A novel multimarker assay for the phenotypic profiling of circulating tumor cells in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Current clinicopathologic staging systems and serum biomarkers poorly discriminate tumor biology in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), with high recurrence rates following curative-intent surgical resection and liver transplantation (LT). Identification of accurate biomarkers for improved prognostication and treatment selection is a critical unmet need. We sought to develop a novel "liquid-biopsy" assay capable of detecting HCC circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and characterizing phenotypic subpopulations with prognostic significance.

Lung fluke (Paragonimus africanus) infects Nigerian red-capped mangabeys and causes respiratory disease.

Eggs of the lung fluke genus Paragonimus were detected in red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus) in Nigeria. We assess the role of these primates as potential sylvatic hosts and the clinical effects of the parasite on monkeys. DNA sequenced from eggs in feces were 100% identical in the ITS2 region to Paragonimus africanus sequences from humans in Cameroon.

Perspectives on health care delivery systems for American Indian families.

The national effort to improve services to children with special health care needs presents unique challenges for the delivery of services to American Indian families. This study took place in New Mexico. American Indian families whose children have special needs and health care providers were interviewed.

Narcissism and adaptation to indignity.

Having initially briefly reviewed and then compared and contrasted the contributions of Kernberg and Kohut to the theory and treatment of narcissistic problems, the attempt was then made to evaluate critically their merits and possible short-comings. It was felt that in pushing back the frontiers of pathology to earlier and earlier developmental phases there has been an associated tendency to postulate "essentially preverbal unconscious communication' between therapist and patient where empathy tends to minimize or replace free association and other secondary process communication as the analytic therapeutic tool. The view was put forward that both Kernberg and Kohut emphasized the countertransference dangers involved in treating patients with narcissistic problems at the expense of recognizing the communicative, adaptive aspects of the feelings evoked and provoked by such patients.