Lawyers\u27 Professional Liability Insurance

Due to the nature of his profession, the practicing lawyer is invariably confronted with significant financial risks. Because of the growing number of claims for professional negligence, coupled with the fact that the monetary risk of claims is largely unmeasurable, a constantly increasing proportion of lawyers is considering the feasibility of professional liability insurance protection. This type of insurance offers not only financial security, but also a means for the advantageous and efficient settlement of just claims without damaging notoriety

Impact Trauma as Legal Cause of Cancer

Consider the following hypothetical situation: A voluptuous blonde is window shopping along New York\u27s fashionable Fifth Avenue. Her trek brings her to a corner street intersection which she begins to cross. A recklessly driven automobile careens around the corner and strikes the defenseless blonde pedestrian amidships, causing her to be hurled against a utility pole. Her breast strikes the pole and absorbs the full effect of the impact. A local hospital determines that her injuries consist of only a black and blue bruise spot on her breast. The swelling, due to the injury, subsides and the discoloration disappears within a short time. Two months later a routine breast examination reveals a lump within the breast in exactly the same location as the trauma. The examiner suggests that she enlist the aid of a physician. An operation is performed. A malignant, nonmetastasized mass is excised. The operation terminates with a radical mastectomy. Was the impact trauma the cause of the cancer? According to the medical profession, there is no experimental proof that a single trauma may cause cancer. That the cause of cancer is unknown is repeatedly asserted in reported cancer cases. However, lawsuits deal not with the question of medical cause but rather with the question of legal causation. Legal, rather than medical, questions must be dealt with in order to determine causation

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Lawyers\u27 Professional Liability Insurance

Due to the nature of his profession, the practicing lawyer is invariably confronted with significant financial risks. Because of the growing number of claims for professional negligence, coupled with the fact that the monetary risk of claims is largely unmeasurable, a constantly increasing proportion of lawyers is considering the feasibility of professional liability insurance protection. This type of insurance offers not only financial security, but also a means for the advantageous and efficient settlement of just claims without damaging notoriety

Impact Trauma as Legal Cause of Cancer

Consider the following hypothetical situation: A voluptuous blonde is window shopping along New York\u27s fashionable Fifth Avenue. Her trek brings her to a corner street intersection which she begins to cross. A recklessly driven automobile careens around the corner and strikes the defenseless blonde pedestrian amidships, causing her to be hurled against a utility pole. Her breast strikes the pole and absorbs the full effect of the impact. A local hospital determines that her injuries consist of only a black and blue bruise spot on her breast. The swelling, due to the injury, subsides and the discoloration disappears within a short time. Two months later a routine breast examination reveals a lump within the breast in exactly the same location as the trauma. The examiner suggests that she enlist the aid of a physician. An operation is performed. A malignant, nonmetastasized mass is excised. The operation terminates with a radical mastectomy. Was the impact trauma the cause of the cancer? According to the medical profession, there is no experimental proof that a single trauma may cause cancer. That the cause of cancer is unknown is repeatedly asserted in reported cancer cases. However, lawsuits deal not with the question of medical cause but rather with the question of legal causation. Legal, rather than medical, questions must be dealt with in order to determine causation

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although the MYC oncogene has been implicated in cancer, a systematic assessment of alterations of MYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatory proteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN), across human cancers is lacking. Using computational approaches, we define genomic and proteomic features associated with MYC and the PMN across the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas. Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one of the MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYC antagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequently mutated or deleted members, proposing a role as tumor suppressors. MYC alterations were mutually exclusive with PIK3CA, PTEN, APC, or BRAF alterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct oncogenic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such as immune response and growth factor signaling; chromatin, translation, and DNA replication/repair were conserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insights into MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkers and therapeutics for cancers with alterations of MYC or the PMN

Genomic Classification of Cutaneous Melanoma

We describe the landscape of genomic alterations in cutaneous melanomas through DNA, RNA, and protein-based analysis of 333 primary and/or metastatic melanomas from 331 patients. We establish a framework for genomic classification into one of four sub-types based on the pattern of the most prevalent significantly mutated genes: mutant BRAF, mutant RAS, mutant NF1, and Triple-WT (wild-type). Integrative analysis reveals enrichment of KIT mutations and focal amplifications and complex structural rearrangements as a feature of the Triple-WT subtype. We found no significant outcome correlation with genomic classification, but samples assigned a transcriptomic subclass enriched for immune gene expression associated with lymphocyte infiltrate on pathology review and high LCK protein expression, a T cell marker, were associated with improved patient survival. This clinicopathological and multidimensional analysis suggests that the prognosis of melanoma patients with regional metastases is influenced by tumor stroma immunobiology, offering insights to further personalize therapeutic decision-makingclose3