Metabolically phenotyped pancreatectomized patients as living donors for the study of islets in health and diabetes.

Background: The availability of human pancreatic islets with characteristics closely resembling those present in vivo is instrumental for ex vivo studies in diabetes research.

Scope Of Review: In this review we propose metabolically phenotyped surgical patients as a novel source of pancreatic tissue for islet research. Laser Capture Microdissection from snap frozen surgical specimens is a relatively simple, reproducible and scalable method to isolate islets of highest purity for many types of "omics" analyses.

K-ras Mutation Subtypes in NSCLC and Associated Co-occuring Mutations in Other Oncogenic Pathways.

Introduction: Although KRAS mutations in NSCLC have been considered mutually exclusive driver mutations for a long time, there is now growing evidence that KRAS-mutated NSCLC represents a genetically heterogeneous subgroup. We sought to determine genetic heterogeneity with respect to cancer-related co-mutations and their correlation with different KRAS mutation subtypes.

Methods: Diagnostic samples from 4507 patients with NSCLC were analyzed by next-generation sequencing by using a panel of 14 genes and, in a subset of patients, fluorescence in situ hybridization.

Clinicopathological Characteristics of RET Rearranged Lung Cancer in European Patients.

Introduction: Rearrangements of RET are rare oncogenic events in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). While the characterization of Asian patients suggests a predominance of nonsmokers of young age in this genetically defined lung cancer subgroup, little is known about the characteristics of non-Asian patients. We present the results of an analysis of a European cohort of patients with RET rearranged NSCLC.