Eco-evolutionary Guided Pathomics Analysis to Predict DCIS Upstaging.

Cancers evolve in a dynamic ecosystem. Thus, characterizing cancer's ecological dynamics is crucial to understanding cancer evolution and can lead to discovering novel biomarkers to predict disease progression. Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is an early-stage breast cancer characterized by abnormal epithelial cell growth confined within the milk ducts.

Keratin 17 modulates the immune topography of pancreatic cancer.

Background: The immune microenvironment impacts tumor growth, invasion, metastasis, and patient survival and may provide opportunities for therapeutic intervention in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Although never studied as a potential modulator of the immune response in most cancers, Keratin 17 (K17), a biomarker of the most aggressive (basal) molecular subtype of PDAC, is intimately involved in the histogenesis of the immune response in psoriasis, basal cell carcinoma, and cervical squamous cell carcinoma. Thus, we hypothesized that K17 expression could also impact the immune cell response in PDAC, and that uncovering this relationship could provide insight to guide the development of immunotherapeutic opportunities to extend patient survival.

Serine Supports Epithelial and Immune Cell Function in Colitis.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract that are largely driven by immune cell activity, and mucosal healing is critical for remission. Serine is a nonessential amino acid that supports epithelial and immune cell metabolism and proliferation; however, whether these roles affect IBD pathogenesis is not well understood. Herein, the study showed that serine synthesis increased selectively in the epithelial cells of colons from patients with IBD and murine models of colitis.

Microbes Contribute to Chemopreventive Efficacy, Intestinal Tumorigenesis, and the Metabolome.

Unlabelled: Bacteria are believed to play an important role in intestinal tumorigenesis and contribute to both gut luminal and circulating metabolites. Celecoxib, a selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor, alters gut bacteria and metabolites in association with suppressing the development of intestinal polyps in mice. The current study sought to evaluate whether celecoxib exerts its chemopreventive effects, in part, through intestinal bacteria and metabolomic alterations.

Induction and evaluation of murine colitis induced by T cell transfer.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) involve repetitive bouts of inflammation in the intestinal tract and can result in severe morbidity for patients. Moreover, long-standing IBD increases the risk for developing intestinal neoplasia. Although several factors including immune cell activity, microbiota and diet have been implicated in IBD pathogenesis, it is still considered a disease of idiopathic origin.

Inflammatory Myofibroblastic Tumor 12 Years After Treatment for Synovial Sarcoma: A Case Report.

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors (IMTs) are mesenchymal neoplasms most seen in the abdominopelvic region, lung, and retroperitoneum; and less commonly seen in virtually any other site. We report a case of two lower limb masses consistent with diagnosis of IMTs. This is a 39-year-old woman with a history of right lower extremity popliteal fossa synovial sarcoma diagnosed 12 years prior and treated with chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation.

An unbiased high-throughput drug screen reveals a potential therapeutic vulnerability in the most lethal molecular subtype of pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is predicted to become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States by 2020, due in part to innate resistance to widely used chemotherapeutic agents and limited knowledge about key molecular factors that drive tumor aggression. We previously reported a novel negative prognostic biomarker, keratin 17 (K17), whose overexpression in cancer results in shortened patient survival. In this study, we aimed to determine the predictive value of K17 and explore the therapeutic vulnerability in K17-expressing PDAC, using an unbiased high-throughput drug screen.

Outcomes of Introducing a Mobile Interactive Learning Resource in a Large Medical School Course.

Mobile devices are an integral part of modern medical education, as convenient platforms for access to online interactive learning resources; students' use of textbooks has correspondingly declined. We designed an interactive iBook for pre-clinical students encompassing the content of the pulmonary segment in an organ-based multidisciplinary course. We found, via a survey-based study, that students preferred the iBook to other faculty-supplied materials (PowerPoints and PDFs), mainly due to its interactive images, animations, and study questions.

Keratin 17 is a negative prognostic biomarker in high-grade endometrial carcinomas.

Keratin 17 (K17) has been established as a negative prognostic biomarker in cervical and ovarian cancers but has not previously been evaluated as a prognostic biomarker in endometrial adenocarcinoma. The association of K17 with decreased patient survival may be explained in part by the discovery that K17 drives tumor aggression by serving as a nuclear shuttle of p27, leading to cell cycle progression and tumor growth. The current study tests the hypothesis that K17 mRNA and protein levels correlate with decreased survival of patients with high-grade endometrial cancer.