Examining Drinking Water Preferences among University Students: A Comparative Assessment.

In recent years, there has been a clear increase in bottled water consumption globally, which has led to significant health and environmental concerns. This cross-sectional study aims to understand the attitude and preferences of university students in Qatar towards the use of bottled and tap drinking water using an online survey questionnaire (September and October 2022). The number of students who responded to the online survey was 14% ( = 688) of the student population, with a mean age of 22.

PEC-PRO: A new prognostic score from a series of 87 patients with localized perivascular epithelioid cell neoplasms (PEComas) treated with curative intent.

Background: Perivascular epithelioid cell neoplasms (PEComas) encompass a heterogeneous family of mesenchymal tumors. Previously described clinicopathologic features aimed at distinguishing benign from malignant variants but lacked prognostic value.

Methods: This retrospective analysis examined clinicopathologic data from patients who had localized PEComa across French Sarcoma Network centers.

Hypoxia as a potential inducer of immune tolerance, tumor plasticity and a driver of tumor mutational burden: Impact on cancer immunotherapy.

In cancer patients, immune cells are often functionally compromised due to the immunosuppressive features of the tumor microenvironment (TME) which contribute to the failures in cancer therapies. Clinical and experimental evidence indicates that developing tumors adapt to the immunological environment and create a local microenvironment that impairs immune function by inducing immune tolerance and invasion. In this context, microenvironmental hypoxia, which is an established hallmark of solid tumors, significantly contributes to tumor aggressiveness and therapy resistance through the induction of tumor plasticity/heterogeneity and, more importantly, through the differentiation and expansion of immune-suppressive stromal cells.

Frequency and mutational spectrum of PIK3CA gene mutations in breast cancer patients: Largest and first report from Lebanon.

The PIK3CA pathway is one of the most frequently altered pathways in human cancers, especially in breast cancer with approximately 40% of HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer cases exhibiting mutations in the PIK3CA gene. While the mutations can occur across the entire gene, the most common are observed in exon 9 corresponding to the helical domain, and in exon 20 encompassing the kinase domain. This study constitutes the first attempt at determining the frequency and mutational spectrum in Lebanese breast cancer patients.

Airborne transmission of SARS-Cov2: What consequences for digestive endoscopy?

The SARS-Cov-2 disease disrupted essential hospital procedures, such as gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy, due to concerns about air transmission and the risk of exposing health care workers. With the spread of the pandemic, air transmission was considered as the main source of SARS-Cov2 transmission. This raised the problem of transmission by aerosolization of viral particles in operating rooms as well as endoscopy units.