Eastern Cape Bloodlines I: Assembling the Human

This is an article less about red as installation, colour or symbol, and more about assembly.1 I have used Red, the installation by Simon Gush, as provocation to think of exhumation, its work and processes of assembling–disassembling– reassembling.2 The particular exhumation discussed here involves the mortal remains of five anti-apartheid activists recovered at Post Chalmers outside the rural Eastern Cape town of Cradock in July 2007 by the Missing Persons’ Task Team (MPTT).3 ‘Topsy’ Madaka and Siphiwo Mthimkulu, and Champion Galela, Qaqawuli Godolozi and Sipho Hashe (the ‘Pebco Three’) were killed in April 1982 and May 1985 respectively by Port Elizabeth security police, who thereafter burnt the bodies.4IBS

Missing and missed: Rehumanisation, the nation and missing-ness

The bringing together of two lines of research that have previously been treated separately – namely the missing/missed body of apartheid-era atrocities and the racialised body of the colonial museum – animates this issue of Kronos. Both the skeletons of empire and those of apartheid-era atrocities can be thought of as racialised, and as ‘disappeared’ and missing. Furthermore, both areas are marked by similar lines of enquiry, linked to issues of identification, redress and restoration, often framed through notions of humanisation or rehumanisation. Consequently, these different ‘disciplines of the dead’ have been brought into collaboration and contestation with each other, with missingness often reproduced through the ways in which the dead have been drawn into grand narratives of the nation and its seeming triumphs over colonialism and apartheid. Notwithstanding their similarities, the racialised body of the colonial museum and the body of more recent conflicts have their own genealogies and literatures. The ‘disappeared’ entered the political lexicon of terror largely through Argentina and Chile; two decades later Rwanda and Bosnia turned international attention to mass violence and genocide as exemplified by the mass grave. South Africa slips through these grids: apartheid security forces tried but failed to emulate their Latin American counterparts in ‘disappearing’ activists on a large scale, while inter-civilian violence, which mostly took the form of political rather than ethnic, racial or religious cleansing, did not produce mass graves. Nonetheless, both ‘disappearances’ and inter-civilian conflict produced missing persons in the South African conflict – most presumed dead, and thus, as Madeleine Fullard describes them (this issue) ‘in limbo – dead, but missing.’ Investigations into such cases, led first by the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and later by its Missing Persons Task Team (MPTT), sought to locate, exhume, identify and return mortal remains to their families. In so doing, South Africa joined a growing list of countries following this route

Clinical application of targeted next-generation sequencing for colorectal cancer patients: A multicentric Belgian experience

International guidelines made RAS (KRAS and NRAS) status a prerequisite for the use of anti-EGFR agents for metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Daily, new data emerges on the theranostic and prognostic role of molecular biomarkers; this is a strong incentive for a validated, sensitive, and broadly available molecular screening test. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has begun to supplant other technologies for genomic profiling. We report here our 2 years of clinical practice using NGS results to guide therapeutic decisions. The Ion Torrent AmpliSeq colon/lung cancer panel, which allows mutation detection in 22 cancer-related genes, was prospectively used in clinical practice (BELAC ISO 15189 accredited method). The DNA of 741 formalin-fixed paraffinembedded CRC tissues, including primary tumors and metastasis, was obtained from 14 different Belgian institutions and subjected to targeted NGS. Of the tumors tested, 98% (727) were successfully sequenced and 89% (650) harbored at least one mutation. KRAS, BRAF and NRAS mutations were found in 335 (46%), 78 (11%) and 32 (4%) samples, respectively. These mutation frequencies were consistent with those reported in public databases. Moreover, mutations and amplifications in potentially actionable genes were identified in 464 samples (64%), including mutations in PIK3CA (14%), ERBB2 (0.4%), AKT1 (0.6%), and MAP2K1 (0.1%), as well as amplifications of ERBB2 (0.3%) and EGFR (0.3%). The median turnaround time between reception of the sample in the laboratory and report release was 8 calendar days. Overall, the AmpliSeq colon/lung cancer panel was successfully applied in daily practice and provided reliable clinically relevant information for CRC patients.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe