Enhancing recanalization success: Thrombectomy plus stent angioplasty by coaxial balloon technique for acute ischemic stroke with tandem occlusions.

Recanalizing acute ischemic stroke with carotid tandem occlusion (CTO) is technically challenging because distal embolic migration during revascularization can significantly influence outcomes. In this study, we aimed to introduce our coaxial balloon technique using a balloon-guiding catheter (BCG), angioplasty catheter, and aspiration catheter sequentially to prevent thrombus migration to a new vascular territory. We used this technique for six patients with CTO.

Successful Recanalization and Neurological Restoration in Cancerous Embolic Cerebral Infarction via Endovascular Stent-Retriever Embolectomy.

Mechanical thrombectomy has emerged as a promising treatment for acute ischemic stroke caused by large vessel occlusion. However, cases involving cancerous emboli retrieved during endovascular embolectomy are rare. We present a case of a 65-year-old man with a history of heavily treated rectal cancer, who developed a middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarction due to metastatic adenocarcinoma.

Select gene mutations associated with survival outcomes in ER-positive ERBB2-negative early-stage invasive breast cancer: A single-institutional tissue bank study.

Introduction: The prognostic capability of targeted sequencing of primary tumors in patients with estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-negative early-stage invasive breast cancer (EBC) in a real-world setting is uncertain. Therefore, we aimed to determine the correlation between a 22-gene mutational profile and long-term survival outcomes in patients with ER+/ERBB2- EBC.

Patients And Methods: A total of 73 women diagnosed with ER+/ERBB2- EBC between January 10, 2004, and June 2, 2008, were followed up until December 31, 2022.

From apparent pseudoprogression to durable complete remission of expansile destructive sinonasal mucosal melanoma under pembrolizumab after primary endoscopic resection: A case report.

Head and neck mucosal melanoma is a rare but highly aggressive malignant tumor that usually has a poor prognosis. We describe a 53-year-old male patient, having no any medical history, with left maxillary sinus mucosal melanoma causing bilateral lung metastasis. Rapid tumor regrowth was observed on the 49th day after radical tumor resection.

Long-term ambient hydrocarbon exposure and incidence of urinary bladder cancer.

Particulate matter and volatile organic compounds, including total hydrocarbons (THCs), are major ambient air pollutants. Primary nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) originate from vehicle emissions. The association between air pollution and urinary bladder cancer (UBC) is debatable.

SFPQ promotes RAS-mutant cancer cell growth by modulating 5'-UTR mediated translational control of CK1α.

Oncogenic mutations in the RAS family of small GTPases are commonly found in human cancers and they promote tumorigenesis by altering gene expression networks. We previously demonstrated that Casein Kinase 1α (CK1α), a member of the CK1 family of serine/threonine kinases, is post-transcriptionally upregulated by oncogenic RAS signaling. Here, we report that the CK1α mRNA contains an exceptionally long 5'-untranslated region (UTR) harbouring several translational control elements, implicating its involvement in translational regulation.

Cross-Platform in-silico Analyses Exploring Tumor Immune Microenvironment with Prognostic Value in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

Introduction: Only a proportion of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is immunotherapy-responsive. We hypothesized that the tumor microenvironment (TME) influences the outcomes of TNBC and investigated the relevant signaling pathways.

Materials And Methods: Immune score (IS) and stromal score (SS) were calculated using the ESTIMATE and correlated with the overall survival (OS) in TNBC.

Multi-omics analyses provide novel biological insights to distinguish lobular ductal types of invasive breast cancers.

Background: Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) treatment is similar to invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC; now invasive carcinoma-no special type, IBC-NST), based on its intrinsic subtype. However, further investigation is required for an integrative understanding of differentially perturbed molecular patterns and pathways in these histotypes.

Methods: A dataset of 780 IDC and 201 ILC samples from the TCGA-BRCA project for cross-platform multi-omics was analyzed.

Could oxytocin reduce autoimmune disease in COVID-19?

Disruption of immune and neuroendocrine system function has been shown to play a key role in COVID-19. Oxytocin is vitally important for the immune and neuroendocrine systems. However, oxytocin dysfunction might occur in COVID-19 leading to autoimmune disease.

Analysis of the pan-Asian subgroup of patients in the NALA Trial: a randomized phase III NALA Trial comparing neratinib+capecitabine (N+C) vs lapatinib+capecitabine (L+C) in patients with HER2+metastatic breast cancer (mBC) previously treated with two or more HER2-directed regimens.

Purpose: Neratinib, an irreversible pan-HER tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has demonstrated systemic efficacy and intracranial activity in various stages of HER2+breast cancer. NALA was a phase III randomized trial that assessed the efficacy and safety of neratinib+capecitabine (N+C) against lapatinib+capecitabine (L+C) in HER2+ metastatic breast cancer (mBC) patients who had received ≥ 2 HER2-directed regimens. Descriptive analysis results of the Asian subgroup in the NALA study are reported herein.

Extensive-Stage Small Cell Carcinoma Transformation From EGFR Del19-Mutant Lung Adenocarcinoma on Gefitinib at the Twelfth-Year Follow-Up Case Report.

Introduction: The acquired resistance mechanisms in patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant lung cancer, particularly adenocarcinoma (ADC), following treatment with an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) have received extensive investigations. The phenotypic transformation to small cell carcinoma (SCCT) has been estimated to occur in approximately 3 to 10% of patients treated with an EGFR-TKI. The prognosis after SCCT is extremely poor.

The role of the circadian clock in cancer hallmark acquisition and immune-based cancer therapeutics.

The circadian system temporally regulates physiology to maintain homeostasis. Co-opting and disrupting circadian signals appear to be distinct attributes that are functionally important for the development of a tumor and can enable or give rise to the hallmarks that tumors use to facilitate their initiation, growth and progression. Because circadian signals are also strong regulators of immune cell proliferation, trafficking and exhaustion states, they play a role in how tumors respond to immune-based cancer therapeutics.

Pyoderma gangrenosum and cobalamin deficiency in systemic lupus erythematosus: a rare but non fortuitous association.

Background: Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is an uncommon, idiopathic, ulcerative neutrophilic dermatosis. In many cases, PG is associated with a wide variety of different disorders but SLE in association with PG is relatively uncommon. In this article we present the case of a middle aged patient with PG as the initial clinical presentation of SLE.

Late-onset epilepsy and subsequent increased risk of dementia.

Inflammation is considered as a key pathogenesis factor of dementia and epilepsy. However, epilepsy's association with dementia, particularly its role in the development of dementia, remains unclear. To evaluate the association between epilepsy and the risk of dementia, in Taiwan, we have now conducted a retrospective cohort study comprising 675 individuals (age, ≥50 years) with epilepsy and 2,025 matched control subjects without epilepsy.

Cancer-Derived Exosomes: Their Role in Cancer Biology and Biomarker Development.

Exosomes are a subset of tiny extracellular vesicles manufactured by all cells and are present in all body fluids. They are produced actively in tumor cells, which are released and utilized to facilitate tumor growth. Their characteristics enable them to assist major cancer hallmarks, leveraged by cancer cells in fostering cancer growth and spread while implementing ways to escape elimination from the host environment.

Current Understanding of the Mechanisms Underlying Immune Evasion From PD-1/PD-L1 Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Head and Neck Cancer.

Starting in 2014, large phase III clinical trials began to disclose the study results of using programmed death (PD)-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) (pembrolizumab, nivolumab) and PD-ligand (L)1 (atezolizumab, durvalumab, avelumab) ICIs immunotherapy in patients with advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). In the recurrent and metastatic (R/M), cisplatin-refractory setting, nivolumab achieved a 2.2-fold increase of the median 1-year overall survival as compared with investigators' choice of salvage chemotherapy (36.

Long-Term Exposure to Ambient Hydrocarbons Increases Dementia Risk in People Aged 50 Years and above in Taiwan.

Background: Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia among the elderly, is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative disease. Exposure to air pollutants is known to have adverse effects on human health, however, little is known about hydrocarbons in the air that can trigger a dementia event.

Objective: We aimed to investigate whether long-term exposure to airborne hydrocarbons increases the risk of developing dementia.

Long-term ambient hydrocarbons exposure and incidence of ischemic stroke.

Exposure to air pollutants is known to have adverse effects on human health; however, little is known about the association between hydrocarbons in air and an ischemic stroke (IS) event. We investigated whether long-term exposure to airborne hydrocarbons, including volatile organic compounds, increased IS risk. This retrospective cohort study included 283,666 people aged 40 years or older in Taiwan.

Incidence of retinal vein occlusion with long-term exposure to ambient air pollution.

This study aimed to investigate whether long-term exposure to airborne hydrocarbons, including volatile organic compounds, increases the risk of developing retinal vein occlusion (RVO) among the population of Taiwan. A retrospective cohort study involving 855,297 people was conducted. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis fitted the multiple pollutant models for two targeted pollutants, including total hydrocarbons (THC), nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHC) were used, and the risk of RVO was estimated.

A Pilot Survey of Potentially Hazardous Trace Elements in the Aquatic Environment Near a Coastal Coal-Fired Power Plant in Taiwan.

Background: A limited number of potentially hazardous trace elements were quantified in the aquatic environment near the world's second largest coal-fired power plant (CFPP) and the coal combustion residual (CCR) disposition sites in Central Taiwan. We postulated that contamination from specific trace elements would be present in the abovementioned aquatic environments.

Methods: Cross-sectional sampling of trace elements was first performed between September 24, 2017 and October 3, 2017 outside the CFPP, in the effluent sampled from Changhua, a county south of metropolitan Taichung, and at the historical CCR disposal sites, using the intertidal zone surface seawater and the seawater in an oyster farm as controls.

Sorafenib with Transarterial Chemoembolization Achieves Improved Survival vs. Sorafenib Alone in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study.

We hypothesized that sorafenib plus transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) would confer survival benefits over sorafenib alone for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (aHCC). We investigated this while using the population-based All-Cancer Dataset to assemble a cohort ( = 3674; median age, 60; 83% men) of patients receiving sorafenib for aHCC (Child-Pugh A) with macro-vascular invasion or nodal/distant metastases. The patients were classified into the sorafenib-TACE group ( = 426) or the propensity score-matched sorafenib-alone group ( = 1686).

Performance enhancement of procalcitonin by high-sensitivity C-reactive protein at the optimal cutoff in predicting bacteremia in emergency department adult patients.

Pathogenic bacteremia portends a high mortality risk in adult patients admitted to an Emergency Department (ED). This study aims to investigate the effect of adding high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) to procalcitonin (PCT) and lactate in predicting bacteremia, Gram-negative (GNB) and Gram-positive bacteremia (GPB), using the optimal cutoff derived from the receiver operating characteristics analysis. We evaluated the diagnostic measures, including the positive-test likelihood (LR+), the negative-test likelihood (LR-), and the diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) using a single-center retrospective analysis design.