Early relapse on adjuvant gemcitabine associated with an exceptional response to 2nd line capecitabine chemotherapy in a patient with pancreatic adenosquamous carcinoma with strong intra-tumoural expression of cytidine deaminase: a case report.

Background: Pancreatic adenosquamous carcinoma has a poor prognosis, with limited prospective trial data to guide optimal treatment. The potential impact of drug metabolism on the treatment response of patients with pancreatic adenosquamous carcinoma is largely unknown.

Case Presentation: We describe the case of a 51 year old woman with pancreatic adenosquamous carcinoma who, following surgical resection, experienced early disease relapse during adjuvant gemcitabine therapy.

Interference of the T Cell and Antigen-Presenting Cell Costimulatory Pathway Using CTLA4-Ig (Abatacept) Prevents Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B Pathology.

Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) is a bacterial superantigen that binds the receptors in the APC/T cell synapse and causes increased proliferation of T cells and a cytokine storm syndrome in vivo. Exposure to the toxin can be lethal and cause significant pathology in humans. The lack of effective therapies for SEB exposure remains an area of concern, particularly in scenarios of acute mass casualties.

Endothelial activation and chemoattractant expression are early processes in isolated blast brain injury.

Blast injuries are an increasing problem in military conflicts and terrorist incidents. Blast-induced traumatic brain injury has risen to prominence and represents a specific form of primary brain injury, with sufficiently different physical attributes (and possibly biological consequences) to be classified separately. There is increasing interest in the role of blast in initiating inflammatory responses, which may be linked to the pathological processes seen clinically.

Traumatic brain injury.

There is an increasing incidence of military traumatic brain injury (TBI), and similar injuries are seen in civilians in war zones or terrorist incidents. Indeed, blast-induced mild TBI has been referred to as the signature injury of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assessment involves schemes that are common in civilian practice but, in common with civilian TBI, takes little account of information available from modern imaging (particularly diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging) and emerging biomarkers.

Non-randomised phase II trial of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in patients with chronic arm lymphoedema and tissue fibrosis after radiotherapy for early breast cancer.

Background: Radiation-induced arm lymphoedema is a common and distressing complication of curative treatment for early breast cancer. Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO(2)) therapy promotes healing in bone rendered ischaemic by radiotherapy, and may help some soft-tissue injuries too, but is untested in arm lymphoedema.

Methods: Twenty-one eligible research volunteers with a minimum 30% increase in arm volume in the years after axillary/supraclavicular radiotherapy (axillary surgery in 18/21 cases) were treated with HBO(2).