Identifying discrete behavioural types: A re-analysis of public goods game contributions by hierarchical clustering

We propose a framework for identifying discrete behavioural types in experimental data. We re-analyse data from six previous studies of public goods voluntary contributions games. Using hierarchical clustering analysis, we construct a typology of behaviour based on a simi- larity measure between strategies. We identify four types with distinct sterotypical behaviours, which together account for about 90% of participants. Compared to previous approaches, our method produces a classification in which different types are more clearly distinguished in terms of strategic behaviour and the resulting economic implications

Subcutaneous Rituximab-MiniCHOP compared with subcutaneous Rituximab-MiniCHOP plus Lenalidomide in diffuse large B-Cell lymphoma for patients age 80 years or older.

peer reviewedPURPOSE The prognosis of elderly patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is worse than that of young patients. An attenuated dose of chemotherapy—cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone plus rituximab (R-miniCHOP)—is a good compromise between efficacy and safety in very elderly patients. In combination with R-CHOP (R2-CHOP), lenalidomide has an acceptable level of toxicity and may mitigate the negative prognosis of the non–germinal center B-cell–like phenotype. The Lymphoma Study association conducted a multicentric, phase III, open-label, randomized trial to compare R-miniCHOP and R2- miniCHOP. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients of age 80 years or older with untreated DLBCL were randomly assigned into the R-miniCHOP21 group or the R2-miniCHOP21 group for six cycles and stratified according to CD10 expression and age. The first cycle of rituximab was delivered by IV on D1 after a prephase and then delivered subcutaneously on D1 of cycles 2-6. Lenalidomide was delivered at a dose of 10 mg once daily on D1-D14 of each cycle. The primary end point was overall survival (OS). RESULTS A total of 249 patients with new DLBCL were randomly assigned (127 R-miniCHOP and 122 R2- miniCHOP). The median age was 83 years (range, 80-96), and 55% of the patients were classified as non-GCB. The delivered dose for each R-miniCHOP compound was similar in both arms. Over a median follow-up of 25.1 months, the intention-to-treat analysis revealed that R2-miniCHOP did not improve OS (2-year OS 66% in R-miniCHOP and 65.7% in R2-miniCHOP arm, P5 .98) in the overall population or in the non-GCB population. Grade 3-4 adverse events occurred in 53% of patients with R-miniCHOP and in 81% of patients with R2- miniCHOP. CONCLUSION The addition of lenalidomide to R-miniCHOP does not improve OS. Rituximab delivered subcutaneously was safe in this population

For the European Group for the Immunologic Classification of Leukemias (EGIL). The reliability and specificity of c-kit for the diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemias and undifferentiated leukemias

We document findings on c-kit (CD117) expression in 1,937 pediatric and adult de novo acute leukemia cases, diagnosed in five single European centers. All cases were well characterized as to the morphologic, cytochemical, and immunologic features, according to the European Group for the Immunological Classification of Leukemias (EGIL). The cases included 1,103 acute myeloid leukemia (AML), 819 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), 11 biphenotypic acute leukemia (BAL), and 4 undifferentiated (AUL). c-kit was expressed in 741 (67%) AML cases, regardless of the French-American-British (FAB) subtype, one third of BAL, all four AUL, but only in 34 (4%) of ALL cases. The minority of c-kit+ ALL cases were classified as: T-cell lineage (two thirds), mainly pro-T-ALL or T-I, and B lineage (one third); cells from 62% of these ALL cases coexpressed other myeloid markers (CD13, CD33, or both). There were no differences in the frequency of c-kit+ AML or ALL cases according to age being similar in the adult and pediatric groups. Our findings demonstrate that c-kit is a reliable and specific marker to detect leukemia cells committed to the myeloid lineage, and therefore should be included in a routine basis for the diagnosis of acute leukemias to demonstrate myeloid commitment of the blasts. c-kit expression should score higher, at least one point, in the system currently applied to the diagnosis of BAL, as its myeloid specificity is greater than CD13 and CD33. Findings in ALL and AUL suggest that c-kit identifies a subgroup of cases, which may correspond to leukemias either arising from early prothymocytes and/or early hematopoietic cells, both able to differentiate to the lymphoid and myeloid pathways

Report on the 4th International Workshop on Positron Emission Tomography in Lymphoma held in Menton, France, 3–5 October 2012

One hundred and seventy-five hemato-oncologists and nuclear medicine specialists from 23 countries joined the 2-day 4th International Workshop on Positron Emission Tomography in Lymphoma held in October 2012. The meeting was under the auspices of the European Lymphoma Institute, the Lymphoma Study Association (LYSA) and Fondazione Italiana Linfomi (FIL). Thirty-nine scientific posters were presented or discussed in the plenary session. A group of nuclear medicine and radiology experts presented and discussed with the audience their final report on lymphoma staging and restaging with positron emission tomography (PET). The same report will be presented in a dedicated workshop during the 12th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML) in Lugano. Mainly, it was proposed to use the same type of criteria (Deauville five-point scale) for interim and end of treatment PET reporting. Results were presented on the state of the art of the role of PET in staging and response assessment in follicular lymphoma, mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma, primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL), mantle cell lymphoma and T cell lymphoma. Although PET is now recognized as a useful tool in follicular lymphoma, prospective data should be acquired on a larger scale to better define its role in the other subtypes. Technical and clinical focus was given to the measurement of metabolic volume to evaluate the total tumor burden, and interim PET-based ongoing trials were presented for LYSA and FIL. Final results of international validation studies of Deauville criteria and change in maximum standardized uptake value (ΔSUVmax) analysis were presented for Hodgkin lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. A closed meeting was held addressing the issue of contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) in the PET/CT era. The next meeting (September 2014) will be open to all imaging modalities used for lymphoma investigation