Quantitative MRI Measurements Capture Pancreatic Cancer and Stroma Reactions to New KRAS Inhibitor.

Unlabelled: In pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), KRAS mutations drive both cancer cell growth and formation of a dense stroma. Small molecule KRAS inhibitors (KRASi) represent a breakthrough for PDAC treatment hence clinical tools that can assess early response, detect resistance and/or predict prolonged survival are desirable for management of patients undergoing KRASi therapy. We hypothesized that diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) can detect cell death while dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE) and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) imaging are sensitive to tumor microenvironment changes, and these metrics shed insights into tumor size (standard care assessment) change induced by KRASi treatment.

Mental Health After COVID-19 Death-Related Loss in Individuals With Eating Disorders: A Multi-Country Nested Matched Case-Control Study.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic caused millions of deaths worldwide and significantly impacted people with eating disorders, exacerbating symptoms and limiting access to care. This study examined the association between COVID-19 death-related loss-defined as the death of a family member, friend, or acquaintance due to COVID-19-and mental health among people with preexisting eating disorders in the United States (US), the Netherlands, and Sweden.

Method: Participants with a history of eating disorders completed a baseline survey early in the pandemic (US: N = 511; Netherlands: N = 510; Sweden: N = 982) and monthly (US, the Netherlands) or biannual (Sweden) follow-ups from April 2020 to May 2021.

Distinct metabolic phenotype renders β-catenin mutant hepatocellular carcinoma susceptible to treatment-induced ischemia.

Background & Aims: Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the most common treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) worldwide; however, response rates and durability vary widely. With the growing armamentarium of therapies for HCC patients, identifying predictors of response to TACE has become increasingly important for a patient population with limited hepatic reserve. We hypothesized that a distinct metabolic phenotype associated with β-catenin pathway mutations render HCC tumors more susceptible to TACE-induced ischemia.

Human GM-CSF/IL-3 enhance tumor immune infiltration in humanized HCC patient-derived xenografts.

Background & Aims: Responses to immunotherapies in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are suboptimal with no biomarkers to guide patient selection. "Humanized" mice represent promising models to address this deficiency but are limited by variable chimerism and underdeveloped myeloid compartments. We hypothesized that expression of human GM-CSF and IL-3 increases tumor immune cell infiltration, especially myeloid-derived cells, in humanized HCC patient-derived xenografts (PDXs).