: Proliferation assays (MTT), apoptosis (propidium iodide/annexin V) and cell cycle analysis (DAPI), RNA expression microarrays and western blots were used to identify synergism of the HDAC (histone deacetylase) inhibitor SAHA with fenretinide, tamoxifen and doxorubicin in rhabdoidtumor cell lines. Results: HDAC1 and HDAC2 are overexpressed in primary rhabdoid tumors and rhabdoid tumor cell lines. Targeting HDACs in rhabdoid tumors induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. On the other hand HDAC inhibition induces deregulated gene programs (MYCC-, RB program and the stem cell program) in rhabdoid tumors. These programs are in general associated with cell cycle progression. Targeting these activated pro-proliferative genes by combined approaches of HDAC-inhibitors plus fenretinide, which inhibits cyclinD1, exhibit strong synergistic effects on induction of apoptosis. Furthermore, HDAC inhibition sensitizes rhabdoid tumor cell lines to cell death induced by chemotherapy. Conclusion: Our data demonstrate that HDAC inhibitor treatment in combination with fenretinide or conventional chemotherapy is a promising tool for the treatment of chemoresistant rhabdoid tumors.<br

Gene expression and immunohistochemical analyses identify SOX2 as major risk factor for overall survival and relapse in Ewing sarcoma patients

BACKGROUND: Up to 30-40% of Ewing sarcoma (EwS) patients with non-metastatic disease develop local or metastatic relapse within a time span of 2-10 years. This is in part caused by the absence of prognostic biomarkers that can identify high-risk patients and thus assign them to risk-adapted monitoring and treatment regimens. Since cancer stemness has been associated with tumour relapse and poor patient outcomes, we investigated in the current study the prognostic potential SOX2 (sex determining region Y box 2) - a major transcription factor involved in development and stemness - which was previously described to contribute to the undifferentiated phenotype of EwS. METHODS: Two independent patient cohorts, one consisting of 189 retrospectively collected EwS tumours with corresponding mRNA expression data (test-cohort) and the other consisting of 141 prospectively collected formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded resected tumours (validation and cohort), were employed to analyse SOX2 expression levels through DNA microarrays or immunohistochemistry, respectively, and to compare them with clinical parameters and patient outcomes. Two methods were employed to test the validity of the results at both the mRNA and protein levels. FINDINGS: Both cohorts showed that only a subset of EwS patients (16-20%) expressed high SOX2 mRNA or protein levels, which significantly correlated with poor overall survival. Multivariate analyses of our validation-cohort revealed that high SOX2 expression represents a major risk-factor for poor survival (HR = 3·19; 95%CI 1·74-5·84; p < 0·01) that is independent from metastasis and other known clinical risk-factors at the time of diagnosis. Univariate analyses demonstrated that SOX2-high expression was correlated with tumour relapse (p = 0·002). The median first relapse was at 14·7 months (range: 3·5-180·7). INTERPRETATION: High SOX2 expression constitutes an independent prognostic biomarker for EwS patients with poor outcomes. This may help to identify patients with localised disease who are at high risk for tumour relapse within the first two years after diagnosis. FUNDING: The laboratory of T. G. P. Grünewald is supported by grants from the 'Verein zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Forschung an der Medizinischen Fakultät der LMU München (WiFoMed)', by LMU Munich's Institutional Strategy LMUexcellent within the framework of the German Excellence Initiative, the 'Mehr LEBEN für krebskranke Kinder - Bettina-Bräu-Stiftung', the Walter Schulz Foundation, the Wilhelm Sander-Foundation (2016.167.1), the Friedrich-Baur foundation, the Matthias-Lackas foundation, the Barbara & Hubertus Trettner foundation, the Dr. Leopold & Carmen Ellinger foundation, the Gert & Susanna Mayer foundation, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG 391665916), and by the German Cancer Aid (DKH-111886 and DKH-70112257). J. Li was supported by a scholarship of the China Scholarship Council (CSC), J. Musa was supported by a scholarship of the Kind-Philipp foundation, and T. L. B. Hölting by a scholarship of the German Cancer Aid. M. F. Orth and M. M. L. Knott were supported by scholarships of the German National Academic Foundation. G. Sannino was supported by a scholarship from the Fritz-Thyssen Foundation (FTF-40.15.0.030MN). The work of U. Dirksen is supported by grants from the German Cancer Aid (DKH-108128, DKH-70112018, and DKH-70113419), the ERA-Net-TRANSCAN consortium (project number 01KT1310), and Euro Ewing Consortium (EEC, project number EU-FP7 602,856), both funded under the European Commission Seventh Framework Program FP7-HEALTH (http://cordis.europa.eu/), the Barbara & Hubertus Trettner foundation, and the Gert & Susanna Mayer foundation. G. Hardiman was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (SC EPSCoR) and National Institutes of Health (U01-DA045300). The laboratory of J. Alonso was supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI12/00816; PI16CIII/00026); Asociación Pablo Ugarte (TPY-M 1149/13; TRPV 205/18), ASION (TVP 141/17), Fundación Sonrisa de Alex & Todos somos Iván (TVP 1324/15).The laboratory of T. G. P. Grünewald is supported by grants from the ‘Verein zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Forschung an der Medizinischen Fakultät der LMU München (WiFoMed)’, by LMU Munich's Institutional Strategy LMUexcellent within the framework of the German Excellence Initiative, the ‘Mehr LEBEN für krebskranke Kinder – Bettina-Bräu-Stiftung’, the Walter Schulz Foundation, the Wilhelm Sander-Foundation (2016.167.1), the Friedrich-Baur foundation, the Matthias-Lackas foundation, the Barbara & Hubertus Trettner foundation, the Dr. Leopold und Carmen Ellinger foundation, the Gert & Susanna Mayer foundation, the Rolf M. Schwiete foundation, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG 391665916), and by the German Cancer Aid (DKH-111886 and DKH-70112257). J. Li was supported by a scholarship of the China Scholarship Council (CSC), J. Musa was supported by a scholarship of the Kind-Philipp foundation, and T. L. B. Hölting by a scholarship of the German Cancer Aid. M. F. Orth and M. M. L. Knott were supported by scholarships of the German National Academic Foundation. G. Sannino was supported from a scholarship from the Fritz-Thyssen Foundation (FTF-40.15.0.030MN). The work of U. Dirksen is supported by grants from the German Cancerr Aid (DKH-108128, DKH-70112018, and DKH-70113419), the ERA-Net-TRANSCAN consortium (project number 01KT1310), and Euro Ewing Consortium (EEC, project number EU-FP7 602856), both funded under the European Commission Seventh Framework Program FP7-HEALTH (http://cordis.europa.eu/), the Barbara & Hubertus Trettner foundation, and the Gert & Susanna Mayer foundation. G. Hardiman was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (SC EPSCoR) and National Institutes of Health (U01-DA045300). The laboratory of J. Alonso was supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI12/00816; PI16CIII/00026); Asociación Pablo Ugarte (TPY-M 1149/13; TRPV 205/18), ASION (TVP 141/17), Fundación Sonrisa de Alex & Todos somos Iván (TVP 1324/15).S

The impact of the temporal sequence of cranial radiotherapy and platin-based chemotherapy on hearing impairment in pediatric and adolescent CNS and head-and-neck cancer patients: A report from the PanCareLIFE consortium.

The impact of the temporal sequence by which cranial radiotherapy (CRT) and platin-based chemotherapy (PCth) are administered on sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in pediatric and adolescent central nervous system (CNS) and head-and-neck (HN) cancer patients has not yet been studied in detail. We examined the ototoxic effects of sequentially applied CRT and PCth. This study included children and adolescents with CNS and HN tumors who participated in the multicountry PanCareLIFE (PCL) consortium. Audiological outcomes were compared between patients who received CRT prior to PCth and those who received it afterwards. The incidence, degree and posttreatment progression of SNHL, defined as Muenster classification grade ≥MS2b, were evaluated in 141 patients. One hundred and nineteen patients were included in a time-to-onset analysis. Eighty-eight patients received CRT prior to PCth (Group 1) and 53 patients received PCth before CRT (Group 2). Over a median follow-up time of 1.6 years, 72.7% of patients in Group 1 experienced SNHL ≥ MS2b compared to 33.9% in Group 2 (P < .01). A time-to-onset analysis was performed for 74 patients from Group 1 and 45 patients from Group 2. Median time to hearing loss (HL) ≥ MS2b was 1.2 years in Group 1 and 4.4 years in Group 2 (P < .01). Thus, audiological outcomes were better for patients who received CRT after PCth than before. This finding should be further evaluated and considered within clinical practice in order to minimize hearing loss in children and adolescents with CNS and HN tumors