Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) – neuroendocrine skin cancer

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rarely occurring skin cancer of high malignancy. It develops, most probably, from the neuroendocrine cells (Merkel’s cells). The most frequent location of this cancer is the skin of the head and neck (44–48% of cases), and then in the skin of the upper limbs (about 19% of cases) and then the lower limbs (16–20% of cases). The aetiology of this cancer is unknown, yet some role in its pathogenesis is played by ultraviolet light and immunosuppression. The basis of therapy in cases with locoregional spread is surgical intervention, whilst in more advanced cases, an effective systemic treatment is possible with the use of molecularly targeted therapies. This paper presents the current treatment possibilities in patients with Merkel cell carcinoma

Paradoxical consequences of multipath coherence: perfect interaction-free measurements

Quantum coherence can be used to infer the presence of a detector without triggering it. Here we point out that, according to quantum mechanics, such interaction-free measurements cannot be perfect, i.e., in a single-shot experiment one has strictly positive probability to activate the detector. We formalize the extent to which such measurements are forbidden by deriving a trade-off relation between the probability of activation and the probability of an inconclusive interaction-free measurement. Our description of interaction-free measurements is theory independent and allows derivations of similar relations in models generalizing quantum mechanics. We provide the trade-off for the density cube formalism, which extends the quantum model by permitting coherence between more than two paths. The trade-off obtained hints at the possibility of perfect interaction-free measurements and indeed we construct their explicit examples. Such measurements open up a paradoxical possibility where we can learn by means of interference about the presence of an object in a given location without ever detecting a probing particle in that location. We therefore propose that absence of perfect interaction-free measurement is a natural postulate expected to hold in all physical theories. As shown, it holds in quantum mechanics and excludes the models with multipath coherence.Comment: Published versio

Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC), review of a new therapy of cutaneous melanoma with genetically modified oncolytic virus

Talimogen laherparepwek (T-VEC) to pierwsza (ostatnio zarejestrowana w Unii Europejskiej) immunoterapia wirusem onkolitycznym, która wykazała korzyść terapeutyczną w leczeniu czerniaka skóry w badaniu klinicznym III fazy, powodując większy odsetek trwałej odpowiedzi na leczenie oraz medianę przeżyć całkowitych, w szczególności w grupie nieleczonych wcześniej chorych w nieresekcyjnym stadium IIIB, IIIC lub IVM1a. T-VEC był dobrze tolerowany i jest obecnie badany w leczeniu skojarzonym z inhibitorami punktów kontrolnych układu immunologicznego oraz terapii neoadiuwantowej. W pracy omówiono aktualne dane dotyczące skuteczności i bezpieczeństwa tego leku w leczeniu zaawansowanego czerniaka.Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) is the first (approved recently in the European Union) oncolytic immunotherapy which demonstrated therapeutic benefit for cutaneous melanoma in a phase III clinical trial. This resulted in a higher that previously obtainable response rate and median overall survival, particularly in untreated patients or those with stage IIIB, IIIC, or IVM1a disease. T-VEC was well tolerated and is currently studied in combined therapy with immunological checkpoints and in a neoadjuvant setting. In the review, current data on its efficacy and safety in melanoma therapy are discussed

Brain correlates of task-load and dementia elucidation with tensor machine learning using oddball BCI paradigm

Dementia in the elderly has recently become the most usual cause of cognitive decline. The proliferation of dementia cases in aging societies creates a remarkable economic as well as medical problems in many communities worldwide. A recently published report by The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 47 million people are suffering from dementia-related neurocognitive declines worldwide. The number of dementia cases is predicted by 2050 to triple, which requires the creation of an AI-based technology application to support interventions with early screening for subsequent mental wellbeing checking as well as preservation with digital-pharma (the so-called beyond a pill) therapeutical approaches. We present an attempt and exploratory results of brain signal (EEG) classification to establish digital biomarkers for dementia stage elucidation. We discuss a comparison of various machine learning approaches for automatic event-related potentials (ERPs) classification of a high and low task-load sound stimulus recognition. These ERPs are similar to those in dementia. The proposed winning method using tensor-based machine learning in a deep fully connected neural network setting is a step forward to develop AI-based approaches for a subsequent application for subjective- and mild-cognitive impairment (SCI and MCI) diagnostics.Comment: In ICASSP 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), pp. 8578-8582, May 201

Pacjent z białkomoczem - różnicowanie i leczenie

Hamowanie układu renina-angiotensyna-aldosteron (RAA) pozwala na zwolnienie tempa utraty funkcji nerek wśród chorych z przewlekłymi nefropatiami. Od kilku lat terapia oparta na leku z grupy inhibitorów konwertazy angiotensyny (IKA) jest preferowanym leczeniem nadciśnienia i standardowym postępowaniem nefroprotekcyjnym wśród chorych z różnymi typami nefropatii. Wiadomo również, że blokery receptora dla angiotensyny II (ARA) są alternatywną klasą leków hamujących układ RAA. Jednak w ten sposób nie udaje się całkowicie zahamować jej postępu. Skłania to do poszukiwania uzupełniających strategii terapeutycznych. Opisano losy trzech pacjentów leczonych terapią opartą na IKA i/lub ARA oraz w dwóch przypadkach skutecznie uzupełnioną przez podawanie spironolaktonu lub pentoksyfiliny

Arrhythmias And Long-Term Hemodynamic Consequences In Patient With Repaired Tetralogy Of Fallot – A Case Study

The number of patients who underwent total correction of Tetralogy of Fallot (ToF) in early life or infancy is still rising. According to CDC ToF is the most prevalent cyanotic congenital heart disease with incidences of 1 in 2500 births. Rhythm disturbances and haemodynamic disturbances including valves disorders, heart failure, residual defects and more are new challenges for clinicians taking care of adult patients with repaired ToF. Our goal was to describe such a patient and highlight further complications which may be encountered among those patients