The Impact of Non-opioid Analgesic Usage on Total Opioid Load During Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation: A Retrospective Study.

Background Patients staying in acute rehabilitation often use large amounts of opioids during their stay. There are a number of reasons for this increased opioid exposure, including but not limited to daily exercises with physical and occupational therapists, increased demand on a healing body, and use of previously atrophying musculature. Some physiatrists have noticed that patients who concurrently are prescribed medications such as Robaxin seem to require fewer opioids during their stay in acute rehabilitation.

Association Between Height and Clinical Outcome in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients Enrolled Onto a Randomized Phase 3 Clinical Trial: Data From the FIRE-3 Study.

Background: Previous studies have found significant relationships between height and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk. Increased growth has been associated with activated pathways such as insulin-like growth factor 1. This study examined the impact of height on outcomes in metastatic CRC patients enrolled onto the FIRE-3 study, a randomized phase 3 clinical trial.

Outlooks on Epstein-Barr virus associated gastric cancer.

Epstein-Barr virus associated gastric cancer (EBVaGC) comprises approximately 10% of gastric carcinomas. Multiple factors contribute to tumorigenesis, including EBV driven hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes, inflammatory changes in gastric mucosa, host immune evasion by EBV and changes in cell cycle pathways. The unique molecular characteristics of EBVaGC, such as programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) overexpression, highlight the potential for using EBV as a biomarker for response to immunotherapy.

Pharmacogenomics in colorectal cancer: current role in clinical practice and future perspectives.

The treatment scenario of colorectal cancer (CRC) has been evolving in recent years with the introduction of novel targeted agents and new therapeutic strategies for the metastatic disease. An extensive effort has been directed to the identification of predictive biomarkers to aid patients selection and guide therapeutic choices. Pharmacogenomics represents an irreplaceable tool to individualize patients treatment based on germline and tumor acquired somatic genetic variations able to predict drugs response and risk of toxicities.

CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11/CXCR3 axis for immune activation - A target for novel cancer therapy.

Chemokines are proteins which induce chemotaxis, promote differentiation of immune cells, and cause tissue extravasation. Given these properties, their role in anti-tumor immune response in the cancer environment is of great interest. Although immunotherapy has shown clinical benefit for some cancer patients, other patients do not respond.

Colorectal cancer: epigenetic alterations and their clinical implications.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous disease with distinct molecular and clinical features, which reflects the wide range of prognostic outcomes and treatment responses observed among CRC patients worldwide. Our understanding of the CRC epigenome has been largely developed over the last decade and it is now believed that among thousands of epigenetic alterations present in each tumor, a small subgroup of these may be considered as a CRC driver event. DNA methylation profiles have been the most widely studied in CRC, which includes a subset of patients with distinct molecular and clinical features now categorized as CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP).