New Disturbing Trend in Antimicrobial Resistance of Gram-Negative Pathogens

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Assessment of effectiveness measures in patients with schizophrenia initiated on risperidone long-acting therapy: the SOURCE study results

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To evaluate effectiveness outcomes in a real-world setting in patients with schizophrenia initiating risperidone long-acting therapy (RLAT).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a 24-month, multicenter, prospective, longitudinal, observational study in patients with schizophrenia who were initiated on RLAT. Physicians could change treatment during the study as clinically warranted. Data were collected at baseline and subsequently every 3 months up to 24 months. Effectiveness outcomes included changes in illness severity as measured by Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S) scale; functional scores as measured by Personal and Social Performance (PSP) scale, Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), and Strauss-Carpenter Levels of Functioning (LOF); and health status (Medical Outcomes Survey Short Form-36 [SF-36]). Life-table methodology was used to estimate the cumulative probability of relapse over time. Adverse events were evaluated for safety.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>532 patients were enrolled in the study; 209 (39.3%) completed the 24-month study and 305 (57.3%) had at least 12 months of follow-up data. The mean (SD) age of patients was 42.3 (12.8) years. Most patients were male (66.4%) and either Caucasian (60.3%) or African American (23.7%). All changes in CGI-S from baseline at each subsequent 3-month follow-up visit were statistically significant (<it>p </it>< .0001), indicating improvement in disease severity. Improvements were also noted for the PSP, GAF, and total LOF, indicating improvement in daily functioning and health outcome.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Patients with schizophrenia who were initiated on RLAT demonstrated improvements in measures of effectiveness within 3 months, which persisted over 24 months.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00246194">NCT00246194</a></p

Ex-post Performance Implications of Divergence of Managers’ Perceptions of ‘Distance’ From ‘Reality’ in International Business

Despite much research on “distance”, little attention has been paid to the effect of divergence of managers’ perceptions of distance from reality (i.e. distance divergence) and its implications for firm performance. This knowledge is highly important since managerial perceptions of the firm’s environment do not always coincide with the actual environmental characteristics. Consequently, strategies based on inaccurate data may result in erroneous forecasts, missed opportunities and business failure. Using survey data from senior managers of Swedish exporters and corresponding objective data, this study is a first attempt to explore the ex-post performance implications of “distance divergence” when expanding into foreign markets. Our results demonstrate that the larger the divergence between managers’ perceptions of cultural distance and corresponding “objective” distance, the lower the performance expressed in companies’ sales. However, over/underestimation of cultural distance does not have differential effects on firm performance.“Stiftelsen Olle Hakelius Stipendiefond”, Grant no: 1165001

A metastatic colon adenocarcinoma harboring BRAF V600E has a durable major response to dabrafenib/trametinib and chemotherapy

Casey B Williams,1,* Caitlin McMahon,2,* Siraj M Ali,2 Mark Abramovitz,1 Kirstin A Williams,1 Jessica Klein,1 Heidi McKean,1 Roman Yelensky,2 Thomas J George Jr,3 Julia A Elvin,2 Salil Soman,4 Doron Lipson,2 Juliann Chmielecki,2 Deborah Morosini,2 Vincent A Miller,2 Philip J Stephens,2 Jeffrey S Ross,2,5 Brian Leyland-Jones1 1Avera Cancer Institute, Sioux Falls, SD, USA; 2Foundation Medicine, Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA; 3University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA; 4Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA; 5Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: The subset of metastatic colorectal adenocarcinomas that harbor BRAF V600E mutations are aggressive tumors with significantly shortened survival and limited treatment options. Here we present a colorectal cancer patient whose disease progressed through standard chemotherapy and who developed liver metastasis. Comprehensive genomic profiling (FoundationOne&reg;) identified a BRAF V600E mutation in the liver lesion, as well as other genomic alterations consistent with colorectal cancers. Combination therapy of dabrafenib and trametinib with standard cytotoxic chemotherapy resulted in a durable major ongoing response for the patient. This report illustrates the utility of comprehensive genomic profiling with personalized targeted therapy for aggressive metastatic colorectal adenocarcinomas. Keywords: oxaliplatin, colorectal adenocarcinoma, combination targeted therapy, BRAF mutation