A phase I trial of high dose gefitinib for patients with leptomeningeal metastases from non-small cell lung cancer.

Introduction: There are few effective treatment options for leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This study assessed the feasibility of high-dose gefitinib in patients with LM from NSCLC harboring EGFR mutations or prior systemic response to EGFR-TKI.

Methods: This phase I open-label trial of a novel gefitinib dosing schedule employed a 3+3 design.

Implementation and sustainability of the nursing and midwifery standards for mentoring in the UK.

There is growing emphasis on developing sounder processes for ensuring that nursing and midwifery students are appropriately supported and assessed in practice settings, so that they are fit to practice at the point of registration. To support this, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in 2006, introduced new mandatory standards for practice education (NMC, 2006). The standards outline mentor responsibility for developing and ensuring the practice competence of students and provide a more defined statement regarding accountability for the decisions that lead to entry to the professional register (NMC, 2006, p.

mtDNA point mutations are present at various levels of heteroplasmy in human oocytes.

Little is known about the load of mutations and polymorphisms in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of human oocytes and the possible effect these mutations may have during life. To investigate this, we optimised at the single cell level the recently developed method to screen the entire mtDNA for mainly heteroplasmic mutations by denaturing high performance liquid chromatography analysis. This method is sensitive (approximately 1% heteroplasmy detectable), specific and rapid.