United European Gastroenterol J
January 2025
The rising incidence of pancreatic diseases, including acute and chronic pancreatitis and various pancreatic neoplasms, poses a significant global health challenge. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) for example, has a high mortality rate due to late-stage diagnosis and its inaccessible location. Advances in imaging technologies, though improving diagnostic capabilities, still necessitate biopsy confirmation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLiquid biopsies can accurately identify molecular alterations in patients with colorectal cancer with high concordance with tissue analysis and shorter turnaround times. Circulating tumor (ct) DNA analysis can be used for diagnosing and monitoring tumor evolution in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who are treated with EGFR inhibitors. In this article, we reported three clinical cases to illustrate the relevance of RAS mutations identified in ctDNA samples of patients with wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer who received an EGFR inhibitor plus chemotherapy as first-line treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetastatic colorectal cancer requires a multidisciplinary and individualized approach. Herein, we reported the case of a young woman diagnosed with metastatic rectal cancer who received an individualized multimodal treatment strategy that resulted in a remarkable survival. There were several particular aspects of this case, such as the early onset of the disease, the successful use of conversion therapy, the application of liquid biopsy to guide treatment, and the specific nature of the bone metastasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFColorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality and morbidity worldwide. Bevacizumab was approved for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) based on favorable benefit-risk assessments from randomized controlled trials, but evidence on its use in the real-world setting is limited. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the outcomes and safety profile of bevacizumab in mCRC in a real-world setting in Romania.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Neuroendocrine neoplasms are a heterogeneous group of tumors that raise challenges in terms of diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. Despite continuous efforts, no biomarker has showed satisfying accuracy in predicting outcome or response to treatment.
Methods: We conducted a systematic review to determine relevant circulating biomarkers for angiogenesis in neuroendocrine tumors.
This study aims to investigate the correlations between burnout, coping strategies, and quality of life among young oncology healthcare workers in Romania during the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected the data using an online questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic questions, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the COPE questionnaire, and the 15D instrument. A total of 122 healthcare providers responded to our survey.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: GISTs are the most frequent type of mesenchymal neoplasm of the digestive tract. The prognosis is mainly determined by tumor dimensions, mitotic rate and location, but other less well-documented factors can influence evolution and survival. The immune microenvironment and checkpoint molecule expression were proven to impact the prognosis in different types of cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe performed a meta-analysis of published data to investigate the diagnostic value of artificial intelligence for pancreatic cancer. Systematic research was conducted in the following databases: PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science to identify relevant studies up to October 2021. We extracted or calculated the number of true positives, false positives true negatives, and false negatives from the selected publications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Med (Lausanne)
January 2022
The use of blood liquid biopsy is increasingly being incorporated into the clinical setting of gastrointestinal cancers care. Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) occurs naturally as a result of the accumulation of somatic mutations and the clonal proliferation of hematopoietic stem cells with normal aging. The identification of CH-mutations has been described as a source of biological noise in blood liquid biopsy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: Colorectal cancer (CRC) can be classified as mismatch-repair-deficient (dMMR) with high levels of microsatellite instability (MSI-H), or mismatch-repair-proficient (pMMR) and microsatellite stable (MSS). Approximately 15% of patients have microsatellite instability (MSI). MSI-H tumors are associated with a high mutation burden.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is a highly uncommon (less than 2% of thyroid malignancies) and aggressive type of cancer, with aggressive behavior and, therefore, exhibiting poor prognosis. ATC tumors are automatically labeled as stage IV disease regardless of standard criteria such as tumor burden or metastasis. ATC tumors require a diversified treatment approach that includes surgical resection, followed by a complete an aggressive combination of radiation and chemotherapy and/or palliative care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: We report the case of a 55-year-old-male with a large cell metastatic pancreatic neuroendocrine carcinoma treated for 14 months with lanreotide autogel having a stable disease (SD) and not responding to chemotherapy. The somatostatin analogues (SSA) were introduced after an episode of diarrhea and controlled the disease. Progression-free survival (PFS) as determined by Computerized Tomography (CT) scans was obtained for 14 months.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSelenoprotein expression in Escherichia coli redefines specific single UGA codons from translational termination to selenocysteine (Sec) insertion. This process requires the presence of a Sec Insertion Sequence (SECIS) in the mRNA, which forms a secondary structure that binds a unique Sec-specific elongation factor that catalyzes Sec insertion at the predefined UGA instead of release factor 2-mediated termination. During overproduction of recombinant selenoproteins, this process nonetheless typically results in expression of UGA-truncated products together with the production of recombinant selenoproteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInitiation of protein synthesis in bacteria relies on the presence of three translation initiation factors, of which translation initiation factor IF1 is the smallest having a molecular weight of only 8.2kDa. In addition to its function in this highly dynamic process, the essential IF1 protein also functions as an RNA chaperone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTranslation initiation factor IF1 is an indispensable protein for translation in prokaryotes. No clear function has been assigned to this factor so far. In this study we demonstrate an RNA chaperone activity of this protein both in vivo and in vitro.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe influence in vivo of mutated forms of translation initiation factor (IF1) on the expression of the lacZ or 3A' reporter genes, with different initiation and/or +2 codons, has been investigated. Reporter gene expression in these infA(IF1) mutants is similar to the wild-type strain. The results do not support the longstanding hypothesis that IF1 could perform discriminatory functions while blocking the aminoacyl-tRNA acceptor site (A-site) of the ribosome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThree protein factors IF1, IF2 and IF3 are involved in the initiation of translation in prokaryotes. No clear function has been assigned to the smallest of these three factors, IF1. Therefore, to investigate the role of this protein in the initiation process in Escherichia coli we have mutated the corresponding gene infA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF