Clinical characteristics and management of iron overload in 631 patients with chronic transfusion dependency: results from a multicentre, observational study.

Background: Long-term red blood cell transfusion therapy results in iron overload. Consensus documents have been developed for several transfusion-dependent groups of patients to provide clinicians with guidance on the monitoring and treatment of this transfusion complication. The objective of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics and current standard of care for patients with transfusion dependency in Spain.

Yondelis® (ET-743, Trabectedin) sensitizes cancer cell lines to CD95-mediated cell death: new molecular insight into the mechanism of action.

Trabectedin, a naturally occurring substance isolated from the Caribbean marine invertebrate Ecteinascidia turbinata, is the active compound of the antitumor drug Yondelis®. The mechanism of action of Trabectedin has been attributed to interactions with the minor groove of the DNA double helix, thereby affecting transcription of different genes involved in DNA repair and thus facilitating lethal DNA strand breaks. Nevertheless, the existence of other clinically important molecular mechanisms has not yet been fully explored.