Long-Term Response to Daily Low-Dose Subcutaneous Interferon-α2b in a Patient with Pretreated Metastatic Uveal Melanoma in the Liver and Lung

Uveal melanoma is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults. Localized tumors are often curable by local therapy, but about 50% of patients develop a relapse with metastatic disease, particularly in the liver. Mortality rate after detected liver metastases remains high, while systemic therapies usually provide marginal benefit. Melanomas are hypervascular tumors, and agents with antiangiogenic activities have been studied as palliative treatment. Interferon-alpha-2b (IFN-α2b) has antiangiogenic activity when administered at low doses. We describe a patient who has received low-dose subcutaneous IFN-α2b (0.9 MIU, tid) continuously for years and gained stabilization of lung and liver metastases, which had previously progressed during earlier systemic therapies

Bcl-2 expression significantly correlates with thymidylate synthase expression in colorectal cancer patients

AIM: To examine the expression of thymidylate synthase (TS) and oncoprotein Bcl-2 in advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, and to determine their mutual relationship, association to therapeutic response and impact on disease outcome

Analytical method for design and thermal evaluation of a long-term flywheel energy storage system

This paper presents a novel analytical method for electro-mechanical design of a high speed long-term flywheel energy storage system and thermal evaluation of possible operating modes of the system. Flywheel’s composite shell rotor along with the motor/generator unit are assumed to be placed into a sealed vacuum chamber, which presents a challenge of heat transfer, produced by rotor losses. Developed method takes into account thermal radiation properties of the rotor and is realised using Mathcad software, which allows for quick investigation of any flywheel configuration. The method involves calculations for preliminary rotor sizing and determining achievable operation modes, while keeping the rotor under a specified temperature limit. Results of using this method for studying dependencies of thermal performance on initial system parameters are presented and conclusions are drawn. Based on the conducted study, recommendations on system design considerations are given.Peer reviewe

Up-regulation of α-catenin is associated with increased lymph node involvement in colorectal cancer

AIM: To investigate the changing pattern of α-catenin expression and its relationship to clinical and pathological features of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients