Co-existence of lung carcinoma metastasis and enchondroma in the femur of a patient with Ollier disease

Tumour-to-tumour metastasis is very unusual and has been defined as a tumour metastasis into another histologically different tumour. It is extremely rare in bone. We report a case of lung squamous cell carcinoma metastasized to an enchondroma in the femur of a patient with Ollier disease. A 60-year-old female had a history of a poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the lung. She underwent a video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy, and a follow-up MRI scan showed three lesions in the left distal femur and proximal tibia, which were initially interpreted as metastasis on radiology. Resection of the left proximal tibial lesion was performed, and the pathological findings were consistent with enchondroma with no evidence of metastasis. Subsequent curettage of lesions in the distal left femur revealed metastatic poorly differentiated carcinoma with foci of hyaline cartilage, which was most consistent with metastatic carcinoma in a pre-existing enchondroma. The MRI films were re-reviewed. Characteristic MRI features of enchondroma were found in the lesion in the left proximal tibia and one of the lesions in the left distal femur, while the features of the other lesion in the left distal femur included cortical destruction and extensive oedema in surrounding soft tissue, which were consistent with a malignant tumour. In addition, the enchondroma in the lateral condyle showed blurring and irregular inner margin and adjacent bone oedema, which likely represents a co-existing metastatic tumour and enchondroma. The difference in lineage was confirmed by immunohistochemistry. The final diagnosis was metastatic poorly differentiated carcinoma of the lung into a co-existent enchondroma. The diagnosis can be challenging and could be easily overlooked both radiologically and histologically. Thorough clinical and radiological information is critical for the diagnosis, and despite a very unusual event, awareness of the tumour-to-tumour metastasis phenomenon can avoid an inaccurate diagnosis by the pathologist, therefore preventing inappropriate clinical intervention

Charmless Bs→PP,PV,VVB_s\to PP, PV, VV Decays Based on the six-quark Effective Hamiltonian with Strong Phase Effects II

We provide a systematic study of charmless $B_s \to PP, PV, VV$ decays ($P$ and $V$ denote pseudoscalar and vector mesons, respectively) based on an approximate six-quark operator effective Hamiltonian from QCD. The calculation of the relevant hard-scattering kernels is carried out, the resulting transition form factors are consistent with the results of QCD sum rule calculations. By taking into account important classes of power corrections involving "chirally-enhanced" terms and the vertex corrections as well as weak annihilation contributions with non-trivial strong phase, we present predictions for the branching ratios and CP asymmetries of $B_s$ decays into PP, PV and VV final states, and also for the corresponding polarization observables in VV final states. It is found that the weak annihilation contributions with non-trivial strong phase have remarkable effects on the observables in the color-suppressed and penguin-dominated decay modes. In addition, we discuss the SU(3) flavor symmetry and show that the symmetry relations are generally respected

Combined associations of 25-hydroxivitamin D and parathyroid hormone with diabetes risk and associated comorbidities among U.S. white and black women

Background/objectives: There is evidence of black–white differences in vitamin D status and cardiometabolic health. This study aimed to further evaluate the joint associations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and parathyroid hormone (PTH) with risks of diabetes and related cardiometabolic comorbidities among white and black women. Subjects/methods: We cross-sectionally and prospectively analyzed data from 1850 black and 3000 white postmenopausal women without cardiovascular disease or dialysis at baseline from the Women’s Health Initiative—Observational Study. Weighted Cox proportional hazards analyses and weighted logistic regression models were used to examine the joint associations of 25(OH)D and PTH with incident diabetes and prevalence of other diabetes-related cardiometabolic comorbidities (including CKD, hypertension, or obesity). Results: We identified 3322 cases of obesity (n = 1629), hypertension (n = 2759), or CKD (n = 318) at baseline and 453 incident cases of diabetes during 11 years of follow-up. Cross-sectionally, lower 25(OH)D and higher PTH were independently associated with higher prevalence of hypertension [odds ratio (OR) = 0.79; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.72–0.87 and OR = 1.55; 95% CI: 1.39–1.73] among white women only. When stratified by diabetes status, compared to women with 25(OH)D ≥50 nmol/L and PTH ≤6.89 pmol/L (65 pg/mL), women who did not have diabetes with vitamin D deficiency (6.89 pmol/L) had higher prevalence of CKD, hypertension, or obesity (OR = 4.23; 95% CI: 2.90–6.18) than women who had diabetes (OR = 1.89; 95% CI: 0.96–3.71). Prospectively, lower 25(OH)D was associated with lower diabetes incidence [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.73; 95% CI: 0.62–0.86] in white women. Jointly, compared to the group with 25(OH)D ≥50 nmol/L and PTH ≤6.89 pmol/L, white women with 25(OH)D deficiency (<50 nmol/L) had elevated risk for diabetes, regardless of PTH levels. Conclusions: Low 25(OH)D and high PTH were jointly associated with increased risk of diabetes among white women only. Their joint associations with high prevalence of CKD, hypertension, and obesity were more pronounced among women without diabetes

Dietary Vitamin A and Breast Cancer Risk in Black Women: The African American Breast Cancer Epidemiology and Risk (AMBER) Consortium

Background: Studies in women of European descent showed an inverse association of dietary vitamin A (retinol and carotenoids) intake with breast cancer risks, mainly in premenopausal women. Objectives: We examined whether higher compared with lower levels of dietary vitamin A are associated with reduced breast cancer risks among Black women by estrogen receptor (ER) and menopausal statuses. Methods: In this pooled analysis, data were from 3564 breast cancer cases and 11,843 controls (mean ages = 56.4 and 56.3 years, respectively) in the African American Breast Cancer Epidemiology and Risk (AMBER) Consortium. Dietary intake was assessed by FFQs. Multivariable logistic regressions were performed to estimate ORs and 95% CIs for study-specific quintiles of total vitamin A equivalents and individual carotenoids, and a pooled OR was estimated by a random-effect model. Results: We observed an inverse association of total vitamin A equivalents with ER-positive breast cancer (quintiles 5 compared with 1: pooled OR: 0.82; 95% CI: 0.67-1.00; P-trend = 0.045). The association was seen among premenopausal women (pooled OR: 0.60; 95% CI: 0.43-0.83; P-trend = 0.004), but not among postmenopausal women (pooled OR: 0.99; 95% CI: 0.77-1.28; P-trend = 0.78). Additionally, there were inverse associations of dietary β-carotene (quintiles 5 compared with 1: pooled OR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.51-0.95; P-trend = 0.08) and lutein (pooled OR: 0.63; 95% CI: 0.45-0.87; P-trend = 0.020) with ER-positive breast cancer among premenopausal women. There was no evidence for an association of total vitamin A equivalents or individual carotenoids with ER-negative breast cancer, regardless of menopausal status. Conclusions: Our findings on dietary vitamin A and breast cancer risks in Black women are consistent with observations in women of European descent and advance the literature showing an inverse association for ER-positive disease

Multiband tight-binding theory of disordered ABC semiconductor quantum dots: Application to the optical properties of alloyed CdZnSe nanocrystals

Zero-dimensional nanocrystals, as obtained by chemical synthesis, offer a broad range of applications, as their spectrum and thus their excitation gap can be tailored by variation of their size. Additionally, nanocrystals of the type ABC can be realized by alloying of two pure compound semiconductor materials AC and BC, which allows for a continuous tuning of their absorption and emission spectrum with the concentration x. We use the single-particle energies and wave functions calculated from a multiband sp^3 empirical tight-binding model in combination with the configuration interaction scheme to calculate the optical properties of CdZnSe nanocrystals with a spherical shape. In contrast to common mean-field approaches like the virtual crystal approximation (VCA), we treat the disorder on a microscopic level by taking into account a finite number of realizations for each size and concentration. We then compare the results for the optical properties with recent experimental data and calculate the optical bowing coefficient for further sizes

Genetic variation in the insulin, insulin-like growth factor, growth hormone, and leptin pathways in relation to breast cancer in African-American women: The AMBER consortium

The insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system and related pathways such as growth hormone, and leptin signaling have a key role in cancer development. It is unclear how germline variation in these pathways affects breast cancer risk. We conducted gene-based analyses of 184 genes in the insulin/IGF, growth hormone, and leptin pathways to identify genetic variation associated with risk of breast cancer overall, and for estrogen receptor (ER) subtypes. Tag single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for each gene were selected and genotyped on a customized Illumina SNP array. Imputation was carried out using 1000 Genomes haplotypes. The analysis included 91,627 SNPs genotyped or imputed in 3,663 breast cancer cases, (1,983 ER-positive and 1,098 ER-negative) and 4,687 controls from the African American Breast Cancer Epidemiology and Risk consortium, a collaborative project of four large studies of breast cancer in African-American women (Carolina Breast Cancer Study, Black Women's Health Study, Women's Circle of Health Study, and Multiethnic Cohort). We used a multi-locus adaptive joint test to determine the association of each gene with overall breast cancer and ER subtypes. The most significant gene associations (P ≤ 0.01) were BAIAP2 and CALM2 for overall breast cancer; BAIAP2 and CSNK2A1 for ER + breast cancer; and BRAF, BAD, and MAPK3 for ER − breast cancer. The association of BAD with ER − breast cancer was explained by a two-SNP risk model; all other associations were best explained by one-SNP risk models. In total, six genes and seven SNPs had suggestive associations with overall breast cancer or ER subtypes in African-American women

Single step process for the synthesis of carbon nanotubes and metal/alloy-filled multiwalled carbon nanotubes

A single-step approach for the synthesis of multi-walled nanotubes (MWNT) filled with nanowires of Ni/ternary Zr based hydrogen storage alloy has been illustrated. We also demonstrate the generation of CO-free hydrogen by methane decomposition over alloy hydride catalyst. The present work also highlights the formation of single-walled nanotubes (SWNT) and MWNTs at varying process conditions. These carbon nanostructures have been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution TEM (HRTEM), Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and Raman spectroscopy. This new approach overcomes the existing multi-step process limitation, with possible impact on the development of future fuel cell, nano-battery and hydrogen sensor technologies