Prolonged survival of patients receiving trastuzumab beyond disease progression for HER2 overexpressing metastatic breast cancer (MBC)

Background: The aim of this retrospective analysis was to evaluate the impact of trastuzumab-based regimens on the survival of patients with HER2-overexpressing metastatic breast cancer (MBC). The study specifically focussed on the influence of the continuation of trastuzumab-based treatment despite tumor progression on survival. Patients and Methods: Patients with HER2 overexpressing MBC were included in this retrospective analysis. HER2 overexpression was determined by the immunohistochemical staining score (DAKO Hercep Test (TM)). Trastuzumab was applied at a loading dose of 4 mg/kg and a maintenance dose of 2 mg/kg. Results: Among 136 HER2 overexpressing patients (DAKO score 3+), 66 patients received first-line trastuzumab, 47 patients received trastuzumab as second-line therapy and 23 patients received trastuzumab beyond disease progression. There was no significant difference regarding the duration of trastuzumab-based treatment (first-line: 29.5 weeks vs. second-line: 25 weeks). Moreover, there was no difference in the response rate (first-line: 37.9% vs. second-line: 35.7%) or the median survival (p = 0.47 log rank). Patients who received >= 2 trastuzumab-based regimens for MBC survived significantly longer compared to those who had received only 1 regimen (>= 2 regimens: 62.4 months vs. 1 regimen: 38.5 months; p = 0.01 log rank). Conclusions: Trastuzumab is highly effective in the treatment of HER2 overexpressing MBC. Compared to historical controls, overall survival appears to be markedly prolonged, particularly in patients who received sequential trastuzumab-based treatment beyond disease progression

Advances in patient communication

This project will help in communication between the patient and the intern. The emphasis will be on providing to the patient a description of their condition through a printed page by means of the computer in the clinical setting. The printed page discusses what the condition is, it\u27s signs, symptoms, treatment, and prognosis. Also included on the page is a picture if appropriate and an area labeled notes for the intern to include pertinent exam findings and special patient instructions. To provide this page of information we created web pages to be located on the College of Optometry\u27s web page. The internet address for the college is www.opt.pacificu.edu/opt/puco/home.htm. The home page of our project includes a title, a logo, a list of common conditions, a disclaimer, and our names. From the home page each condition has a link to its own page. The relevance of this project is in providing a patient with take home information, and in creating another route of communication between the intern and the patient. This in turn will help to increase patient returns and patient compliance

Ordering intermetallic alloys by ion irradiation: a way to tailor magnetic media

Combining He ion irradiation and thermal mobility below 600K, we both trigger and control the transformation from chemical disorder to order in thin films of an intermetallic ferromagnet (FePd). Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations show how the initial directional short range order determines order propagation. Magnetic ordering perpendicular to the film plane was achieved, promoting the initially weak magnetic anisotropy to the highest values known for FePd films. This post-growth treatment should find applications in ultrahigh density magnetic recording.Comment: 7 pages, 3 Figure

Subdiffusion and cage effect in a sheared granular material

We investigate experimentally the diffusion properties of a bidimensional bidisperse dry granular material under quasistatic cyclic shear.The comparison of these properties with results obtained both in computer simulations of hard spheres systems and Lenard-Jones liquids and experiments on colloidal systems near the glass transition demonstrates a strong analogy between the behaviour of granular matter and these systems. More specifically, we study in detail the cage dynamics responsible for the subdiffusion in the slow relaxation regime, and obtain the values of relevant time and length scales.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PR

Temperature dependence of the resonance and low energy spin excitations in superconducting FeTe0.6_{0.6}Se0.4_{0.4}

We use inelastic neutron scattering to study the temperature dependence of the low-energy spin excitations in single crystals of superconducting FeTe$_{0.6}$Se$_{0.4}$ ($T_c=14$ K). In the low-temperature superconducting state, the imaginary part of the dynamic susceptibility at the electron and hole Fermi surfaces nesting wave vector $Q=(0.5,0.5)$, $\chi^{\prime\prime}(Q,\omega)$, has a small spin gap, a two-dimensional neutron spin resonance above the spin gap, and increases linearly with increasing $\hbar\omega$ for energies above the resonance. While the intensity of the resonance decreases like an order parameter with increasing temperature and disappears at temperature slightly above $T_c$, the energy of the mode is weakly temperature dependent and vanishes concurrently above $T_c$. This suggests that in spite of its similarities with the resonance in electron-doped superconducting BaFe$_{2-x}$(Co,Ni)$_x$As$_2$, the mode in FeTe$_{0.6}$Se$_{0.4}$ is not directly associated with the superconducting electronic gap.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

The XMM-Newton Ω\Omega Project

The abundance of high-redshift galaxy clusters depends sensitively on the matter density \OmM and, to a lesser extent, on the cosmological constant $\Lambda$. Measurements of this abundance therefore constrain these fundamental cosmological parameters, and in a manner independent and complementary to other methods, such as observations of the cosmic microwave background and distance measurements. Cluster abundance is best measured by the X-ray temperature function, as opposed to luminosity, because temperature and mass are tightly correlated, as demonstrated by numerical simulations. Taking advantage of the sensitivity of XMM-Newton, our Guaranteed Time program aims at measuring the temperature of the highest redshift (z>0.4) SHARC clusters, with the ultimate goal of constraining both \OmM and $\Lambda$.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the XXI Moriond Conference: Galaxy Clusters and the High Redshift Universe Observed in X-rays, edited by D. Neumann, F. Durret, & J. Tran Thanh Va

Scientific rationale of a Saturn probe mission

We describe the main scientific goals to be addressed by future in situ exploration of Saturn