How shall we transfuse Hippolyta?

The US Department of Defense recently made the decision to open direct ground combat roles to women. Blood product transfusion is an essential component of the US Military guidelines for tactical combat casualty care and damage control resuscitation, but blood transfusion carries with it the specific side effect of alloimmunization-a uniquely significant side effect for young women who may desire subsequent pregnancies. Presently to be considered are the changes that may need to be made to blood transfusion in the setting of battlefield medicine to optimally care for combat-injured women, as a majority of the existing data regarding the risks of transfusion in the trauma setting involve predominantly men.

Future directions for the early detection of recurrent breast cancer.

The main goal of follow-up care after breast cancer treatment is the early detection of disease recurrence. In this review, we emphasize the multidisciplinary approach to this continuity of care from surgery, medical oncology, and radiology. Challenges within each setting are briefly addressed as a means of discussion for the future directions of an effective and efficient surveillance plan of post-treatment breast cancer care.

Current approaches and challenges in early detection of breast cancer recurrence.

Early detection of breast cancer recurrence is a key element of follow-up care and surveillance after completion of primary treatment. The goal is to improve survival by detecting and treating recurrent disease while potentially still curable assuming a more effective salvage surgery and treatment. In this review, we present the current guidelines for early detection of recurrent breast cancer in the adjuvant setting.

Future directions for monitoring treatment responses in breast cancer.

In the prior review, we outlined the current standard of care for monitoring treatment responses in breast cancer and discussed the many challenges associated with these strategies. We described the challenges faced in common clinical settings such as the adjuvant setting, neoadjuvant setting, and the metastatic setting. In this review, we will expand upon future directions meant to overcome several of these current challenges.

Current approaches and challenges in monitoring treatment responses in breast cancer.

Monitoring response to treatment is a key element in the management of breast cancer that involves several different viewpoints from surgery, radiology, and medical oncology. In the adjuvant setting, appropriate surgical and pathological evaluation guides adjuvant treatment and follow up care focuses on detecting recurrent disease with the intention of improving long term survival. In the neoadjuvant setting, assessing response to chemotherapy prior to surgery to include evaluation for pathologic response can provide prognostic information to help guide follow up care.

Incidence, predictors, costs, and outcome of renal cell carcinoma after kidney transplantation: USRDS experience.

Introduction: We carried out an analysis of the United States Renal Data System to determine the incidence, risk factors, prognosis, and costs associated with the diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) after kidney transplantation.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort of 40,821 Medicare primary renal transplant recipients transplanted from January 1, 2000, to July 1, 2005, and followed up till December 31, 2005, excluding those with prior RCC or nephrectomy. Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to determine the time of occurrence of RCC, and Cox regression was used to determine factors associated with RCC.