Comparison of Acute and Late Toxicities With Daily Versus Every-Other-Day 5-Fraction Partial Breast Radiation Therapy.

Purpose: Partial breast irradiation (PBI) delivered with intensity modulated radiation therapy over 5 fractions every other day represents an attractive, convenient method of delivering adjuvant radiation therapy for well-selected patients without compromising oncologic or toxicity outcomes. Condensing this regimen to a week of treatment through consecutive daily delivery may further increase patient convenience, though a comparison of toxicities between daily and every other day regimens is limited.

Methods And Materials: We retrospectively reviewed 507 patients from an institutional registry undergoing PBI for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) or early-stage breast cancer (T1-2N0/x) from 2015 to 2022.

Clinical features, evaluation, and management of ophthalmic complications of facial paralysis: A review.

The purpose of this review was to study the evaluation, diagnosis, and management of ophthalmic complications associated with facial nerve palsy and to discuss the current and future interventions. The ophthalmic complications of facial paralysis include lagophthalmos, ectropion, exposure keratopathy, ocular synkinesis, and crocodile tears. Evaluation by an ophthalmologist skilled in recognizing and managing complications of facial paralysis shortly after its initial diagnosis can help identify and prevent long-term complications.

A Virtual Curriculum to Increase Exposure to Oncologic Subspecialties for Undergraduate Medical Students.

Medical student exposure to oncology is imperative given the prevalence of cancer, growing need for survivorship care, and ever-evolving therapies. Our institution offers a Cancer Care Elective for undergraduate medical students focused on clinical shadowing, but the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated completely redesigning a virtual alternative. In this study, we utilize a post-elective survey to 1) assess whether the novel virtual elective effectively promoted student learning and 2) identify which components were most impactful.

MYC drives overexpression of telomerase RNA (hTR/TERC) in prostate cancer.

Telomerase consists of at least two essential elements, an RNA component hTR or TERC that contains the template for telomere DNA addition and a catalytic reverse transcriptase (TERT). While expression of TERT has been considered the key rate-limiting component for telomerase activity, increasing evidence suggests an important role for the regulation of TERC in telomere maintenance and perhaps other functions in human cancer. By using three orthogonal methods including RNAseq, RT-qPCR, and an analytically validated chromogenic RNA in situ hybridization assay, we report consistent overexpression of TERC in prostate cancer.