A retrospective review of MRI features associated with metastasis-free survival in women with breast cancer: focusing on skin thickening and skin enhancement.

Objectives: To identify associations between MRI-detected skin thickening and enhancement and metastasis-free survival (MFS) given recent reports of skin thickening on ultrasound being a poorer prognostic indicator.

Methods: Interrogation of a prospectively collected database of ultrasound-visible breast lesions showed 214 lesions with pre-treatment MRIs available for analysis in a single centre. Data on MFS was prospectively collected.

Reactive Oxygen Species Dictate the Apoptotic Response of Melanoma Cells to TH588.

The effect of MTH1 inhibition on cancer cell survival has been elusive. Here we report that although silencing of MTH1 does not affect survival of melanoma cells, TH588, one of the first-in-class MTH1 inhibitors, kills melanoma cells through apoptosis independently of its inhibitory effect on MTH1. Induction of apoptosis by TH588 was not alleviated by MTH1 overexpression or introduction of the bacterial homolog of MTH1 that has 8-oxodGTPase activity but cannot be inhibited by TH588, indicating that MTH1 inhibition is not the cause of TH588-induced killing of melanoma cells.

Palliative nurses' perceptions of the nature and effects of their work.

This paper presents some of the qualitative findings from a recent research project, which explored the nature and effects of palliative nursing care for nurses, in New South Wales, Australia. By using story telling as the research methodology the participants related their experiences about palliative care nursing practice in which they felt they did or did not make a difference to the people in their care. The results of this project clearly demonstrated that the nature of palliative nursing is expressed by nurses dealing with death, making connections, making contracts, demonstrating advocacy, building interpersonal relationships, requiring family and colleague support and involvement in issues.