Revealing the extent of sea otter impacts on bivalve prey through multi-trophic monitoring and mechanistic models.

Sea otters are apex predators that can exert considerable influence over the nearshore communities they occupy. Since facing near extinction in the early 1900s, sea otters are making a remarkable recovery in Southeast Alaska, particularly in Glacier Bay, the largest protected tidewater glacier fjord in the world. The expansion of sea otters across Glacier Bay offers both a challenge to monitoring and stewardship and an unprecedented opportunity to study the top-down effect of a novel apex predator across a diverse and productive ecosystem.

A novel preoperative risk score to guide patient selection for resection of soft tissue sarcoma lung metastases: An analysis from the United States Sarcoma Collaborative.

Background: Surgical resection for sarcoma lung metastases has been associated with improved overall survival (OS).

Methods: Patients who underwent curative-intent resection of sarcoma lung metastases (2000-2016) were identified from the US Sarcoma Collaborative. Patients with extrapulmonary metastatic disease or R2 resections of primary tumor or metastases were excluded.

Impact of Metastasectomy and Aggressive Local Therapy in Newly Diagnosed Metastatic Soft Tissue Sarcoma: An Analysis of the NCDB.

Background: The optimal management of patients with stage IV soft tissue sarcoma of the extremity (STSE) with distant metastases at diagnosis is unclear due to limited evidence and heterogeneity of current practice patterns. National guidelines have recommended surgical management of the primary site (SP) with or without radiotherapy (R), chemotherapy (C), and metastasectomy (M).

Methods: In the National Cancer Database (NCDB), patients with initially metastatic STSE who received definitive SP from 2004 to 2014 were identified.

Ecosystem response persists after a prolonged marine heatwave.

Some of the longest and most comprehensive marine ecosystem monitoring programs were established in the Gulf of Alaska following the environmental disaster of the Exxon Valdez oil spill over 30 years ago. These monitoring programs have been successful in assessing recovery from oil spill impacts, and their continuation decades later has now provided an unparalleled assessment of ecosystem responses to another newly emerging global threat, marine heatwaves. The 2014-2016 northeast Pacific marine heatwave (PMH) in the Gulf of Alaska was the longest lasting heatwave globally over the past decade, with some cooling, but also continued warm conditions through 2019.

A closer look at the natural history and recurrence patterns of high-grade truncal/extremity leiomyosarcomas: A multi-institutional analysis from the US Sarcoma Collaborative.

Background/objective: Natural history and outcomes for truncal/extremity (TE) soft tissue sarcoma (STS) is derived primarily from studies investigating all histiotypes as one homogenous cohort. We aimed to define the recurrence rate (RR), recurrence patterns, and response to radiation of TE leiomyosarcomas (LMS).

Methods: Patients from the US Sarcoma Collaborative database with primary, high-grade TE STS were identified.