Prevalence of active cytomegalovirus infection at diagnosis of ovarian cancer and during chemotherapy and subsequent changes in cognitive functioning.

Purpose: One of the most frequently reported effects of cancer and its treatments is cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI). Viral infections may affect inflammation and immune function and therefore may influence patient symptoms, including CRCI. The goal of this study was to describe the prevalence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections at diagnosis, during, and after chemotherapy in individuals with ovarian cancer and explore CMV infection at diagnosis with cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) following chemotherapy.

Cytomegalovirus and systemic inflammation at time of surgery is associated with worse outcomes in serous ovarian cancer.

Objectives: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common infection that establishes latency in healthy people. CMV has been associated with alterations of the immune compartment leading to improved responses, while inflammation has been shown to adversely impact outcomes. We investigated whether CMV serostatus predicts outcomes in ovarian cancer in the presence or absence of inflammation.

Dilution of Molecular-Pathologic Gene Signatures by Medically Associated Factors Might Prevent Prediction of Resection Status After Debulking Surgery in Patients With Advanced Ovarian Cancer.

Purpose: Predicting surgical outcome could improve individualizing treatment strategies for patients with advanced ovarian cancer. It has been suggested earlier that gene expression signatures (GES) might harbor the potential to predict surgical outcome.

Experimental Design: Data derived from high-grade serous tumor tissue of FIGO stage IIIC/IV patients of AGO-OVAR11 trial were used to generate a transcriptome profiling.

Cytokine-induced memory-like natural killer cells have enhanced function, proliferation, and in vivo expansion against ovarian cancer cells.

Objective: Natural killer (NK) cells are lymphocytes well suited for adoptive immunotherapy. Attempts with adoptive NK cell immunotherapy against ovarian cancer have proven unsuccessful, with the main limitations including failure to expand and diminished effector function. We investigated if incubation of NK cells with interleukin (IL)-12, IL-15, and IL-18 for 16h could produce cytokine-induced memory-like (CIML) NK cells capable of enhanced function against ovarian cancer.

Appropriate Use of Prophylactic Antibiotic Agents in Gynecologic Surgeries at a Midwestern Teaching Hospital.

Background: The purpose of this study was to establish compliance with guidelines published by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) regarding prophylactic antibiotic use in gynecologic surgery at our institution, and define areas of improvement to promote antibiotic stewardship.

Patients And Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study at a single, large tertiary care and teaching hospital in Kansas. Patients who underwent inpatient or outpatient gynecologic surgery during 2013 were included.

Molecular characterization of endometrial cancer and therapeutic implications.

Purpose Of Review: This article reviews the emerging comprehensive genomic classification of endometrial carcinoma and discusses the therapeutic implications of these subgroups.

Recent Findings: Comprehensive, multiplatform evaluation of endometrial cancers by the Cancer Genome Atlas stratified the molecular aberrations into four distinct subtypes: POLE mutations, microsatellite instability, copy-number low/microsatellite stable, and copy-number high/'serous-like.' POLE-mutant tumors have a favorable prognosis and may often be overtreated.

Histone variant HTZ1 shows extensive epistasis with, but does not increase robustness to, new mutations.

Biological systems produce phenotypes that appear to be robust to perturbation by mutations and environmental variation. Prior studies identified genes that, when impaired, reveal previously cryptic genetic variation. This result is typically interpreted as evidence that the disrupted gene normally increases robustness to mutations, as such robustness would allow cryptic variants to accumulate.

The female-specific doublesex isoform regulates pleiotropic transcription factors to pattern genital development in Drosophila.

Regulatory networks driving morphogenesis of animal genitalia must integrate sexual identity and positional information. Although the genetic hierarchy that controls somatic sexual identity in the fly Drosophila melanogaster is well understood, there are very few cases in which the mechanism by which it controls tissue-specific gene activity is known. In flies, the sex-determination hierarchy terminates in the doublesex (dsx) gene, which produces sex-specific transcription factors via alternative splicing of its transcripts.