Surgery and postoperative radiotherapy a valid treatment for advanced oropharyngeal carcinoma

Since 1992 we have prospectively included all head and neck cancer patients in our health region in a departmental based register. Our hospital takes care of all head and neck cancer patients in our health region consisting of approximately 1 million people. In 1997, we evaluated the results of the treatment of oropharyngeal cancer in the 1992–1997 period. On the basis of this evaluation, we changed our treatment policy for tonsillar and base of tongue carcinoma. We first changed the treatment for the lesions with worst prognosis, i.e., those with T3–T4 carcinomas, from radiotherapy only, to radical surgery and postoperative radiotherapy. We have since that time increasingly also operated the smaller oropharyngeal carcinomas. The 2 years’ overall survival and disease-specific survival for all patients diagnosed in the 1992–1997 period was 56 and 63%, respectively. The results from a similar group of patients in the 6 years’ period from 2000 to 2005, after the change in treatment, have increased to 83 and 88%. When we looked at the subgroup of patients in the 2000–2005 period treated with surgery and postoperative radiotherapy, 45 out of 69 patients (65%) presenting with an oropharyngeal cancer were fit for operation. With radical surgery and postoperative radiation therapy, the 2 years overall survival is now 91%. The 2-year disease-specific survival is 96% and the locoregional control is 98%. This is a marked improvement as compared to radiotherapy alone and definitely competitive with modern radiochemotherapy

Impacts of climate change on plant diseases – opinions and trends

There has been a remarkable scientific output on the topic of how climate change is likely to affect plant diseases in the coming decades. This review addresses the need for review of this burgeoning literature by summarizing opinions of previous reviews and trends in recent studies on the impacts of climate change on plant health. Sudden Oak Death is used as an introductory case study: Californian forests could become even more susceptible to this emerging plant disease, if spring precipitations will be accompanied by warmer temperatures, although climate shifts may also affect the current synchronicity between host cambium activity and pathogen colonization rate. A summary of observed and predicted climate changes, as well as of direct effects of climate change on pathosystems, is provided. Prediction and management of climate change effects on plant health are complicated by indirect effects and the interactions with global change drivers. Uncertainty in models of plant disease development under climate change calls for a diversity of management strategies, from more participatory approaches to interdisciplinary science. Involvement of stakeholders and scientists from outside plant pathology shows the importance of trade-offs, for example in the land-sharing vs. sparing debate. Further research is needed on climate change and plant health in mountain, boreal, Mediterranean and tropical regions, with multiple climate change factors and scenarios (including our responses to it, e.g. the assisted migration of plants), in relation to endophytes, viruses and mycorrhiza, using long-term and large-scale datasets and considering various plant disease control methods

Adolescents with metabolic syndrome have a history of low aerobic fitness and physical activity levels

Abstract: Purpose: Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a clustering of cardiovascular disease risk factors that identifies individuals with the highest risk for heart disease. Two factors that may influence the MS are physical activity and aerobic fitness. This study determined if adolescent with the MS had low levels of aerobic fitness and physical activity as children. Methods: This longitudinal, exploratory study had 389 participants: 51% girls, 84% Caucasian, 12% African American, 1% Hispanic, and 3% other races, from the State of North Carolina. Habitual physical activity (PA survey), aerobic fitness (VO2max), body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, and lipids obtained at 7–10 y of age were compared to their results obtained 7 y later at ages 14–17 y. Results: Eighteen adolescents (4.6%) developed 3 or more characteristics of the MS. Logistic regression, adjusting for BMI percentile, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels, found that adolescents with the MS were 6.08 (95%CI = 1.18–60.08) times more likely to have low aerobic fitness as children and 5.16 (95%CI = 1.06–49.66) times more likely to have low PA levels. Conclusion: Low levels of childhood physical activity and aerobic fitness are associated with the presence of the metabolic syndrome in adolescents. Thus, efforts need to begin early in childhood to increase exercise

An immunohistochemical study of the antinociceptive effect of calcitonin in ovariectomized rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Calcitonin is used as a treatment to reduce the blood calcium concentration in hypercalcemia and to improve bone mass in osteoporosis. An analgesic effect of calcitonin has been observed and reported in clinical situations. Ovariectomaized (OVX) rats exhibit the same hormonal changes as observed in humans with osteoporosis and are an animal model of postmenopousal osteoporosis. The aim of this study to investigate antinociceptive effect of calcitonin in OVX rats using the immunohistochemical study.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We assessed the antinociceptive effects of calcitonin in an ovariectomized (OVX) rat model, which exhibit osteoporosis and hyperalgesia, using the immunohistochemical method. Fifteen rats were ovariectomized bilaterally, and ten rats were received the same surgery expected for ovariectomy as a sham model. We used five groups: the OVX-CT (n = 5), the sham-CT (n = 5), and the OVX-CT-pcpa (n = 5) groups recieved calcitonin (CT: 4 U/kg/day), while OVX-vehi (n = 5) and the sham-vehi (n = 5) groups received vehicle subcutaneously 5 times a week for 4 weeks. The OVX-CT-pcpa-group was given traperitoneal injection of p-chlorophenylalanine (pcpa; an inhibitor of serotonin biosynthesis) (100 mg/kg/day) in the last 3 days of calcitonon injection. Two hours after 5% formalin (0.05 ml) subcutaneously into the hind paw, the L5 spinal cord were removed and the number of Fos-immunoreactive (ir) neurons were evaluated using the Mann-Whitney-U test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The numbers of Fos-ir neurons in the OVX-CT and sham-CT groups were significantly less than in the OVX-vehi and sham-vehi groups, respectively (p = 0.0090, p = 0.0090). The number of Fos-ir neurons in the OVX-CT-pcpa-group was significantly more than that of the OVX-CT-group (p = 0.0283), which means pcpa inhibits calcitonin induced reduction of c-Fos production.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results in this study demonstrated that 1) the increase of c-Fos might be related to hyperalgesia in OVX-rats. 2) Calcitonin has an antinociceptive effect in both OVX and sham rats. 3) The central serotonergic system is involved in the antinociceptive properties of calcitonin.</p

Effects of PPARs Agonists on Cardiac Metabolism in Littermate and Cardiomyocyte-Specific PPAR-γ –Knockout (CM-PGKO) Mice

Understanding the molecular regulatory mechanisms controlling for myocardial lipid metabolism is of critical importance for the development of new therapeutic strategies for heart diseases. The role of PPARγ and thiazolidinediones in regulation of myocardial lipid metabolism is controversial. The aim of our study was to assess the role of PPARγ on myocardial lipid metabolism and function and differentiate local/from systemic actions of PPARs agonists using cardiomyocyte-specific PPARγ –knockout (CM-PGKO) mice. To this aim, the effect of PPARγ, PPARγ/PPARα and PPARα agonists on cardiac function, intra-myocyte lipid accumulation and myocardial expression profile of genes and proteins, affecting lipid oxidation, uptake, synthesis, and storage (CD36, CPT1MIIA, AOX, FAS, SREBP1-c and ADPR) was evaluated in cardiomyocyte-specific PPARγ –knockout (CM-PGKO) and littermate control mice undergoing standard and high fat diet (HFD). At baseline, protein levels and mRNA expression of genes involved in lipid uptake, oxidation, synthesis, and accumulation of CM-PGKO mice were not significantly different from those of their littermate controls. At baseline, no difference in myocardial lipid content was found between CM-PGKO and littermate controls. In standard condition, pioglitazone and rosiglitazone do not affect myocardial metabolism while, fenofibrate treatment significantly increased CD36 and CPT1MIIA gene expression. In both CM-PGKO and control mice submitted to HFD, six weeks of treatment with rosiglitazone, fenofibrate and pioglitazone lowered myocardial lipid accumulation shifting myocardial substrate utilization towards greater contribution of glucose. In conclusion, at baseline, PPARγ does not play a crucial role in regulating cardiac metabolism in mice, probably due to its low myocardial expression. PPARs agonists, indirectly protect myocardium from lipotoxic damage likely reducing fatty acids delivery to the heart through the actions on adipose tissue. Nevertheless a direct non- PPARγ mediated mechanism of PPARγ agonist could not be ruled out

Using virtual reality to investigate psychological processes and mechanisms associated with the onset and maintenance of psychosis: a systematic review

PURPOSE: In the last decade researchers have embraced virtual reality to explore the psychological processes and mechanisms that are involved in the onset and maintenance of psychosis. A systematic review was conducted to synthesise the evidence of using virtual reality to investigate these mechanisms. METHODS: Web of Science, PsycINFO, Embase, and Medline were searched. Reference lists of collected papers were also visually inspected to locate any relevant cited journal articles. In total 6001 articles were potentially eligible for inclusion; of these, 16 studies were included in the review. RESULTS: The review identified studies investigating the effect of interpersonal sensitivity, childhood bullying victimisation, physical assault, perceived ethnic discrimination, social defeat, population density and ethnic density on the real-time appraisal of VR social situations. Further studies demonstrated the potential of VR to investigate paranoid ideation, anomalous experiences, self-confidence, self-comparison, physiological activation and behavioural response. CONCLUSIONS: The reviewed studies suggest that VR can be used to investigate psychological processes and mechanisms associated with psychosis. Implications for further experimental research, as well as for assessment and clinical practise are discussed. The present review has been registered in the PROSPERO register: CRD42016038085