Pulmonary Tumor Thrombotic Microangiopathy : A New Paraneoplastic Syndrome

This report, based on data from a clinical case, proposes that pulmonary tumor thrombotic microangiopathy, an underdiagnosed cause of pulmonary hypertension and death in patients with adenocarcinoma, is a paraneoplastic syndrome (PNS). Clinicians in general must be alert to the presence or development of PNS that may precede, coincide with, follow, or herald the recurrence or the primary diagnosis of malignancy since early recognition facilitates prompt diagnosis and treatment.Peer reviewe

RRx-001 in Refractory Small-Cell Lung Carcinoma: A Case Report of a Partial Response after a Third Reintroduction of Platinum Doublets.

RRx-001 is a pan-active, systemically nontoxic epigenetic inhibitor under investigation in advanced non-small cell lung cancer, small-cell lung cancer and high-grade neuroendocrine tumors in a Phase II clinical trial entitled TRIPLE THREAT (NCT02489903), which reexposes patients to previously effective but refractory platinum doublets after treatment with RRx-001. The purpose of this case study is first to report a partial response to carboplatin and etoposide in a patient with small-cell lung cancer pretreated with RRx-001, indicating episensitization or resensitization by epigenetic mechanisms, and second to discuss the literature related to small-cell lung cancer and episensitization

Explaining public investment in Western Europe

Budgetary consolidations are considered the obvious explanation for the decline in public investment that most Western European countries experienced over the past three decades. However, regressions based on budgetary variables tend to overpredict public investment during the post-1990 period, i.e. when the budgetary stress eased. We supplement the budgetary consolidation approach to public investment with ideas from behavioural economics to explain why these investments do not increase when additional budgetary resources are available. We use the peak/end evaluation procedure to capture the frustration of voters as cuts in government consumption expenditures accumulate. This 'memory-effect' of budgetary consolidations implies that voters recall the previous peak in government consumption expenditures. They remain discontent as long as current expenditures are below the peak value. When the budgetary situation improves, policy makers will choose to increase government consumption because this is electorally more rewarding. Public investment will thus decline when budgetary consolidations are imposed and will remain constant when additional budgetary resources emerge. We test for a memory-effect by introducing expenditure gaps in public investment regressions. These gaps equal the difference between the highest previously observed primary government consumption to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio and the current ratio. The regression results for most EU countries support our assumption.