Pre-procedural Preparation and Sedation for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy in Patients with Advanced Liver Disease.

Gastrointestinal endoscopy in patients with advanced liver disease poses various challenges, a major one being procedural sedation and its associated considerations. While sedation during endoscopy can improve patient comfort, decrease anxiety, and facilitate procedural completion, in patients with advanced liver disease, it is also associated with substantial and unique risks due to alterations in drug metabolism and other factors. As such, the choice of sedative agent(s) and related logistics may require careful inter-disciplinary planning and individualized considerations.

Fluorescently labeled therapeutic antibodies for detection of microscopic melanoma.

Objectives/hypothesis: Detection of microscopic disease during surgical resection of melanoma remains a significant challenge. To assess real-time optical imaging for visualization of microscopic cancer, we evaluated three US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.

Study Design: Prospective, basic science.

Use of panitumumab-IRDye800 to image cutaneous head and neck cancer in mice.

Objective: To assess the feasibility of panitumumab in real-time fluorescent imaging and histologic processing of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) in mice.

Design: A near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe (IRDye800CW) was covalently linked to a monoclonal antibody-targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (panitumumab) or nonspecific IgG and injected into mice bearing flank xenografts from a cSCC cell line (SCC-13 or SRB-12; n = 7), human split-thickness skin grafts (STSGs; n = 3), or a human tumor explant (n = 1). The tumor and lymph nodes were imaged and dissected using fluorescence guidance with the SPY imaging system and verified with a charge-coupled NIR system.

Identification of the optimal therapeutic antibody for fluorescent imaging of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

Intraoperative, real-time fluorescence imaging may significantly improve tumor visualization and resection and postoperatively, in pathological assessment. To this end, we sought to determine the optimal FDA approved therapeutic monoclonal antibody for optical imaging of human cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). A near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe (IRDye800) was covalently linked to bevacizumab, panitumumab or tocilizumab and injected systemically into immunodeficient mice bearing either cutaneous tumor cell lines (SCC13) or cutaneous human tumor explants.