Trends in spa and balneology in postcovid era, outcomes, and perspectives.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected spa and balneology not only in the Czech Republic. Generally, almost two years without spa patients and clients led to a dramatic outflow of labor. The article main purpose is to analyze pandemic impact on the structure of spa patients and clients, to identify main current spa problems to be overcome, and to summarize possible future trends in modern spa and balneology for current and future spa clients.

Horizon Europe, research and innovation programme until 2027 - what is new comparing with Horizon 2020?

Horizon Europe is the 9th framework programme of European Union (EU) funding research and innovation with the biggest budget ever of €95.5 billion. The main aims of the programme are to boost competitiveness and growth of European Union, to achieve EU sustainable development and to tackle climate change.

Education for future biobankers - The state-of-the-art and outlook.

Biobanking as a quickly growing branch of personalised medicine has undergone enormous progress during last two decades. Nowadays it is a well developed and structured multidisciplinary field that reflects developments and advances of biomedical research based on principles of predictive, preventive and personalised medicine (PPPM/3PM). All these trends in PPPM progress have to be translated into practice and education of new generation of scientists and healthcare givers.

Biobanks in the era of big data: objectives, challenges, perspectives, and innovations for predictive, preventive, and personalised medicine.

Biobanking is entering the new era-era of big data. New technologies, techniques, and knowledge opened the potential of the whole domain of biobanking. Biobanks collect, analyse, store, and share the samples and associated data.

Informed Consent in the Newly Established Biobank.

Informed consent is an important document for every existing biobank or repository to obtain, store and use human biospecimens and associated data and information for current and future research. Biobanks have undergone great progress worldwide during the last three decades and have become an integral part of personalized medicine and health care systems and due to new scientific and social questions to be solved. Ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) guarantee safe sample and data management, and informed consent is one of the key ELSI documents.

The 39th annual conference: Immunoanalytical Days - Pilsen, Czech Republic, 11-13 March 2018.

The 39th annual conference: Immunoanalytical Days took place between 11th and 13th of March 2018 in Pilsen, Czech Republic. The title was: Personalised medicine, biobanks and biomarkers for the optimal approach to the patient. The conference was co-organized by the Czech Society of Nuclear Medicine, the Czech Society of Clinical Biochemistry, the University Hospital Pilsen and Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen and Charles University.

Biobanks in Horizon 2020: sustainability and attractive perspectives.

Biobanks have during last two decades gained an important role in the whole process of biomedical research and health care not only in Europe but also worldwide. Biobanks are one of the pillars in personalised medicine tackling all its aspects such as prevention, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring closely the specific characteristics of an individual patient. The current and future power of biobanks is the amount of samples of high-quality and related information available for current and future research of diseases, for optimising patients´ prevention, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring.

Stability of total prostate-specific antigen and free prostate-specific antigen after 10 years' storage.

Introduction: PSA is a serine protease composed of 240 amino acids in a single polypeptide chain and is a routine parameter in prostate cancer diagnostics. The aim of our study was to test the long-term stability of tPSA and fPSA after 10 years' storage at -80°C.

Materials And Methods: We analyzed two aliquots from 55 serum samples.

The 44th Congress of the International Society of Oncology and Biomarkers: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 7-10 September 2017.

The 44th Congress of the International Society of Oncology and Biomarkers: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 7-10 September 2017 The 44th congress followed the previous one of  International Society of Oncology and Biomarkers (ISOBM) that took place in Chicago (USA) in 2016. The title of the 44th Annual congress was: 'Biomarkers in oncology: new horizons and challenges in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer' [ 1 ]. The congress was co-organized by ISOBM, European Group on Tumor Markers (EGTM) and Brazilian Society of Clinical Pathology SBPC/ML.

[Biobanks European infrastructure].

Biobanks are structured repositories of human tissue samples connected with specific information. They became an integral part of personalized medicine in the new millennium. At the European research area biobanks are isolated not well coordinated and connected to the network.

Challenges in personalised management of chronic diseases-heart failure as prominent example to advance the care process.

Chronic diseases are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Europe, accounting for more than 2/3 of all death causes and 75 % of the healthcare costs. Heart failure is one of the most prominent, prevalent and complex chronic conditions and is accompanied with multiple other chronic diseases. The current approach to care has important shortcomings with respect to diagnosis, treatment and care processes.

Biobanks in the era of personalized medicine: objectives, challenges, and innovation: Overview.

Biobanks are an important compound of personalized medicine and strongly support the scientific progress in stratification of population and biomarker discovery and validation due to progress in personalized medicine. Biobanks are an essential tool for new drug discoveries and drug development. Biobanks play an important role in the whole process of patient prevention and prediction, follow-up, and therapy monitoring and optimalization.

The Role of TPS and TPA in the Diagnostics of Distant Metastases.

Aim: The aim of the study was to assess the degree to which tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) and tissue polypeptide-specific antigen (TPS), as well as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), can assist in the detection of distant metastases.

Patients And Methods: We assessed 157 patients with colorectal and breast cancer divided into two groups. The first was a group of patients with cancer at stages 1, 2 and 3; the second was a group of patients with cancer at stage 4 with metastasis.

Evaluation of IL-2, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10 in Malignant Melanoma Diagnostics.

Aim: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of four interleukins (IL-2, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10) for melanoma detection and correlate these interleukins with sentinel node metastasis positivity.

Patients And Methods: A group of 236 persons was assessed: 175 patients with melanomas and 61 healthy persons. Melanoma patients were divided to four groups according to Breslow score.

Reference values of IGF1, IGFBP3 and IGF1/IGFBP3 ratio in adult population in the Czech Republic.

Background: IGF1 is responsible for regulation of growth, metabolism and differentiation of human cells. IGFBP3 is the most abundant of the carrier proteins for IGF1 in the blood. IGF1/IGFBP3 molar ratio is an indicator of IGF1 bioavailability.

[Horizon 2020, new EU Framework programme for research and innovation, 2014-2020].

Horizon 2020 is a financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europes global competitiveness. Running from 2014 to 2020 with a budget of just over € 80 billion, the EUs new programme for research and innovation is part of the drive to create new growth and jobs in Europe. Societal challenge Health, demographic change and wellbeing is an important part of Horizon 2020.

Predictive, Preventive and Personalised Medicine as the hardcore of 'Horizon 2020': EPMA position paper.

The European Association for Predictive, Preventive and Personalised Medicine (EPMA) considers acute problems in medical sciences as well as the quality and management of medical services challenging health care systems in Europe and worldwide. This actuality has motivated the representatives of EPMA to comment on the efforts in promoting an integrative approach based on multidisciplinary expertise to advance health care-related research and management. The current paper provides a global overview of the problems related to medical services: pandemic scenario in the progression of common non-communicable diseases, delayed interventional approaches of reactive medicine, poor economy of health care systems, lack of specialised educational programmes, problematic ethical aspects of several treatments as well as inadequate communication among professional groups and policymakers.

[First results of participation of the Czech Republic in the 7th Framework Programme, priority Health, in years 2007-2013].

European Commission has announced the first preliminary results of participation in the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), priority Health. The overview presents the basic statistics regarding the participation of the Czech teams, universities, institutions, and small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in FP7 projects. The aim of the article is to present the basic data on the projects with the Czech participation, the EU financial contribution for Czech teams and the main research topics.

[Joint Programming: a new instrument for intensive cooperation in biomedical research in Europe].

The aim of the Joint Program-ming process is to pool national research efforts in order to make better use of European precious public research and development resources and to tackle common European challenges more effectively in a few key areas. Joint programming is a structured and strategic process whereby Member States agree, on a voluntary basis and in a partnership approach, on common visions and Strategic Research Agendas (SRA) to address major societal challenges. On a variable geometry basis, Member States commit to Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) where they implement together joint Strategic Research Agendas.

Prognostic importance of some clinical and therapeutic factors for the effect of portal vein embolization in patients with primarily inoperable colorectal liver metastases.

Introduction: Portal vein embolization (PVE) may increase the resectability of liver metastases. However, the problem of PVE is insufficient growth of the liver or tumor progression in some patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the significance of commonly available clinical factors for the result of PVE.

[Research in biomedicine in collaboration with third country nationals within the 7th framework programme for years 2007-2013].

International cooperation, in EU -funded health research with research partners on five continents, with project opportunities is open to applicants from every country on the map, with generous funding for international teams exploring issues of relevance to the global community, the EU is fostering ambitious undertakings involving scientists and organisations from Europe and beyond. This commitment to scientific collaboration characterises the EUs approach to research and innovation. The European Commission is considering further ways of boosting the impact of its research contribution.

Overview of healthcare system in the Czech Republic.

The healthcare system in the Czech Republic underwent and still is undergoing dramatic changes since the Velvet revolution in 1989. History of the Czech healthcare system, main healthcare laws, and the current status of healthcare documented in the main healthcare indicators is described based on the several main sources as well as delivery of health services and the role of the main actors in healthcare system. The material is based mainly on Czech Health Statistics 2009, and HiT Summary, Health Care Systems in Translation, 2005, public information of Ministry of Health CR.

[Preparation of the Eighth Framework Programme of the European Union--Health Priority. European Commission organizes proposal of aims in biomedical research prospecting to 2020].

Eighth framework programme (FP8) of the European Union for years 2014-2020 undergoes the preparatory process. The overview presents current status of the programme preparation. European Commission organized three workshops (-omics in personalised medicine, 4D biology for health and disease, and Stratification biomarkers in personalised medicine) with the purpose to bring together experts from different fields to build a 2020 vision, and to identify the research needs for next years.