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

Nuclear β-catenin expression as a prognostic factor in advanced colorectal carcinoma

AIM: To investigate the changing pattern of β-catenin expression and its prognostic value in advanced colorectal cancer (CRC)

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

Benefit of adjuvant interferon alfa-2b (IFN-α) therapy in melanoma patients with high serum MMP-8 levels

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are important enzymes in tissue turnover and various inflammatory processes. In this study, it was evaluated whether serum MMP-8 can predict the response to adjuvant interferon alfa-2b (IFN-α) therapy in patients with operated high-risk cutaneous melanoma. Pre-treatment sera from 460 patients with stage IIB-IIIC melanoma were analyzed for MMP-8. The patients were randomized after surgery to adjuvant IFN-α for 12 or 24\ua0months (n\ua0=\ua0313) or observation only (n\ua0=\ua0147). The median serum MMP-8 level was used to classify the patients into a low MMP-8 (n\ua0=\ua0232) and a high MMP-8 (n\ua0=\ua0228) group. In the high MMP-8 subgroup, IFN-α therapy significantly improved relapse-free survival (RFS). RFS was 36.8\ua0months in patients with high MMP-8 levels receiving IFN-α therapy, whereas RFS for those with high MMP-8 levels with observation only was 10.6\ua0months (P\ua0=\ua00.027). Median overall survival for patients with high MMP-8 and observation only was 36.7 versus 71.7\ua0months in those receiving IFN-α (P\ua0=\ua00.13). In a multivariate model, IFN-α therapy was a significant predictor of favorable RFS (HR 0.74; 95\ua0% CI 0.55-0.99; P\ua0=\ua00.048), after adjustment for pre-treatment MMP-8 (HR 1.17; 95\ua0% CI 0.88-1.55; P\ua0=\ua00.28), gender (HR 1.16; 95\ua0% CI 0.86-1.56; P\ua0=\ua00.32), age (HR 1.00; 95\ua0% CI 1.00-1.02; P\ua0=\ua00.12), ulceration (HR 1.09; 95\ua0% CI 0.81-1.46; P\ua0=\ua00.58), and the presence of node metastases (HR 1.36; 95\ua0% CI 1.17-1.58;