Publications by authors named "L O'Driscoll"

Article Synopsis
  • Epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC) is a significant health threat for women, being the most deadly gynecological cancer primarily due to late diagnoses and high recurrence rates.
  • Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are a rare type of cancer cell that spread into the bloodstream and may serve as useful biomarkers for monitoring EOC, as they can be obtained through minimally invasive liquid biopsies.
  • Despite their potential, the unique characteristics of EOC complicate the detection and analysis of CTCs, posing challenges for their use in clinical settings.
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Background: HER2-targeted therapies have revolutionised the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer. However, de novo resistance or the emergence of acquired resistance is a persistent clinical problem. Here we report that neratinib, an irreversible pan-HER inhibitor, in combination with the multi-kinase inhibitor dasatinib, currently used to treat certain leukemias, has strong anti-proliferative effects against models of HER2-positive breast cancer that are innately resistant to trastuzumab or have acquired resistance to neratinib.

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Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have potential as diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers in solid tumors. Despite Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of CTC devices in various cancers, the rarity and heterogeneity of CTCs in lung cancer make them technically challenging to isolate and analyze, hindering their clinical integration. Establishing a consensus through comparative analysis of different CTC systems is warranted.

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Background: Regional anaesthesia techniques, including the erector spinae fascial plane (ESP) block, reduce postoperative pain after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). Fascial plane blocks rely on spread of local anaesthetic between muscle layers, and thus, intermittent boluses might increase their clinical effectiveness. We tested the hypothesis that postoperative ESP analgesia with a programmed intermittent bolus (PIB) regimen is better than a continuous infusion (CI) regimen in terms of quality of recovery after VATS.

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