Lung cancer in patients with tuberculosis

BACKGROUND: Coexistent lung cancer and pulmonary tuberculosis is an urgent problem of thoracic surgery presenting a challenging task for diagnosis and surgical treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 1990 to 2005, 2218 patients with lung cancer underwent surgical treatment in Department of Thoracic Surgery and Oncology, Institute of Oncology, Vilnius University. In 46 (2.1%) patients coexistence of lung cancer and tuberculosis was found. Central lung cancer was diagnosed in 37 (80.4%) and peripheral – in 9 (19.6%) patients. Epidermoid cancer was diagnosed in 24 (52.2%) patients, adenocarcinoma – in 10 (21.7%) and adenoepidermoid carcinoma – in 12 (26.1%) patients. Stage I cancer was diagnosed in 12 (26.1%), stage II – in 11 (23.9%), and stage IIIA – in 23 (50%) patients. RESULTS: Pneumonectomy was performed in 18 (39.2%), lobectomy in 10 (21.7%), bilobectomy in 10 (21.7%), segmentectomy in 8 (17.4%) patients. Postoperative surgical complications were observed in 9 (19.5%) patients, non-surgical complications occurred in 19 patients (41.3%). Six patients (13.04%) died. Combined treatment was applied to 23 (50%) patients. CONCLUSION: Coexistence of tuberculosis and lung cancer in thoracic surgery is fairly rare. This combination was diagnosed only in 46 cases (2.1%) out of 2218 operated lung cancer patients. Epidermoid carcinoma and stage IIIA disease was diagnosed in 50% of patients. Postoperative surgical complications occurred in 9 patients (19.5%) with lung cancer and tuberculosis. Six patients (13%) died in postoperative period. Surgery is the method of choice in treatment of combination of tuberculosis and lung cancer. Median survival of these patients was 28 ± 2 months

Extended Longevity of Reproductives Appears to be Common in Fukomys Mole-Rats (Rodentia, Bathyergidae)

African mole-rats (Bathyergidae, Rodentia) contain several social, cooperatively breeding species with low extrinsic mortality and unusually high longevity. All social bathyergids live in multigenerational families where reproduction is skewed towards a few breeding individuals. Most of their offspring remain as reproductively inactive “helpers” in their natal families, often for several years. This “reproductive subdivision” of mole-rat societies might be of interest for ageing research, as in at least one social bathyergid (Ansell's mole-rats Fukomys anselli), breeders have been shown to age significantly slower than non-breeders. These animals thus provide excellent conditions for studying the epigenetics of senescence by comparing divergent longevities within the same genotypes without the inescapable short-comings of inter-species comparisons. It has been claimed that many if not all social mole-rat species may have evolved similar ageing patterns, too. However, this remains unclear on account of the scarcity of reliable datasets on the subject. We therefore analyzed a 20-year breeding record of Giant mole-rats Fukomys mechowii, another social bathyergid species. We found that breeders indeed lived significantly longer than helpers (ca. 1.5–2.2fold depending on the sex), irrespective of social rank or other potentially confounding factors. Considering the phylogenetic positions of F. mechowii and F. anselli and unpublished data on a third Fukomys-species (F. damarensis) showing essentially the same pattern, it seems probable that the reversal of the classic trade-off between somatic maintenance and sexual reproduction is characteristic of the whole genus and hence of the vast majority of social mole-rats

Traces of embryogenesis are the same in monozygotic and dizygotic twins: not compatible with double ovulation

Common knowledge of over a century has it that monozygotic and dizygotic twinning events occur by unrelated mechanisms: monozygotic twinning ‘splits’ embryos, producing anomalously re-arranged embryogenic asymmetries; dizygotic twinning begins with independent ovulations yielding undisturbed parallel embryogeneses with no expectation of departures from singleton outcomes. The anomalies statistically associated with twin births are due to the re-arranged embryos of the monozygotics. Common knowledge further requires that dizygotic pairs are dichorionic; monochorionicity is exclusive to monozygotic pairs. These are fundamental certainties in the literature of twin biology. Multiple observations contradict those common knowledge understandings. The double ovulation hypothesis of dizygotic twinning is untenable. Girl–boy twins differ subtly from all other humans of either sex, absolutely not representative of all dizygotics. Embryogenesis of dizygotic twins differs from singleton development at least as much as monozygotic embryogenesis does, and in the same ways, and the differences between singletons and twins of both zygosities represent a coherent system of re-arranged embryogenic asymmetries. Dizygotic twinning and monozygotic twinning have the same list of consequences of anomalous embryogenesis. Those include an unignorable fraction of dizygotic pairs that are in fact monochorionic, plus many more sharing co-twins’ cells in tissues other than a common chorion. The idea that monozygotic and dizygotic twinning events arise from the same embryogenic mechanism is the only plausible hypothesis that might explain all of the observations. Originally published in Human Reproduction, Vol. 24, No. 6, 2009