Nutzerorientierte digitale Kommunikation von Compliance-Inhalten

Im Rahmen dieser explorativen Fallstudie wurde untersucht, was die Erwartungen an eine digitale nutzerorientierte Compliance und Bedürfnisse kleinerer und mittlerer Organisationen, insbesondere KMUs (kleinere und mittlere Unternehmen) sowie der mit ihnen verbundenen Stakeholder resp. Stakeholdergruppen sind. Denn die Digitalisierung erlaubt es, Compliance-Inhalte zu personalisieren und in Bezug auf die jeweiligen Bedürfnisse und Anforderungen der jeweiligen NutzerInnen verfügbar zu machen. Die Daten der Studie wurden im Rahmen von Interviews sowie einem Design-Thinking-Workshop mit ausgewählten Compliance-ExpertInnen, Verantwortlichen und -NutzerInnen gewonnen. Alle Daten wurden vertraulich behandelt und alle in dieser Studie zitierten Studienteilnehmenden haben der Zitierung ausdrücklich zugestimmt. Sie geben hier nur ihre persönliche Sicht wieder. Aus den Interviews wurden fünf Prototypen, sogenannte Personas, abgeleitet, für eine Gruppe von NutzerInnen mit konkret ausgeprägten Eigenschaften und einem konkreten Nutzungsverhalten, welche die Bedürfnisse und Anforderungen an die Compliance darstellen. Im Rahmen des Workshops und in Bezugnahme auf die aus den Interviews hervorgegangenen Personas wurden vier Compliance-Systeme für digitale Compliance-Lösungen entwickelt. Die aus den beiden Prozessen abgeleiteten Erkenntnisse wurden schliesslich zusammengefasst, woraus nicht nur erste Hypothesen abgeleitet werden konnten, sondern es wurde auch möglich, drei Lösungsebenen für digitale Compliance-Inhalte abzuleiten. Während die Hypothese in nun folgenden Studien weiter zu vertiefen wäre, können die abgeleiteten Lösungsebenen als Basis dienen für die Entwicklung entsprechender digitaler Compliance-Systeme, die die Bedürfnisse von Organisationen und der mit ihnen verbundenen Stakeholder resp. Stakeholdergruppen erfüllen

Impact of uPA/PAI-1 and disseminated cytokeratin-positive cells in breast cancer

Background The protease uPA and its inhibitor PAI-1 play major roles in hemostasis and are also involved in cancer progression. This is mainly caused by their ability to degrade extracellular matrix-facilitating tumor cell migration. This study aimed to investigate the impact of uPA/PAI-1 and disseminated cytokeratin-positive cells (dCK+) on the outcome and the existence of synergistic effects. Methods We retrospectively analyzed a cohort of 480 breast cancer cases with known uPA/PAI-1 and dCK+ status. uPA/PAI-1 was tested on fresh tumor samples using a commercial ELISA test. Bone marrow aspirates were investigated immunocytochemically for CK18. Results DCK+ cells were identified in 23% of cases. uPA positivity was significantly associated with the occurrence of dCK+ cells (P = 0.028). uPA and PAI-1 were significantly associated with outcome in the subgroup of early-stage cases without chemotherapy. DCK+ cells alone were not prognostic. However, we found synergistic effects. In the subgroup of node-negative cases with and without chemotherapy, the prognostic impact of uPA and PAI-1 was enhanced in cases with additional dCK-positivity (triple +). In cases without chemotherapy, triple-positive status was independently prognostic (HR: 9.3 CI: 1.1–75) next to T stage. Conclusions uPA and PAI-1 seem to influence the metastatic potential of dCK+ cells, which underlines its important role in tumor progression

The presence of bone marrow cytokeratin-immunoreactive cells does not predict outcome in gastric cancer patients

The independent prognostic significance of isolated tumour cells in bone marrow is still a matter of debate. This study evaluated the possible association of bone marrow micrometastases with tumour progression and prognosis in patients affected by gastric cancer. Bone marrow aspirates from both iliac crests were obtained from 114 consecutive patients operated on for gastric cancer. The specimens were stained with monoclonal antibody CAM 5.2 which reacts predominantly with cytokeratin filaments 8 and 19. Among 114 cases analysed, 33 cases (29%) had cytokeratine-positive cells in the bone marrow. There was no significant relationship between the presence of bone marrow micrometastases and site, depth of tumour invasion, lymph node metastases, presence of metastases. Patients with cytokeratine-positive cells had a trend towards a diffuse type histology (P=0.06). Among the 88 curatively resected patients, median survivals were 40 months and 36 months for cytokeratine-negative and cytokeratine-positive subsets respectively (P=0.9). Recurrence of the disease was observed in 39 cases (44.3%); 11 of 24 (45.8%) in the cytokeratine-positive subset and 28 of 64 (43.7%) in the cytokeratine-negative subset. In conclusion in our experience the presence of cytokeratine-positive cells in the bone marrow of curatively resected gastric cancer patients did not affect outcome and its independent prognostic significance remains to be proven before its official acceptance in the TNM classification

Clinical course and prognosis of the lymphoproliferative disease of granular lymphocytes. A multicenter study.

Lymphoproliferative disease of granular lymphocytes (LDGL) is a recently recognized, relatively rare atypical lymphocytosis characterized by the presence of over 2000 lymphocytes with cytoplasmic azurophilic granules/mm3 in the peripheral blood. The clinical course is heterogeneous, varying from spontaneous regression to progressive, malignant disease. As a consequence, clinical intervention is not standardized. In a worldwide multicenter study, the authors observed 151 patients with LDGL for a mean follow-up time of 29 months. Forty-three patients were asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis. In the remaining cases, clinical symptoms included fever (41 cases), infections (58), neutropenia (47), anemia (17), and thrombocytopenia (12). In 69 cases, LDGL coexisted with an associated disease. Most patients had a nonprogressive clinical course despite the presence of severe symptoms. In 19 patients, death related to LDGL occurred within 48 months. The authors investigated which features at diagnosis were significantly associated with increased mortality. In the univariate analysis, lymph node and liver enlargement, fever at presentation, skin infiltration, a low (less than or equal to 5000/mm3) or high (greater than 20,000/mm3) peripheral leukocyte count, relatively low (less than or equal to 3000) or high (greater than 7000/mm3) absolute peripheral granular lymphocyte (GL) count, and a low (less than or equal to 15%) percentage of HNK-1-positive cells were found to be predictors of increased mortality. In the multivariate analysis, significant independent predictors were fever at diagnosis, a low (less than or equal to 15%) percentage of HNK-1-positive peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and a relatively low (less than or equal to 3000) GL count. These results showed that about 25% of the patients with LDGL were diagnosed after a routine blood count and had no clinical symptoms. The remaining patients were symptomatic, with some experiencing a fatal clinical course. The author's analysis of the significant prognostic features of LDGL may help in understanding the heterogeneous nature of this syndrom

Long-term outcome of patients with newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia: a randomized comparison of stem cell transplantation with drug treatment.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors represent today's treatment of choice in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is regarded as salvage therapy. This prospective randomized CML-study IIIA recruited 669 patients with newly diagnosed CML between July 1997 and January 2004 from 143 centers. Of these, 427 patients were considered eligible for HSCT and were randomized by availability of a matched family donor between primary HSCT (group A; N=166 patients) and best available drug treatment (group B; N=261). Primary end point was long-term survival. Survival probabilities were not different between groups A and B (10-year survival: 0.76 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.69-0.82) vs 0.69 (95% CI: 0.61-0.76)), but influenced by disease and transplant risk. Patients with a low transplant risk showed superior survival compared with patients with high- (P<0.001) and non-high-risk disease (P=0.047) in group B; after entering blast crisis, survival was not different with or without HSCT. Significantly more patients in group A were in molecular remission (56% vs 39%; P=0.005) and free of drug treatment (56% vs 6%; P<0.001). Differences in symptoms and Karnofsky score were not significant. In the era of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, HSCT remains a valid option when both disease and transplant risk are considered

Tumor Heterogeneity: Mechanisms and Bases for a Reliable Application of Molecular Marker Design

Tumor heterogeneity is a confusing finding in the assessment of neoplasms, potentially resulting in inaccurate diagnostic, prognostic and predictive tests. This tumor heterogeneity is not always a random and unpredictable phenomenon, whose knowledge helps designing better tests. The biologic reasons for this intratumoral heterogeneity would then be important to understand both the natural history of neoplasms and the selection of test samples for reliable analysis. The main factors contributing to intratumoral heterogeneity inducing gene abnormalities or modifying its expression include: the gradient ischemic level within neoplasms, the action of tumor microenvironment (bidirectional interaction between tumor cells and stroma), mechanisms of intercellular transference of genetic information (exosomes), and differential mechanisms of sequence-independent modifications of genetic material and proteins. The intratumoral heterogeneity is at the origin of tumor progression and it is also the byproduct of the selection process during progression. Any analysis of heterogeneity mechanisms must be integrated within the process of segregation of genetic changes in tumor cells during the clonal expansion and progression of neoplasms. The evaluation of these mechanisms must also consider the redundancy and pleiotropism of molecular pathways, for which appropriate surrogate markers would support the presence or not of heterogeneous genetics and the main mechanisms responsible. This knowledge would constitute a solid scientific background for future therapeutic planning

Circulating cytokeratin-positive cells and tumor budding in colorectal cancer

AIM: To investigate whether circulating cytokeratin-positive (CK(+)) cells in the mesenteric blood of resected colorectal specimens are prognostic and correlate with tumor budding. METHODS: Fifty-six colorectal specimens were collected between 9/2007 and 7/2008. Blood from the mesenteric vein was drawn immediately after receiving the fresh and unfixed specimens in the pathology department. After separation of the mononuclear cells by Ficoll-Hypaque density-gradient centrifugation, cytological smears were immunocytochemically stained for CK18. Tumor budding was evaluated on slides stained for pan-cytokeratin. The identification of ≥ 30 buds/1.3 mm(2) was defined as high grade budding. RESULTS: CK(+) cells and clusters were identified in 29 (48%) and 14 (25%) of the samples, respectively. Two cells were identified in one of three non-malignant cases. Clusters were found exclusively in malignant cases. The occurrence of CK(+) cells or clusters was not associated with any of the evaluated clinicopathological factors, including surgical technique and tumor budding. Moreover, the occurrence of CK(+) cells or clusters had no influence on the cancer-specific survival [75 mo (CI: 61; 88) vs 83 mo (CI: 72; 95) and 80 mo (CI: 63; 98) vs 79 mo (CI: 69; 89), respectively]. CONCLUSION: CK(+) cells and showed neither prognostic significance nor an association with tumor budding. It is very likely that CK18-staining is not specific enough to identify the relevant cells