Publications by authors named "R B Pouw"

Article Synopsis
  • Schistosomes are skilled at evading human immunity, particularly the complement system, allowing them to survive in human blood for years; this study explores how they interact with this immune response.
  • The research shows that newly formed schistosomula are initially very vulnerable to complement attack, but they can rapidly boost their survival rate, especially when they recruit complement regulator factor H to avoid destruction.
  • The use of the drug praziquantel increases the susceptibility of schistosomula to complement-mediated killing, suggesting that further investigation into factor H's role could help develop new treatments against schistosomes.
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Background And Aims: Females with Barrett's esophagus (BE) have a lower risk of neoplastic progression than males, but sufficiently powered risk analyses are lacking. This systematic review and meta-analysis of individual patient data (IPD) aimed to provide more robust evidence on neoplastic progression risk in females.

Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search of 3 electronic databases (Medline, Embase, Google Scholar) from inception until August 2023.

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Prior research has shown that patients with early Barrett's neoplasia treated endoscopically report at least the same level of fear for cancer recurrence as patients treated surgically for a more advanced disease stage. The aim of this qualitative study was to gain insight into the reasons why endoscopically treated patients fear or not fear cancer recurrence. Patients treated endoscopically for T1 esophageal adenocarcinoma participated in a semi-structured interview.

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Background:  Piecemeal endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) is an acceptable technique for T1a esophageal adenocarcinoma, but en bloc R0 excision is advocated for T1b disease as it may offer a potential cure and mitigate recurrence. Thus, distinguishing between T1a and T1b disease is imperative under current treatment paradigms. We investigated whether expert Barrett's endoscopists could make this distinction based on optical evaluation.

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