Systemic therapy treatment patterns in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): PIvOTAL study.

The aim of this multinational retrospective cohort study, conducted at academic and community oncology centres, was to describe real-world treatment patterns for patients with a confirmed diagnosis of advanced/metastatic (stage IIIB/IV) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who initiated first-line systemic therapy from January 2011 through June 2014. The study included 1265 patients in Italy, Spain, Germany, Australia, Korea, Taiwan and Brazil. The proportion of patients with squamous versus non-squamous NSCLC was approximately 20% versus 75%, and associated patient demographic characteristics were similar in all countries, excepting race.

Intra- and Interobserver Reproducibility Assessment of PD-L1 Biomarker in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Reliable and reproducible methods for identifying PD-L1 expression on tumor cells are necessary to identify responders to anti-PD-1 therapy. We tested the reproducibility of the assessment of PD-L1 expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissue samples by pathologists. NSCLC samples were stained with PD-L1 22C3 pharmDx kit using the Dako Autostainer Link 48 Platform.

cPRA Increases With DQA, DPA, and DPB Unacceptable Antigens in the Canadian cPRA Calculator.

A calculated panel reactive antibody (cPRA) estimates the percentage of donors with unacceptable antigens (UA) for a recipient. cPRA may be underestimated in transplant candidates with UA to DQA, DPA, and DPB if these are not included in the calculation program. To serve the National Canadian Transplant Programs, a cPRA calculator was developed with complete molecular typing for all donors at HLA-A, B, C, DRB1, DRB3/4/5, DQA1, DQB1, DPA1, and DPB1, all resolved to serologic equivalents.

Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency: pitfalls and perils of sonographic assessment.

Objectives: Duplex sonography has been proposed as a diagnostic modality for detection of chronic cerebrovascular venous insufficiency, a recently proposed hypothesis of multiple sclerosis (MS) pathogenesis. We reviewed potential challenges of duplex sonography for diagnosis of chronic cerebrovascular venous insufficiency and used interim pooled data from a study aimed to apply cerebrovascular venous insufficiency criteria to a group of patients with MS and control patients without MS.

Methods: Duplex sonography for chronic cerebrovascular venous insufficiency was performed in patients with MS and controls.