Influence of obesity on cancer-related outcomes after pancreatectomy to treat pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Objective: To examine the influence of obesity, as measured by body mass index (BMI) (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared), on clinicopathologic factors and survival after pancreatectomy to treat adenocarcinoma.

Design: Retrospective review and statistical analysis using prospectively collected data.

Setting: Referral center with a dedicated multidisciplinary pancreas cancer program.

Randomized phase II trial evaluating two paclitaxel and cisplatin-containing chemoradiation regimens as adjuvant therapy in resected gastric cancer (RTOG-0114).

Purpose: The investigational arm of INT0116, a fluorouracil (FU) and leucovorin-containing chemoradiotherapy regimen, is a standard treatment for patients with resected gastric cancer with a 2-year disease-free survival rate (DFS) of 52%. Toxicity is also significant. More beneficial and safer regimens are needed.

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy for the treatment of squamous cell anal cancer with para-aortic nodal involvement.

Purpose: To determine the rates of toxicity, locoregional control, distant control, and survival in anal cancer patients with para-aortic nodal involvement, treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and concurrent chemotherapy at a single institution.

Methods And Materials: Between 2001 and 2007, 6 patients with squamous cell anal cancer and para-aortic nodal involvement were treated with IMRT and concurrent infusional 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin. The primary tumor was treated with a median dose of 57.

Temporal patterns of fatigue predict pathologic response in patients treated with preoperative chemoradiation therapy for rectal cancer.

Purpose: To investigate whether symptom burden before and during preoperative chemoradiation therapy (CRT) for rectal cancer predicts for pathologic tumor response.

Methods And Materials: Fifty-four patients with T3/T4/N+ rectal cancers were treated on a Phase II trial using preoperative capecitabine and concomitant boost radiotherapy. Symptom burden was prospectively assessed before (baseline) and weekly during CRT by patient self-reported questionnaires, the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI), and Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI).

Synthesis and evaluation of vancomycin aglycon analogues that bear modifications in the N-terminal D-leucyl amino acid.

The synthesis and biological evaluation of a series of vancomycin aglycon analogues bearing alternative residue 1 N-methyl-D-amino acids are described. The analogues were prepared to define whether H-bonding d-amino acids could improve the affinity for the model ligands N,N'-Ac(2)-L-Lys-D-Ala-D-Ala (2) and N,N'-Ac(2)-L-Lys-D-Ala-D-Lac (3) and improve antimicrobial activity against vancomycin-sensitive or vancomycin-resistant bacteria. Additionally, a series of analogues with appended nucleophiles (hydrazines and amines) on the residue 1 D-amino acids are described that were examined for their ability to react with the C-terminal ester of 3, forming a covalent attachment of L-Lys-D-Ala to the natural product analogues.

Structural analysis of biofilm formation by rapidly and slowly growing nontuberculous mycobacteria.

Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) and rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) such as M. abscessus, M. mucogenicum, M.

Long-term survival after multidisciplinary management of resected pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Introduction: Actual 5-year survival rates of 10-18% have been reported for patients with resected pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PC), but the use of multimodality therapy was uncommon in these series. We evaluated long-term survival and patterns of recurrence in patients treated for PC with contemporary staging and multimodality therapy.

Methods: We analyzed 329 consecutive patients with PC evaluated between 1990 and 2002 who underwent resection.

The integration of chemoradiation in the care of patient with localized pancreatic cancer.

The use of chemoradiation for patients with localized pancreatic cancer is controversial. Although some randomized trials have indicated that chemoradiation improves the median survival of patients with locally advanced as well as resected pancreatic cancer, other more recent trials have called into question the role of chemoradiation and have supported the use of chemotherapy. In the adjuvant setting, the high local tumor recurrence/persistence rate in all trials probably reflects the inclusion of patients with incompletely resected tumors, whose prognosis is similar to the prognosis of patients with locally advanced who do not undergo resection, making these trials difficult to interpret.

Sacral insufficiency fractures after preoperative chemoradiation for rectal cancer: incidence, risk factors, and clinical course.

Purpose: Sacral insufficiency (SI) fractures can occur as a late side effect of pelvic radiation therapy. Our goal was to determine the incidence, risk factors, and clinical course of SI fractures in patients treated with preoperative chemoradiation for rectal cancer.

Materials And Methods: Between 1989 and 2004, 562 patients with non-metastatic rectal adenocarcinoma were treated with preoperative chemoradiation followed by mesorectal excision.

Ten-month-old infants use prior information to identify an actor's goal.

For adults, prior information about an individual's likely goals, preferences or dispositions plays a powerful role in interpreting ambiguous behavior and predicting and interpreting behavior in novel contexts. Across two studies, we investigated whether 10-month-old infants' ability to identify the goal of an ambiguous action sequence was facilitated by seeing prior instances in which the actor directly pursued and obtained her goal, and whether infants could use this prior information to understand the actor's behavior in a new context. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the goal preview impacted infants' subsequent action understanding, but only if the preview was delivered in the same room as the subsequent action sequence.

RETRACTED: Structural analysis of biofilm formation by rapidly and slowly growing nontuberculous mycobacteria.

This article has been retracted.

Minimizing the complications associated with migrating catheters.

This article seeks to explore the clinical practice of urinary catheter fixation. Traditionally, this area of practice has been neglected and nurses are familiar with tension lesions and dermal problems associated with inappropriate or incorrect urinary catheter fixation. A novel solution to this problem is a catheter fixation device.

Proton radiotherapy for liver tumors: dosimetric advantages over photon plans.

The purpose of the study is to dosimetrically investigate the advantages of proton radiotherapy over photon radiotherapy for liver tumors. The proton plan and the photon plan were designed using commercial treatment planning systems. The treatment target dose conformity and heterogeneity and dose-volume analyses of normal structures were compared between proton and photon radiotherapy for 9 patients with liver tumors.

PI(3) kinase is associated with a mechanism of immunoresistance in breast and prostate cancer.

Immune escape describes a critical event whereby tumor cells adopt an immunoresistant phenotype to escape adaptive surveillance. We show that expression of a pivotal negative regulator of T-cell function, B7-H1, correlates with PI(3) kinase activation in breast and prostate cancer patients. B7-H1-mediated immunoresistance can be attenuated by inhibitors of the PI(3) kinase pathway, and is dependent on S6K1-mediated translational regulation of B7-H1 protein.

Aggressive combined modality therapy for recurrent colorectal cancer involving the duodenum and pancreas: a report of 5 cases.

We report 5 cases in which the recurrence of colorectal cancer (CRC) presented as a mass involving the duodenum and pancreas. The treatment approach for such recurrences is not standardized, and in particular, the benefits of pancreaticoduodenectomy for such cases are not known. We describe the successful use of aggressive multimodality treatment with chemotherapy, radiation, and en bloc surgical resection.

Experience matters: the impact of doing versus watching on infants' subsequent perception of tool-use events.

Prior work suggests that active experience affects infants' understanding of simple actions. The present studies compared the impact of active and observational experience on infants' ability to identify the goal of a novel tool-use event. Infants either received active training and practice in using a cane to retrieve an out-of-reach toy or had matched observational experience before taking part in a habituation paradigm that we used to assess infants' ability to identify the goal of another person's tool-use acts.

Extrahepatic bile duct adenocarcinoma: patients at high-risk for local recurrence treated with surgery and adjuvant chemoradiation have an equivalent overall survival to patients with standard-risk treated with surgery alone.

Background: Patients with resected extrahepatic bile duct adenocarcinoma who have microscopically positive resection margins and/or pathologic locoregional nodal involvement (R1pN1) have a high-risk of locoregional recurrence, and therefore, we advocate the use of adjuvant chemoradiation. To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of this treatment, we compared survival and side effects outcomes between such patients and patients with negative resection margins and pathologically negative nodes (R0pN0) who did not receive adjuvant treatment.

Methods: Between 1984 and 2005, 65 patients were treated with curative-intended resection for extrahepatic bile duct adenocarcinoma.

Improving soft-tissue contrast in four-dimensional computed tomography images of liver cancer patients using a deformable image registration method.

Purpose: To investigate a deformable image registration method to improve soft-tissue contrast in four-dimensional (4D) computed tomography (CT) images of the liver.

Methods And Materials: Ten patients with hepatocellular carcinoma underwent 4D CT scan for radiotherapy treatment planning on a positron emission tomography/CT scanner. Four-dimensional CT images were binned into 10 equispaced phases.

Preoperative gemcitabine-based chemoradiation for patients with resectable adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic head.

Purpose: We conducted a phase II trial to assess the outcomes of patients who received preoperative gemcitabine-based chemoradiation and pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) for stage I/II pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Patients And Methods: Eligible patients with pancreatic head/uncinate process adenocarcinoma and radiographically defined potentially resectable disease received chemoradiation with 7 weekly intravenous (IV) infusions of gemcitabine (400 mg/m(2) IV over 30 minutes) plus radiation therapy (30 Gy in 10 fractions over 2 weeks). Patients underwent restaging 4 to 6 weeks after completion of chemoradiation and, in the absence of disease progression, were taken to surgery.

Preoperative gemcitabine and cisplatin followed by gemcitabine-based chemoradiation for resectable adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic head.

Purpose: We conducted a phase II trial of preoperative gemcitabine and cisplatin chemotherapy in addition to chemoradiation (Gem-Cis-XRT) and pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) for patients with stage I/II pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Patients And Methods: Chemotherapy consisted of gemcitabine (750 mg/m(2)) and cisplatin (30 mg/m(2)) given every 2 weeks for four doses. Chemoradiation consisted of four weekly infusions of gemcitabine (400 mg/m(2)) combined with radiation therapy (30 Gy in 10 fractions administered over 2 weeks) delivered 5 days per week.