A prospective evaluation of the role of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and the immune system in stage III/IV melanoma.

Background: The immune system and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) may be influential in melanoma behavior. We performed a prospective, exploratory analysis in 10 stage III and 22 stage IV melanoma patients to observe factors influencing outcomes.

Patients And Methods: Patients accrued during 2010 and 2011 were treated according to standard protocols for disease stage.

Clinical characteristics and treatment-related biomarkers associated with response to high-dose interleukin-2 in metastatic melanoma and renal cell carcinoma: retrospective analysis of an academic community hospital's experience.

Background: Immunotherapy in the treatment of metastatic melanoma and renal cell carcinoma can produce durable therapeutic responses, which may improve survival. We aimed to identify clinical characteristics and biomarkers associated with response to high-dose interleukin-2 therapy (IL-2) in patients with metastatic melanoma and renal cell carcinoma treated at an academic community hospital.

Patients/methods: We retrospectively analyzed clinical variables and biomarkers of 50 consecutive metastatic melanoma or renal cell carcinoma patients treated at our institution with IL-2 during 2004 - 2012.

Pneumococcal sepsis-induced purpura fulminans in an asplenic adult patient without disseminated intravascular coagulation.

Acute perturbations in the hemostatic balance of anticoagulation and procoagulation antecede the manifestation of purpura fulminans, a rare syndrome of intravascular thrombosis and hemorrhagic infarction of the skin. Hallmarks include small vessel thrombosis, tissue necrosis and disseminated intravascular thrombosis. The course may be rapidly fulminant resulting in multiorgan failure with thrombotic occlusion of the vasculature, leading to distal extremity ischemia and necrosis.

Plasmablastic lymphoma of the maxillary sinus in an HIV-negative patient: a case report and literature review.

Plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL) is a rare and aggressive variant of diffuse large B cell lymphoma. The prognosis of PBL patients is poor. The majority of patients succumb to a fulminant disease course, with most dying in the first year after diagnosis.

Extracranial radiosurgery--applications in the management of benign intradural spinal neoplasms.

Stereotactic radiosurgery has enabled the delivery of higher doses of radiation and decreased fractionation due to improved accuracy. Spinal radiosurgery has been increasingly utilized for the management of metastatic extradural spinal disease. However, surgical resection remains the primary treatment strategy for intradural spinal tumors.

Spinal meningioma: chronicles of contemporary neurosurgical diagnosis and management.

Spinal meningiomas are uncommon entities that fortunately burden only a small minority of patients. Notwithstanding their overwhelmingly benign propensity, the occurrence of extramedullary meningioma may nonetheless cause significant morbidity and possible mortality. The consideration therefore, of spinal meningioma in the differential of patients presenting with radiculopathy or complaints of chronic back or neck pain should not be disregarded.

Cardiac and metabolic consequences of aerobic exercise training in experimental diabetes.

The experimental literature of the foregoing decade has furnished an assemblage of mechanisms explaining the metabolic perturbations and overall decline in cardiac performance implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus. Particularly, the experimentally-induced diabetic rat model has been indispensable in the examination of diabetic cardiomyopathy, an entity distinctly separable from atherosclerosis, hypertension, coronary artery disease and valvular dysfunction, yet convincingly attributable to the increase in cardiac-associated mortality commonly observed in the diabetic patient. The widespread epidemic of diabetes mellitus in developed societies has elicited considerable attention and the role of exercise as an adjuvant therapy in diabetes management has been increasingly emphasized.

Effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 and long-acting analogues on cardiovascular and metabolic function.

Although the insulinotropic role of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) in type 2 diabetes mellitus has been substantiated, its role in cardioprotection remains largely unknown. To ascertain the role of the cardiovascular actions of GLP-1 in health and disease states necessitates a review of the current evidence as well as ongoing investigation. Of cardiovascular significance, both positive inotropic and chronotropic effects, unmodifiable by beta-adrenergic blockers, have been reportedly attributed to GLP-1 actions on the myocardium.