Publications by authors named "McWilliams R"

Purpose: Report 2-year outcomes from a prospective, multicenter, non-randomized, single-arm study designed to further assess the safety and effectiveness of the Celect and the Günther Tulip Vena Cava Filters.

Materials And Methods: The BLIND study enrolled patients requiring temporary or permanent IVC filter placement for the prevention of pulmonary embolism (PE). The primary effectiveness endpoint was the rate of technical placement success and 12-month freedom from new symptomatic PE while a filter was indwelling.

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Background: Atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (A/B) received FDA approval as the first-line therapy for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in 2020. However, optimal subsequent treatment options are unclear. Here, we describe clinical outcomes of advanced HCC patients following first-line treatment with A/B.

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HO transforms to two forms of superionic (SI) ice at high pressures and temperatures, which contain highly mobile protons within a solid oxygen sublattice. Yet the stability field of both phases remains debated. Here, we present the results of an ultrafast X-ray heating study utilizing MHz pulse trains produced by the European X-ray Free Electron Laser to create high temperature states of HO, which were probed using X-ray diffraction during dynamic cooling.

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Article Synopsis
  • Melanoma is a serious skin cancer that primarily affects older adults, with a median diagnosis age of 66, and while immunotherapy is common, targeted therapies for BRAF or c-KIT mutations are also considered.
  • A study analyzed the effectiveness and side effects of targeted therapies in melanoma patients over 65, revealing an 83% response rate for BRAF/MEK inhibitors and a 55% response for the c-KIT inhibitor imatinib.
  • Although these treatments show promise, 27% of patients experienced severe side effects leading to treatment discontinuation, indicating a need for strategies to manage toxicity in older patients.
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Purpose: Globally, cancer drug expenditure exceeds $185 in US dollars (USD) billion, with the United States contributing $75 (USD) billion. Many cancer drug doses are calculated on the basis of body weight or body surface area, which often results in leftover drug in partially used single-dose vials (SDVs). The cost of wasted drug is a huge financial burden on the US health care system.

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Aberrant activation of GLI transcription factors has been implicated in the pathogenesis of different tumor types including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. However, the mechanistic link with established drivers of this disease remains in part elusive. In this study, using a new genetically engineered mouse model overexpressing constitutively active mouse form of GLI2 and a combination of genome-wide assays, we provide evidence of a novel mechanism underlying the interplay between KRAS, a major driver of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma development, and GLI2 to control oncogenic gene expression.

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Purpose: To investigate the molecular characteristics of and potential for precision medicine in KRAS wildtype pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

Patients And Methods: We investigated 27 patients with PDAC at our institution. Clinical data were obtained via chart review.

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  • A study was done to see if we could use a special system to gather important cancer data easily using a tool called SmartPhrase.
  • Before the new tool was used, only 32% of the necessary data was captured, but after using it for six months, that number jumped to 64% for stage and 81%-82% for other important information.
  • The study found that this new way of gathering data didn't take more time for doctors and even helped them make better decisions for treating patients.
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Arachnoiditis is difficult to treat. Patients are often left frustrated after many failed trials of conservative therapies without symptom resolution. Surgery may provide symptom relief for a short period of time, but their pain often returned.

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Purpose: AB160 is a 160-nm nano-immunoconjugate consisting of nab-paclitaxel (ABX) nanoparticles noncovalently coated with bevacizumab (BEV) for targeted delivery into tissues expressing high levels of VEGF. Preclinical data showed that AB160 resulted in greater tumor targeting and tumor inhibition compared with sequential treatment with ABX then BEV. Given individual drug activity, we investigated the safety and toxicity of AB160 in patients with gynecologic cancers.

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Both targeted therapies and immunotherapies provide benefit in resected Stage III melanoma. We hypothesized that the combination of targeted and immunotherapy given prior to therapeutic lymph node dissection (TLND) would be tolerable and drive robust pathologic responses. In NeoACTIVATE (NCT03554083), a Phase II trial, patients with clinically evident resectable Stage III melanoma received either 12 weeks of neoadjuvant vemurafenib, cobimetinib, and atezolizumab (BRAF-mutated, Cohort A, n = 15), or cobimetinib and atezolizumab (BRAF-wild-type, Cohort B, n = 15) followed by TLND and 24 weeks of adjuvant atezolizumab.

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Background: Self-reported adherence to sling wear is unreliable due to recall bias. We aim to assess the feasibility and accuracy of quantifying sling wear and non-wear utilising slings pre-fitted with a GENEActiv accelerometer that houses triaxial acceleration and temperature sensors.

Methods: Ten participants were asked to wear slings for 480 min (8 h) incorporating 180 min of non-wear time in durations varying from 5-120 min.

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Introduction: Proton craniospinal irradiation (pCSI) is a treatment option for leptomeningeal disease (LMD), which permits whole neuroaxis treatment while minimizing toxicity. Despite this, patients inevitably experience progression. Adding systemic therapy to pCSI may improve outcomes.

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Purpose: Recurrence after curative-intent treatment occurs in 20%-50% of patients with stage II-IV colorectal cancer (CRC), underscoring the need for early detection of minimal residual disease (MRD) using circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). Here, we examined the pattern of use of a tumor-informed ctDNA assay in CRC MRD monitoring in routine clinical practice at Mayo Clinic, Rochester.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of health records of patients with CRC who had at least one tumor-informed ctDNA assay from May 2019 through July 1, 2022.

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Introduction: Metastatic uveal melanoma (MUM) has a poor prognosis and treatment options are limited. These patients do not typically experience durable responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Oncolytic viruses (OV) represent a novel approach to immunotherapy for patients with MUM.

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Purpose: Only one-half of deficient mismatch repair (d-MMR) metastatic colorectal cancers (mCRC) demonstrate durable responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Given preclinical data indicating that liver metastases sequester activated CD8 T cells from systemic circulation, we examined clinical outcome by metastatic site.

Patients And Methods: In a retrospective cohort of patients with d-MMR mCRCs treated at multiple centers in France (n = 66), we sought to validate data from a U.

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Article Synopsis
  • The OPTIMIzE registry study examined the effectiveness of immuno-oncology therapies in advanced melanoma by comparing outcomes of patients treated with anti-PD-1 monotherapy and a combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab.
  • Patients receiving the combination therapy had a non-significantly lower risk of death and a higher disease control rate compared to those on monotherapy but experienced more severe side effects.
  • Overall, the findings suggest that immuno-oncology treatments can be beneficial for patients with advanced melanoma, balancing effectiveness with potential adverse effects.
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The structures, strain fields, and defect distributions in solid materials underlie the mechanical and physical properties across numerous applications. Many modern microstructural microscopy tools characterize crystal grains, domains and defects required to map lattice distortions or deformation, but are limited to studies of the (near) surface. Generally speaking, such tools cannot probe the structural dynamics in a way that is representative of bulk behavior.

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Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) impacts patients in their 60s, but its incidence in younger patients is increasing. We hypothesize that younger patients may have worse oncologic outcomes.

Methods: Patients who underwent curative pancreatic resection for PDAC between January 2011 and December 2021 at a single institution were analyzed.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates pancreatic cancer (PC) with deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) and high microsatellite instability (MSI-H), which show poor outcomes and few treatment options, particularly focusing on responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs).
  • Researchers reviewed records of 32 patients diagnosed with dMMR/MSI-H PC, observing favorable outcomes with ICIs, including a 75% overall response rate in palliative care, compared to only 30% with conventional chemotherapy.
  • The findings suggest that ICIs should be prioritized over cytotoxic chemotherapy for patients with dMMR/MSI-H PC in need of systemic therapy, highlighting discrepancies in testing methods used for MMR and MSI.
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Anorectal melanoma is an aggressive mucosal melanoma subtype with a poor prognosis. Although recent advancements have been seen for cutaneous melanoma, the optimal treatment paradigm for management of anorectal melanoma is evolving. In this review, we highlight differences in the pathogenesis of mucosal versus cutaneous melanoma, new concepts of staging for mucosal melanoma, updates to surgical management of anorectal melanoma, and current data for adjuvant radiation and systemic therapy in this unique patient population.

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Background: We sought to determine the safety and efficacy of trifluridine/tipiracil in combination with irinotecan in a phase II trial setting for refractory, advanced unresectable biliary tract carcinoma (BTC).

Methods: A total of 28 patients (27 were evaluable) with advanced BTCs who progressed on at least one prior systemic therapy were enrolled and were treated with trifluridine/tipiracil 25 mg/m2 (days 1-5 of 14-day cycle) and irinotecan 180 mg/m2 (day 1 of the 14-day cycle). The primary endpoint for the study was 16-week progression-free survival (PFS16) rate.

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