A phase I trial of concurrent sorafenib and stereotactic radiosurgery for patients with brain metastases.

We hypothesized that sorafenib (BAY 43-9006), an oral multi-kinase inhibitor, used in combination with SRS will improve overall intracranial control. This Phase I study assesses the safety, tolerability, and maximal tolerated dose of sorafenib administered with SRS to treat 1-4 brain metastases. This was an open label phase I dose escalation study with an expansion cohort.

The Refusal of Palliative Radiation in Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Its Prognostic Implications.

Context: Patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have limited survival. Population studies have evaluated the impact of radiation refusal in the curative setting; however, no data exist concerning the prognostic impact of radiation refusal in the palliative care setting.

Objectives: To investigate the patterns of radiation refusal in newly diagnosed patients with metastatic NSCLC.

From whole brain to hospice: patterns of care in radiation oncology.

Objectives: The development of brain metastases is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in cancer patients. Limited life expectancy is well established once a patient requires whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT). There is emerging evidence demonstrating the value of involving palliative care services alongside traditional treatments.

Locally advanced head and neck cancer.

Treatment of locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinomas requires a multidisciplinary approach to be able to offer patients definitive therapy while aiming to preserve organ function and minimize acute and long-term toxicities. Advances in surgical techniques will be reviewed for both primary sites and the neck and also in the salvage settings. Recent data on concurrent versus sequential chemoradiotherapy in these patients will be reviewed, with emphasis on identification of appropriate patients for sequential chemoradiotherapy.

A workshop on leadership for MD/PhD students.

Success in academic medicine requires scientific and clinical aptitude and the ability to lead a team effectively. Although combined MD/PhD training programs invest considerably in the former, they often do not provide structured educational opportunities in leadership, especially as applied to investigative medicine. To fill a critical knowledge gap in physician-scientist training, the Vanderbilt Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) developed a biennial two-day workshop in investigative leadership.

A potential route to neuroprostanes and isoprostanes: preparation of the four enantiomerically pure diastereomers of 13-F4t-neuroP.

We report a potential synthetic route to the isoprostanes and the neuroprostanes that could allow ready access to each of the enantiomerically pure diastereomers of the several regioisomers of these important human metabolites. The key transformation in the synthesis is a highly diastereoselective thermal intramolecular ene reaction. A critical observation is that the four enantiomerically pure diastereomers of an intermediate acetylenic ester are easily separated from one another.

Measurement of products of docosahexaenoic acid peroxidation, neuroprostanes, and neurofurans.

Free radicals derived primarily from oxygen have been implicated in the pathophysiology of a wide variety of human diseases. Quantification of products of free radical damage in biological systems is necessary to understand the role of free radicals in disease states. Measures of lipid peroxidation are often used to quantitate oxidative damage though many of these measures have inherent problems with sensitivity and specificity especially when used to quantitate in vivo oxidative injury.

Reaction of aflatoxin B(1) oxidation products with lysine.

Aflatoxin (AF) B(1) exo-8,9-epoxide hydrolysis yields AFB(1) dihydrodiol, which undergoes base-catalyzed rearrangement to, and is in equilibrium with, AFB(1) dialdehyde. We investigated the reaction of AFB(1) dialdehyde with albumin to generate a Lys adduct, previously characterized by others [Sabbioni, G., Skipper, P.