Lane Violation: Why the NCAA\u27s Amateurism Rules Have Overstepped Antitrust Protection & How to Correct

The NCAA is in the midst of an era that will define the future of collegiate athletics and determine how young people participate in sports for the foreseeable future. This Essay ultimately concludes that both the NCAA and its athletes would benefit from a system that allows for the exploitation of athletes\u27 name, image, or likeness (NIL) rights while preserving the core educational and nonprofessional nature of college sports as a product. Currently the NCAA requires its athletes to maintain a very broadly defined amateur status to remain eligible for competition. The current amateurism definition states that athletes must forego all compensation outside of education-related expenses and retain status as a full-time student in good academic standing. This ban on compensation has been challenged in court under antitrust analysis and has been allowed by the Supreme Court as a procompetitive advantage necessary to maintain the unique characteristics of the NCAA’s product, college athletics. So far, the prohibition has been upheld to cover compensation both received directly for athletic performance and received for activities performed away from collegiate competition. This Essay will not address the possibility of directly compensating student-athletes for their abilities, but whether they should be allowed to receive payment related to any of their NIL rights. Though the courts have extended approval for bans to all compensation received by an athlete for their NIL rights, they have only properly analyzed game-related NIL rights, such as those contained in video game likenesses or game footage. Analysis will show that while the NCAA has a justifiable and viable business interest in disallowing any compensation to athletes related to athletic or even educational performance, its restriction on non-game-related NIL rights does not deserve the same deference. The business model surrounding college athletics requires maintaining the integrity of its academic ideals and a bar on pay-for-play. Allowing athletes to earn compensation related to their non-game-related NIL rights does not interfere with these goals because the athletes’ schools would not begin providing additional benefits and any payment by a third party would not be directly for an athlete’s performance. This, along with a multitude of other reasons, shows that a blanket prohibition on compensation is not necessary to maintain the integrity of the NCAA’s product. Thus, the NCAA’s definition of “amateurism” should be narrowed to allow for the creation of a market for non-game-related NIL rights. It then follows that the NCAA should adopt new regulations to govern this market. By doing so, the NCAA can avoid putting itself at the mercy of the courts in future antitrust litigation and actually strengthen its position protecting its athletes’ amateur status and promoting its overall educational mission. This Essay will discuss the current legal landscape regarding the NCAA and its restrictions on NIL rights in Part I. It will then discuss the potential challenges facing the supposed legitimate business interest in protecting athletes’ amateur status, and how the NCAA should react, in Part II. Finally, Part III will describe a potential framework for regulating a new market for non-game-related NIL rights and how this mechanism can address certain challenges that may arise

Identification of tumor antigens as potential target antigens for immunotherapy by serological expression cloning

The presence of tumor infiltrating T cells has been shown to be associated with a favorable prognosis in different tumor types. Several strategies have been developed to identify relevant tumor antigens which can be used for active immunotherapy strategies. The SEREX technique (serological analysis of cDNA expression libraries) identifies tumor antigens based on a spontaneous humoral immune response in cancer patients. This technique is not limited to tumor types that can be grown in cell culture or depends on established T cell clones recognizing the autologous tumor. Several steps of analysis are mandatory to evaluate SEREX-defined antigens before they become new target antigens for active immunotherapy: expression analysis; serological analysis with sera from tumor patients and normal individuals; identification of potential peptide epitopes for CD8 T cells and evaluation in T cell assays. This article summarizes our approach of antigen identification and evaluation giving the example of the recently cloned breast cancer antigen NY-BR-

Automated tube potential selection for standard chest and abdominal CT in follow-up patients with testicular cancer: comparison with fixed tube potential

Objective: To evaluate prospectively, in patients with testicular cancer, the radiation dose-saving potential and image quality of contrast-enhanced chest and abdominal CT with automated tube potential selection. Methods: Forty consecutive patients with testicular cancer underwent contrast-enhanced arterio-venous chest and portal-venous abdominal CT with automated tube potential selection (protocol B; tube potential 80-140kVp), which is based on the attenuation of the CT topogram. All had a first CT at 120kVp (protocol A) using the same 64-section CT machine and similar settings. Image quality was assessed; dose information (CTDIvol) was noted. Results: Image noise and attenuation in the liver and spleen were significantly higher for protocol B (P < 0.05 each), whereas attenuation in the deltoid and erector spinae muscles was similar. In protocol B, tube potential was reduced to 100kVp in 18 chest and 33 abdominal examinations, and to 80kVp in 5 abdominal CT examinations; it increased to 140kVp in one patient. Image quality of examinations using both CT protocols was rated as diagnostic. CTDIvol was significantly lower for protocol B compared to protocol A (reduction by 12%, P < 0.01). Conclusion: In patients with testicular cancer, radiation dose of chest and abdominal CT can be reduced with automated tube potential selection, while image quality is preserve

Performance of different data sources in identifying adverse drug events in hospitalized patients

Purpose: The incidence of adverse drug events (ADE) is an important parameter in determining the quality of medical care. We identified the probability that a specific data source would identify ADEs in patients on the oncology ward, that could be assigned to one substance. Methods: We captured all medical adverse events (AE) from five different data sources. Each AE was determined to be drug-related according to the WHO criteria and classified according to the severity, category, and causality of the ADE. Results: The study recorded 129 patients with 252 hospitalizations over a 5-month period. A total of 3,341 medical events were captured and resulted in 1,121 ADEs. In 122 patients, at least one ADE (95%) was observed. Only 39 hospitalizations were believed not to have an ADE (15%). No ADE was captured by all data sources. The patient record captured 550, the nursing record 569, the laboratory tests 387, the questionnaire 63, and the event monitoring during grand rounds 141 ADEs. Only the nursing record and the laboratory tests had a significantly different probability of observing indicative ADEs. Conclusion: For all AEs reported in the data sources, physicians and nurses were the best source for ADEs. Data sources differed in identifying indicative ADEs and were influenced by specific patient parameter

Temsirolimus Is Highly Effective as Third-Line Treatment in Chromophobe Renal Cell Cancer

We report unexpectedly high efficacy of temsirolimus as third-line treatment in a patient with metastatic chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. After failure of two sequentially administered tyrosine kinase inhibitors, treatment with temsirolimus resulted in a prolonged partial remission of 14 months, and the response is still continuing. Up to now, no data from randomized clinical studies have been published addressing the question of efficacy of temsirolimus as third-line treatment after failure of tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The case presented here implies that temsirolimus could be a viable option for patients with metastatic chromophobe renal cell carcinoma

Concomitant statin use does not impair the clinical outcome of patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma treated with rituximab-CHOP

Preclinical data indicated a detrimental effect of statins on the anti-lymphoma activity of rituximab. We evaluated the impact of concomitant statin medication on the response and survival of patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) receiving rituximab-cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone (R-CHOP) as first-line therapy. Medical histories of patients with DLBCL who were treated with R-CHOP as first-line therapy were assessed for concomitant statin use, response after completion of chemotherapy, event-free survival (EFS), and overall survival (OS). Furthermore, 2-[18F]fluor-2-deoxyglucose (FDG)-PET/CT results after completion of first-line therapy were compared between the groups. Overall, 145 patients with DLBCL treated with R-CHOP from January 2001 to December 2009 were analyzed. Twenty-one (15%) patients received statins throughout therapy. Five-year EFS was 67.3% in patients without statins compared with 79% in patients receiving statins during R-CHOP (HR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.15-1.54, p = 0.2). Five-year OS was 81.4% for patients without statins compared with 93.3% for patients taking statins (HR, 0.58; 95% CI 0.07-4.55, p = 0.6). There were no statistically significant differences in the rates of complete remissions between the two groups (75% in the non-statin group versus 86% in the statin group, p = 0.45). A trend toward a lower rate of complete metabolic responses in FDG-PET/CT after chemotherapy was seen in patients without statin medication compared with the patients taking statins (84% versus 92%, p = 0.068). Concomitant statin use had no adverse impact on response to chemotherapy, EFS, and OS in patients treated with R-CHOP for DLBC

Expression of MAGE-C1/CT7 and selected cancer/testis antigens in ovarian borderline tumours and primary and recurrent ovarian carcinomas

MAGE-C1/CT7, NY-ESO-1, GAGE and MAGE-A4 are members of the cancer/testis (CT) antigen family, which have been proposed as potential targets for cancer immunotherapy. To determine the prevalence and biologic relevance of the novel CT antigen MAGE-C1/CT7 and other antigens, 36 ovarian borderline tumours (BTs), 230 primary ovarian carcinomas (OCs) and 80 recurrent OCs were immunohistochemically analysed using the monoclonal antibodies CT7-33 (MAGE-C1/CT7), E978 (NY-ESO-1), clone 26 (GAGE) and 57B (MAGE-A4). Positivity of at least one CT antigen was present in 39.5% (81/205) of primary OC and in 50% (26/52) of all recurrences. Expression of the novel CT antigen MAGE-C1/CT7 was most commonly seen with positivity in 24.5% of primary and 35.1% of recurrent OC. MAGE-A4, GAGE and NY-ESO-1 expressions were seen in 22.7, 13.9 and 7.1% of primary and 22.6, 17.5 and 8.9% of recurrent OC, respectively. Analysis of histological subtypes (serous, endometrioid, clear cell, mucinous and transitional) exhibited variable expression with negativity in all mucinous OC. High-grade serous OC revealed CT antigen expression in 5.6 to 28% with MAGE-C1/CT7 being the most frequent, but without correlation with stage or overall survival. MAGE-C1/CT7 expression and coexpression of CT antigens were significantly correlated with grade of endometrioid OC. None of the BT showed CT antigen expression. No significant correlation was seen with stage, overall survival or response to chemotherapy. In summary, CT antigens are expressed in a certain subset of OC with no expression in BT or OC of mucinous histology. These findings may have implications for the design of polyvalent vaccination strategies for ovarian carcinoma