32 research outputs found
Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in muscle-invasive bladder cancer was introduced several years ago. Despite the evidence supporting its use in clinical practice, only a minority of patients who undergo radical cystectomy receive preoperative chemotherapy. In addition, recommendations and methods to detect patients who would benefit the most from NAC are still unclear. The European Association of Urology (EAU) guidelines panel on muscle-invasive and metastatic bladder cancer recommends the use of cisplatin-based NAC for T2-T4a, cN0 M0 bladder cancer if the patient has a performance status ≥2
and if the renal function is not impaired, but the American Urological Association, for example, does not have any guideline recommendations on this topic at all. In this review we describe the current literature supporting NAC in association with radical cystectomy in muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma of the bladder. Evidence acquisition was made searching the Medline database for original articles published before 1st February 2014, with search terms: “neoadjuvant chemotherapy”, “radical cystectomy”, and “invasive bladder cancer”.</p
Human Metaplastic Breast Carcinoma and Decorin
Metaplastic breast carcinoma (MBC) is a rare subtype of invasive breast
cancer and has poor prognosis. In general, cancers are heterogeneous
cellular masses comprised of different cell types and their
extracellular matrix (ECM). However, little is known about the
composition of the ECM and its constituents in MBC. Decorin is a
ubiquitous ECM macromolecule known of its oncosuppressive activity. As
such, it provides an intriguing molecule in the development of novel
therapeutics for different malignancies such as MBC. In this study,
decorin immunoreactivity and the effect of adenoviral decorin cDNA
(Ad-DCN) transduction were examined in MBC. Multiple immunohistochemical
stainings were used to characterize a massive breast tumour derived
from an old woman. Furthermore, three-dimensional (3D) explant cultures
derived from the tumour were transduced with Ad-DCN to study the effect
of the transduction on the explants. The MBC tumour was shown to be
completely negative for decorin immunoreactivity demonstrating that the
malignant cells were not able to synthesize decorin. Ad-DCN transduction
resulted in a markedly altered cytological phenotype of MBC explants by
decreasing the amount of atypical cells and by inhibiting cell
proliferation. The results of this study support approaches to develop
new, decorin-based adjuvant therapies for MBC.</p
Haploinsufficiency of the NF1 gene is associated with protection against diabetes
Abstract
Background The hereditary predisposition to diabetes
is only partially explained by genes identified so far.
Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a rare monogenic
dominant syndrome caused by aberrations of the NF1
gene. Here, we used a cohort of 1410 patients with NF1
to study the association of the NF1 gene with type 1
(T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D).
Methods A total of 1410 patients were confirmed to
fulfil the National Institutes of Health diagnostic criteria
for NF1 by individually reviewing their medical records.
The patients with NF1 were compared with 14 017
controls matched for age, sex and area of residence as
well as 1881 non-NF1 siblings of the patients with NF1.
Register-based information on purchases of antidiabetic
medication and hospital encounters related to diabetes
were retrieved. The Cox proportional hazards model was
used to calculate the relative risk for diabetes in NF1.
Results Patients with NF1 showed a lower rate of T2D
when compared with a 10-fold control cohort (HR 0.27,
95% CI 0.17 to 0.43) or with their siblings without NF1
(HR 0.28, 95% CI 0.16 to 0.47). The estimates remained
practically unchanged after adjusting the analyses for
history of obesity and dyslipidaemias. The rate of T1D
in NF1 was decreased although statistically nonsignificantly (HR 0.58, 95% CI 0.27 to 1.25).
Conclusion Haploinsufficiency of the NF1 gene may
protect against T2D and probably T1D. Since NF1
negatively regulates the Ras signalling pathway, the
results suggest that the Ras pathway may be involved in
the pathogenesis of diabetes.</p
Reduced Mimicry to Virtual Reality Avatars in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Mimicry involves unconsciously copying the actions of others. Increasing evidence suggests that autistic people can copy the goal of an observed action but show differences in their mimicry. We investigated mimicry in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) within a two-dimensional virtual reality environment. Participants played an imitation game with a socially engaged avatar and socially disengaged avatar. Despite being told only to copy the goal of the observed action, autistic participants and matched neurotypical participants mimicked the kinematics of the avatars’ movements. However, autistic participants mimicked less. Social engagement did not modulate mimicry in either group. The results demonstrate the feasibility of using virtual reality to induce mimicry and suggest mimicry differences in ASD may also occur when interacting with avatars
Massive Multiple Input Massive Multiple Output for 5G Wireless Backhauling
In this paper, we propose a new technique for the future fifth generation (5G) cellular network wireless backhauling. We show that hundreds of data streams can be spatially multiplexed through a short range and line of sight "massive multiple input massive multiple output" (MMIMMO) propagation channel thanks to a new low complexity spatial multiplexing scheme, called "block discrete Fourier transform based spatial multiplexing with maximum ratio transmission" (B-DFT-SM-MRT). Its performance in real and existing environments is assessed using ray-tracing tools and advanced antenna models. 1.6 kbits/s/Hz of spectral efficiency is attained, corresponding to 80% of Singular Value Decomposition performance, with a transmitter and a receiver that are 200 and 10,000 times less complex, respectively.Peer reviewe