Comparison of lipase and amylase for diagnosing post-operative pancreatic fistulae.

Background: To ascertain if post-operative drain fluid lipase is superior to amylase in routinely detecting clinically significant post-operative pancreatic fistulae (POPF).

Method: Between January 2015 and March 2016 data were collected on all patients undergoing pancreatic surgery at a regional referral centre. Routine drain fluid analysis was performed on post-operative patients as part of a locally defined enhanced recovery protocol.

Multicomponent analysis of the tumour microenvironment reveals low CD8 T cell number, low stromal caveolin-1 and high tenascin-C and their combination as significant prognostic markers in non-small cell lung cancer.

The complex interplay of the tumour microenvironment (TME) and its role in disease progression and response to therapy is poorly understood. The majority of studies to date focus on individual components or molecules within the TME and so lack the power correlative analysis. Here we have performed a multi-parameter analysis of the TME in 62 resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) specimens detailing number and location of immune infiltrate, assessing markers of cancer-associated fibroblasts, caveolin-1 and tenascin-C, and correlating with clinicopathological details, as well as markers of disease progression such as epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT).

3-Dimensional Patient-Derived Lung Cancer Assays Reveal Resistance to Standards-of-Care Promoted by Stromal Cells but Sensitivity to Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors.

There is a growing recognition that current preclinical models do not reflect the tumor microenvironment in cellular, biological, and biophysical content and this may have a profound effect on drug efficacy testing, especially in the era of molecular-targeted agents. Here, we describe a method to directly embed low-passage patient tumor-derived tissue into basement membrane extract, ensuring a low proportion of cell death to anoikis and growth complementation by coculture with patient-derived cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF). A range of solid tumors proved amenable to growth and pharmacologic testing in this 3D assay.

Thioredoxin interacting protein and its association with clinical outcome in gastro-oesophageal adenocarcinoma.

The overall prognosis for operable gastro-oesophageal adenocarcinoma remains poor and therefore neoadjuvant chemotherapy has become the standard of care, in addition to radical surgery. Certain anticancer agents (e.g.

Improving dosing of gentamicin in the obese patient: a 3-cycle drug chart and case note audit.

Objectives: To assess the use of an electronic dose calculator to improve accuracy in the use of a complex Gentamicin prescription policy and assess turnaround time of blood sampling to dose delivery in an NHS hospital.

Design: Retrospective review of drug chart, case notes and hospital antibiotic database.

Setting: University Hospitals Bristol, UK PARTICIPANTS: Patients receiving once daily intravenous gentamicin using the trust protocol, during the same time window for 3 consecutive years.