Quality-of-life measurement in patients undergoing radiation therapy for head and neck cancer: a Hong Kong experience

The aims of this study are (1) to establish a reliable and valid quality-of-life (QOL) questionnaire for Chinese patients with head and neck (H&amp;N) cancer who are treated with radiation therapy and (2) to evaluate the impact of the immediate side effects of treatment on the QOL of these patients. The 39-item &quot;Quality of Life Radiation Therapy Instrument with Head and Neck Companion Module&quot; (QOL-RTI/H&amp;N) was translated into Chinese. In the reliability evaluation phase (study module 1), the questionnaire was administered twice to 56 H&amp;N cancer patients, 7 days apart, during the second and third week of radiation therapy. In the validity evaluation phase (study module 2), 138 patients completed the QOL-RTI/H&amp;N before starting and at the end of radiation therapy. Sixty-nine of these 138 patients also completed the QOL-RTI/H&amp;N during the second week of their radiation therapy, at the same time as completing the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Head and Neck (FACT-H&amp;N) questionnaire. Cronbach alpha coefficients were 0.88 for the general-tool QOL-RTI and 0.90 for the H&amp;N subscale. Test-retest reliability was satisfactory with intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.89 for the general-tool QOL-RTI and 0.75 for the H&amp;N subscale. The instrument can discriminate between patients with stage I or II disease and those with stage III or IV disease (P &lt; .05). Concurrent validity was established by the good agreement with the FACT-H&amp;N (r = 0.86, P &lt; .001). A highly significant deterioration was in the QOL from the baseline to the end of treatment (mean difference for general tool = 1.95, P &lt; .001; mean difference for H&amp;N subscale = 4.85, P &lt; .001). The Chinese QOL-RTI/H&amp;N is a reliable and valid tool for determining the QOL in H&amp;N cancer patients receiving radiation therapy. The immediate side effects of treatment had a significantly negative impact on the patients\u27 QOL. The impact was relatively large for the functional and treatment-site aspects.<br /

Genome-Wide Association Study in Asian Populations Identifies Variants in ETS1 and WDFY4 Associated with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a complex and potentially fatal autoimmune disease, characterized by autoantibody production and multi-organ damage. By a genome-wide association study (320 patients and 1,500 controls) and subsequent replication altogether involving a total of 3,300 Asian SLE patients from Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Thailand, as well as 4,200 ethnically and geographically matched controls, genetic variants in ETS1 and WDFY4 were found to be associated with SLE (ETS1: rs1128334, P = 2.33×10−11, OR = 1.29; WDFY4: rs7097397, P = 8.15×10−12, OR = 1.30). ETS1 encodes for a transcription factor known to be involved in a wide range of immune functions, including Th17 cell development and terminal differentiation of B lymphocytes. SNP rs1128334 is located in the 3′-UTR of ETS1, and allelic expression analysis from peripheral blood mononuclear cells showed significantly lower expression level from the risk allele. WDFY4 is a conserved protein with unknown function, but is predominantly expressed in primary and secondary immune tissues, and rs7097397 in WDFY4 changes an arginine residue to glutamine (R1816Q) in this protein. Our study also confirmed association of the HLA locus, STAT4, TNFSF4, BLK, BANK1, IRF5, and TNFAIP3 with SLE in Asians. These new genetic findings may help us to gain a better understanding of the disease and the functions of the genes involved

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Assessing the carcinogenic potential of low-dose exposures to chemical mixtures in the environment: the challenge ahead

Lifestyle factors are responsible for a considerable portion of cancer incidence worldwide, but credible estimates from the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) suggest that the fraction of cancers attributable to toxic environmental exposures is between 7% and 19%. To explore the hypothesis that low-dose exposures to mixtures of chemicals in the environment may be combining to contribute to environmental carcinogenesis, we reviewed 11 hallmark phenotypes of cancer, multiple priority target sites for disruption in each area and prototypical chemical disruptors for all targets, this included dose-response characterizations, evidence of low-dose effects and cross-hallmark effects for all targets and chemicals. In total, 85 examples of chemicals were reviewed for actions on key pathways/ mechanisms related to carcinogenesis. Only 15% (13/85) were found to have evidence of a dose-response threshold, whereas 59% (50/85) exerted low-dose effects. No dose-response information was found for the remaining 26% (22/85). Our analysis suggests that the cumulative effects of individual (non-carcinogenic) chemicals acting on different pathways, and a variety of related systems, organs, tissues and cells could plausibly conspire to produce carcinogenic synergies. Additional basic research on carcinogenesis and research focused on low-dose effects of chemical mixtures needs to be rigorously pursued before the merits of this hypothesis can be further advanced. However, the structure of the World Health Organization International Programme on Chemical Safety ‘Mode of Action’ framework should be revisited as it has inherent weaknesses that are not fully aligned with our current understanding of cancer biology

A solitary hepatic metastasis (SUV 7)

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Radiological, pathological and DNA remission in recurrent metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma"</p><p>BMC Cancer 2006;6():259-259.</p><p>Published online 31 Oct 2006</p><p>PMCID:PMC1634867.</p><p></p>6) was demonstrated by FDG-PET scan (above). After 6 courses of paclitaxel and carboplatin chemotherapy, follow-up scan showed there was resolution of the liver metastasis (below)