Early-phase clinical trials in the pandemic era: a four-year experience from an academic cancer center.

Early-phase clinical trials are the first step in cancer drug development. However, they are becoming difficult to conduct - increased complexity of treatments, multiple stakeholders, and most importantly, the changes imposed by the COVID19 pandemic. We report our experience during and since the pandemic, focusing on early-phase clinical trials for solid tumors.

Loss of Socs2 improves molecular responses to IFNα in a mouse model of myeloproliferative neoplasms driven by JAK2-V617F.

Therapy with pegylated interferon alpha (pegIFNα) can induce a deep molecular response in a subset of patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). Here we investigated the role of Socs2, a negative regulator of cytokine signaling, in modulating the response to pegIFNα in a JAK2-V617F mouse model of MPN. Deleting Socs2 in JAK2-V617F mice resulted in increased sensitivity to cytokines, without causing significant alterations in the MPN phenotype.

Lung ultrasonography in the management of preterm (≤34 weeks) neonates with respiratory distress syndrome.

Introduction: The diagnosis of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is largely clinical with the support of a chest X-ray. Lung ultrasound (LUS) is emerging as a reliable bedside technique to evaluate RDS.

Aims And Objectives: To determine the LUS for preterm neonates ≤34 weeks of gestation admitted within 12 h of birth with clinical suspicion of RDS and to compare the lung USG score with the chest X-ray score to predict the need for surfactant administration.

Functional outcomes of robot-assisted partial nephrectomy in patients with a solitary kidney.

Objectives: To evaluate the long-term functional outcomes of robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) in patients with and without a solitary kidney.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective review was performed using the prospectively maintained, institutional review board-approved database to identify all consecutive patients who underwent RAPN between 2006 and 2023. A propensity-score-matched analysis was subsequently undertaken to compare patients with and without a solitary kidney.

Comparative efficacy of leading COVID-19 vaccines: A network meta-analysis.

In the fight against the COVID-19 virus, various vaccines using different technologies such as mRNA, viral vectors, protein subunits, and inactivated whole viruses have become primary defence strategies. This study aims to compare their effectiveness in controlling the spread of the pandemic. Using the comprehensive resources from three major databases-PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library-we conducted an extensive literature review up to April 30, 2023.