Age distribution of retinoblastoma tumours in familial disease.

Background: 40% of children with retinoblastoma have an RB1 gene mutation identified, known as heritable retinoblastoma. It is important to undertake active surveillance (screening) of relatives of those with identified RB1 gene mutations and ensure ongoing surveillance to monitor for new tumour formation or recurrences. Current guidance is to screen patients up to the age of 7 years old.

Intraocular Surgery for Retinoblastoma: An Evaluation of Current Evidence.

Background: Retinoblastoma (Rb) is the most common intraocular malignancy of childhood. The prognosis in Rb directly relates to the spread of disease beyond the eye, particularly to the central nervous system. Therefore, until the recent past, surgically entering an eye with active or recently active Rb was absolutely contraindicated in most centres around the world due to the risk of iatrogenic extraocular spread.

Impact of the Charlson Comorbidity Index on Delirium Outcomes.

Introduction Delirium is a significant inpatient healthcare challenge and has a greater incidence among older adults with adverse healthcare outcomes. Yet there are limited established models for risk stratification. The objective is to determine the effectiveness of implementing the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) score, which is calculated based on the assigned weight for various disease conditions, and to analyze the healthcare outcomes in older hospitalized adults with delirium.

Olanzapine as Antiemetic Prophylaxis in Moderately Emetogenic Chemotherapy: A Phase 3 Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: The role of olanzapine has not been adequately evaluated in moderately emetogenic chemotherapy (MEC) regimens with or without neurokinin-1 receptor antagonists.

Objective: To evaluate whether addition of olanzapine to an MEC regimen reduces nausea, vomiting, and use of nausea rescue medications among patients with solid malignant tumors.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This multicenter, open-label phase 3 randomized clinical trial included patients aged 18 years or older with solid malignant tumors who were receiving oxaliplatin-, carboplatin-, or irinotecan-based chemotherapy.

Congruency and Emotional Valence Effects on Speech Production in Individuals with Parkinson's Disease.

Individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) exhibit a variety of impairments in nonmotor symptoms including emotional processing and cognitive control that have implications for speech production. The present study sought to investigate whether impairments in cognitive processing in individuals with PD impact emotional sentence production as indicated by changes in speech rate. Thirty-six individuals (20 individuals with PD, 16 healthy controls) completed subtests 8A and 8B of the Florida Emotional Expressive Battery (FEEB) to elicit speech samples in five different emotional tones (happy, sad, angry, fear, and neutral).

Adjuvant Gemcitabine Plus Cisplatin and Chemoradiation in Patients With Gallbladder Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: There is limited evidence with regard to the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy chemoradiotherapy in resected gallbladder cancers (GBCs).

Objective: To establish a baseline survival rate for operated GBCs in patients receiving either gemcitabine plus cisplatin (GC) or capecitabine and capecitabine concurrent with chemoradiation (CCRT).

Design, Setting, And Participants: The GECCOR-GB study was a multicenter, open-label, randomized phase 2 noncomparator "pick the winner" design trial of adjuvant GC and CCRT in patients with resected histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma or adenosquamous carcinoma of the gallbladder, (stage II/III) with no local residual tumor (R0) or microscopic residual tumor (R1).

Screening for hepatitis B in the Bronx West African community with a blood pressure cuff: a cohort study.

Background: Hepatitis B (HBV) and hypertension (HTN) are prevalent in West Africa (WA). Inadequate control is common, and evaluation and management are challenging among immigrants due to unfamiliarity with the United States (US) healthcare system. While HBV is stigmatised, HTN is recognised as an important condition.

American Geriatrics Society response to the World Falls Guidelines.

Falls are a major cause of preventable death, injury, and reduced independence in adults aged 65 years and older. The American Geriatrics Society and British Geriatrics Society (AGS/BGS) published a guideline in 2001, revised in 2011, addressing common risk factors for falls and providing recommendations to reduce fall risk in community-dwelling older adults. In 2022, the World Falls Guidelines (WFG) Task Force created updated, globally oriented fall prevention risk stratification, assessment, management, and interventions for older adults.

Trastuzumab Plus Gemcitabine-Cisplatin for Treatment-Naïve Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2-Positive Biliary Tract Adenocarcinoma: A Multicenter, Open-Label, Phase II Study (TAB).

Purpose: Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) overexpression is seen in 4%-16% of biliary tract cancers (BTCs). We aimed to evaluate the clinical activity of gemcitabine-cisplatin (GC) plus anti-HER2 antibody trastuzumab as initial treatment in HER2-positive BTCs.

Methods: This study was an investigator-initiated, open-label, single-arm, multi-institutional, phase II trial in adult patients with HER2-positive (defined as immunohistochemistry [IHC] 3+ or IHC 2+ and fluorescent in situ hybridization-positive), treatment-naïve BTCs.

Endometriosis Resection Using Nerve Sparing Versus Non-nerve Sparing Surgical Techniques.

Introduction: Endometriosis is the condition in which there are ectopic endometrial tissues outside the uterine cavity. The use of nerve sparing technique has been well established in the field of oncology, leading to better quality of life following radical oncologic procedures without compromising on the long-term survival. The objective of this study is to compare the quality of life in terms of sexual function and urinary function in women undergoing nerve sparing surgeries for endometriosis and those undergoing non-nerve sparing surgeries.

Co-production of online educational resources for adolescent and young adult females with epilepsy.

Objective: To develop online patient education materials about epilepsy for adolescent and young adult females with epilepsy through co-production in partnership with patients, parents or caregivers, and multi-disciplinary healthcare providers who care for this population.

Methods: We recruited participants from Western/Central Pennsylvania, comprised of females with epilepsy ages 18-26 or parents of children with epilepsy ages 12-26. Healthcare providers who participated in the study were recruited nationally from disciplines of pediatric epilepsy, adult epilepsy, women's neurology, and adolescent medicine.

Eliminating hepatitis B vaccination disparities for West African immigrants.

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is endemic in West Africa. There has been a significant increase in the Bronx West African (WA) community. To achieve HBV elimination, vaccination of non-immune individuals is important.

Gemcitabine, Cisplatin, and Nab-Paclitaxel as a First-Line Therapy for Advanced Biliary Tract Cancers.

Introduction: Locally advanced, inoperable, or metastatic gallbladder cancers (GBC) are treated with either gemcitabine-platinum combinations or gemcitabine alone based on physician discretion. However, the combination of gemcitabine, cisplatin, and nab-paclitaxel (GCNP) has shown increased response rates and prolonged survival in a phase II trial of biliary tract patients.

Materials And Methods: Consecutive series of patients diagnosed with locally advanced (liver infiltration > 5 cm, large nodes at porta, abutting duodenum), inoperable, and metastatic biliary tract patients between January 2018 and August 2022 were evaluated for first-line chemotherapy GCNP, in the multidisciplinary joint clinic (MDJC).

Retinal pigment epithelium exhibits gene expression and phagocytic activity alterations when exposed to retinoblastoma chemotherapeutics.

Retinoblastoma (Rb) is a rare malignant disorder affecting the developing retina of children under the age of five. Chemotherapeutic agents used for treating Rb have been associated with defects of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), such as hyperplasia, gliosis, and mottling. Herein, we have developed two pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-RPE models to assess the cytotoxicity of known Rb chemotherapeutics such as Melphalan, Topotecan and TW-37.

Emerging New Therapeutics for Retinoblastoma.

Over the last few decades, chemotherapy has become the main treatment of retinoblastoma, delivered through various routes: intravenous, intra-arterial, and intravitreal. Despite its efficacy, chemotherapy-related toxicity (ocular and systemic) and recurrences due to resistant tumor clones are common, highlighting the need for novel therapeutic agents. Recent advances in our understanding of the molecular drivers of Rb1 tumorigenesis and mechanisms of tumor resistance have afforded opportunities to explore novel targets such as the MDMX-p53 pathway (nutlin-3), histone deacetylase inhibitors, spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and genetic and immune modulatory drugs.

Analysis of Maternal Factors Impacting Neonatal Near Miss (NNM) Events: A Tertiary Centre Experience.

Objective: To find out the incidence of neonatal near miss (NNM) cases in comparison with the neonatal deaths and to study the different antenatal and intrapartum maternal variables and system-related delays influencing these events.

Methodology: This is a descriptive retrospective study conducted over a year (2018-2019) at a tertiary referral hospital in India, where NNM cases were selected as per 'pragmatic criteria', and detailed maternal and neonatal biological variables and near miss indicators were procured from the medical record books and analysed.

Results: Out of 6383 live births and 231 neonatal deaths in the hospital during the study period, 810 NNM cases were identified born to 710 mothers, i.

A Local Perspective into Electronic Health Record Design, Integration, and Implementation of Screening and Referral for Social Determinants of Health.

The use of the electronic health record (EHR) system to identify and address social determinants of health (SDOH) in vulnerable patients is still lacking, and examples for customizing the EHR to meet the workflows of clinical and administrative professionals are missing. We custom designed and built into the Epic EHR a SDOH screening tool integrated with a community resource network management (CRNM) software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to systematically identify and address SDOH in Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries across multiple clinical care settings. We further describe our workflow redesign and EHR implementation process to maximize SDOH screening and referral efficiency.

pRB-Depleted Pluripotent Stem Cell Retinal Organoids Recapitulate Cell State Transitions of Retinoblastoma Development and Suggest an Important Role for pRB in Retinal Cell Differentiation.

Retinoblastoma (Rb) is a childhood cancer of the developing retina, accounting for up to 17% of all tumors in infancy. To gain insights into the transcriptional events of cell state transitions during Rb development, we established 2 disease models via retinal organoid differentiation of a pRB (retinoblastoma protein)-depleted human embryonic stem cell line (RB1-null hESCs) and a pRB patient-specific induced pluripotent (iPSC) line harboring a RB1 biallelic mutation (c.2082delC).

Multiple sgRNAs for one-step inactivation of the duplicated acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase 2 (ACC2) genes in Brassica napus.

Efficient plastid transformation in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) requires genetic lines that are hypersensitive to spectinomycin due to the absence of a chloroplast acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase (ACCase) encoded in the acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase 2 (ACC2) nuclear gene. To obtain plastid transformation-competent oilseed rape (Brassica napus), we inactivated all nuclear encoded, chloroplast targeted ACCase copies using CRISPR-Cas9. Brassica napus (2n = 38, AACC) is a recent interspecific hybrid of Brassica rapa (2n = 20, AA) and B.