Rhabdomyosarcoma in Adults: New Perspectives on Therapy

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is well known as a pediatric disease. Most of the knowledge, like biology, genetics, and treatments of this disease, comes from studies done in that age group. The two subtypes of RMS, embryonic RMS and alveolar RMS, that affect mainly the pediatric population are well described in the literature and that has had an impact on the improvement in overall survival during the past 20 years. RMS in the adult population has a low incidence, therefor the study of RMS in this group is challenging. Pleomorphic RMS is the subtype that mainly affects adults and its biology and genetics are not yet completely understood and described. The risk factors for this tumor and the differences among adults and children is also poorly understood. The treatments for adults that have RMS are not standardized having an impact on the overall survival. Pleomorphic RMS has, compared to other adult sarcomas, poor overall survival. Adult patients with RMS have poor prognosis. The standardization of treatments for the adult population is necessary as maybe new treatments for this specific group. There are new treatment options that are being studied mostly in pediatrics and young adults. Immunotherapy is currently proposed as an important treatment possibility including different techniques like vaccination, antigen-mediated therapy, and immune checkpoints. Even if we have a better understanding of RMS, there are still unanswered questions. The improvements seen in the pediatric population are encouraging, but there is still the need to enhance better therapies for adults with RMS

Proximity, strategic groups and reputation: an exploratory study of reputation in higher education

This paper explores the idea that stakeholder proximity, that is, how much/little experience a stakeholder has with a focal organization, impacts the extent to which stakeholders rely on strategic group characteristics as an anchor when judging the reputation of higher education institutions. We synthesize theories from psychology (ie, cognitive categorization theory) and management (ie, strategic group theory) to explore how stakeholder proximity may influence the formation of organizational reputation. Specifically, we examine how the proximity of three key stakeholders (N=1,049; prospective students, parents of students and hiring managers of new graduates) influences the perceived strategic character and generalized favorability of three distinct groups of post-secondary institutions (research-intensive universities, teaching-intensive universities and career colleges). Our results suggest that high proximity stakeholders rely less on strategic group characteristics, while reputation at a strategic group level is suggested to have greater influence on stakeholders who have less direct experience of and low proximity to an organization. Interestingly, our findings reveal some consistent differences between perceptions of prospective students and hiring managers that pose important theoretical questions about the role and impact of direct experiences in the reputation-building process, while also suggesting that higher education institutions may benefit significantly from differentiated marketing strategies according to issues of proximity