The Hospitalist Model and Oncology: Oncologist Opinions About Inpatient Cancer Care Delivery.

Hospitalists, rather than oncologists, are increasingly providing inpatient medical care to hospitalized patients with cancer, yet the opinions of oncologists regarding this model of care delivery are unknown. A survey was conducted assessing these opinions and experiences with inpatient cancer care delivery at a tertiary cancer center. Only 30% of oncologists agreed that caring for hospitalized patients with cancer was an efficient use of their time, and most believed a hospitalist service allowed them to pursue other interests.

Current Therapeutic Interventions in Lower Extremity Venous Insufficiency: a Comprehensive Review.

Purpose Of Review: Chronic venous disease (CVD), although affecting up to 40% of the US population, is often underdiagnosed by healthcare professionals due to an incomplete understanding of the presenting symptoms. CVD is a common cause of lower extremity pain and discomfort, including aching, cramping, tingling, burning, swelling, heaviness, restlessness, and fatigue, and may lead to significant morbidity if left untreated. The negative impact of CVD on quality of life is well established and the optimization of management strategies is an important area of evolving research.

Cigarette smoking during external beam radiation therapy for prostate cancer is associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer-specific mortality and treatment-related toxicity.

Objective: To evaluate whether a history of smoking or smoking during therapy after external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) for clinically localised prostate cancer is associated with increased treatment-related toxicity or disease progression.

Patients And Methods: Of 2358 patients receiving EBRT for prostate cancer between 1988 and 2005, 2156 had chart-recorded smoking histories. Patients were classified as 'never smokers', 'current smokers', 'former smokers', and 'current smoking unknown'.

Low-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy Boosting Concurrent Chemoradiation as a Definitive Treatment Modality for Cervical Cancer: Long-term Clinical Results of Outcomes and Associated Toxicity.

Purpose: To review and report the long-term treatment-induced adverse events (AEs) and outcomes of concomitant chemoradiotherapy boosted by low-dose-rate (LDR) conventional brachytherapy (BT) planning in patients with locoregionally advanced cervical cancer.

Patients And Methods: After obtaining institutional review board approval, we reviewed the records of patients with stage IB1 to IVA, intact cervical cancer who were treated at our institution between 1983 and 2009. Eligible patients underwent definitive radiotherapy with external-beam radiation concomitant with cisplatin-based chemotherapy and boosted by LDR BT.

Radiation dose ≥54 Gy and CA 19-9 response are associated with improved survival for unresectable, non-metastatic pancreatic cancer treated with chemoradiation.

Background: Unresectable pancreatic cancer (UPC) has low survival. With improving staging techniques and systemic therapy, local control in patients without metastatic disease may have increasing importance. We investigated whether the radiation dose used in chemoradiation (CRT) as definitive treatment for UPC and the CA 19-9 response to therapy have an impact on overall survival (OS).

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors: a paradigm for therapeutic options in solid organ tumors.

Although a relatively rare malignancy with a national incidence of 3500-4000 annually, Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST) is of significance in the realm of clinical and pharmacological research. GIST exhibits remarkable uniformity in its pathogenesis and ultrastructure as 95% of cases are linked to constitutive activation and overexpression of a membrane tyrosine kinase, c-KIT (CD117). Although previously refractory to any course of action but surgery, GIST heralded a triumph in targeted cancer therapy when administration of a specific first-generation tyrosine-kinase inhibitor Imatinib mesylate (STI571) was shown to inhibit c-Kit and demonstrated a significant increase in patient survival.

Temperature-based extrinsic reproductive isolation in two species of Drosophila.

Drosophila santomea and D. yakuba are sister species that live on the African volcanic island of São Tomé, where they are ecologically isolated: D. yakuba inhabits low-altitude open and semiopen habitats while D.