Adjuvant Autologous Melanoma Vaccine for Macroscopic Stage III Disease: Survival, Biomarkers, and Improved Response to CTLA-4 Blockade.

Background. There is not yet an agreed adjuvant treatment for melanoma patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer stages III B and C. We report administration of an autologous melanoma vaccine to prevent disease recurrence.

Prospective validation of a surgical complications grading system in a cohort of 2114 patients.

Background: We recently reported a grading system for surgical complications. This system proved to have a high sensitivity for recording minor but meaningful complications prolonging hospital stay in patients after colorectal surgery. We aimed to prospectively validate the complication grading system in a general surgery department over 1 year.

Differential expression of colon cancer associated transcript1 (CCAT1) along the colonic adenoma-carcinoma sequence.

Background: The transition from normal epithelium to adenoma and, to invasive carcinoma in the human colon is associated with acquired molecular events taking 5-10 years for malignant transformation. We discovered CCAT1, a non-coding RNA over-expressed in colon cancer (CC), but not in normal tissues, thereby making it a potential disease-specific biomarker. We aimed to define and validate CCAT1 as a CC-specific biomarker, and to study CCAT1 expression across the adenoma-carcinoma sequence of CC tumorigenesis.

Internal mammary artery injury during central venous catheter insertion for TPN: rare but fatal.

Vascular injuries caused by subclavian central venous catheter (CVC) insertion can be associated with major complications. Such injuries differ in clinical presentation as well as optimal management, which ranges from observation only to surgical or endovascular repair. We report an injury to a branch of the internal mammary artery following an attempt to introduce a subclavian CVC, resulting in a massive hemothorax.