We followed adolescents and adults living with HIV aged older than 15 years who enrolled in a South African private-sector HIV programme to examine adherence and viral non-suppression (viral load > 400 copies/mL) of participants with (20,743, 38%) and without (33,635, 62%) mental health diagnoses. Mental health diagnoses were associated with unfavourable adherence patterns. The risk of viral non-suppression was higher among patients with organic mental disorders [adjusted risk ratio (aRR) 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To compare cancer treatment and all-cause mortality between HIV-positive and HIV-negative cervical cancer patients in South Africa.
Methods: We assessed cancer treatment and all-cause mortality in HIV-positive and HIV-negative cervical cancer patients who received cancer treatment within 180 days of diagnosis using reimbursement claims data from a private medical insurance scheme in South Africa between 01/2011 and 07/2020. We assessed treatment provision using logistic regression and factors associated with all-cause mortality using Cox regression.
The progression of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), resulting from a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, may be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Several viruses hijack the host genome machinery for their own advantage and survival, and similar phenomena might occur upon SARS-CoV-2 infection. Severe cases of COVID-19 may be driven by metabolic and epigenetic driven mechanisms, including DNA methylation and histone/chromatin alterations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlioblastoma (GB) remains the most fatal brain tumor characterized by a high infiltration rate and treatment resistance. Overexpression and/or mutation of receptor tyrosine kinases is common in GB, which subsequently leads to the activation of many downstream pathways that have a critical impact on tumor progression and therapy resistance. Therefore, receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (RTKIs) have been investigated to improve the dismal prognosis of GB in an effort to evolve into a personalized targeted therapy strategy with a better treatment outcome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmerging research demonstrates that co-inhibitory immune checkpoints (ICs) remain the most promising immunotherapy targets in various malignancies. Nonetheless, ICIs have offered insignificant clinical benefits in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer (PCa) especially when they are used as monotherapies. Current existing PCa treatment initially offers an improved clinical outcome and overall survival (OS), however, after a while the treatment becomes resistant leading to aggressive and uncontrolled disease associated with increased mortality and morbidity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters obtained at initial staging of vulva carcinoma on survival in women with and without HIV infection.
Patients And Methods: 18F-FDG PET/CT images of women with vulva cancer who are planned for definitive therapy were analyzed. SUVmax, SUVmean, MTV, and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) as well as whole-body MTV and whole-body TLG were computed.
Objective: To assess the patterns of recurrence of vulva cancer on F-FDG PET/CT and to compare the F-FDG PET metabolic metrics in patients with and without Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
Methods: Maximum standardized uptake value (SUV), mean standardized uptake value (SUV), metabolic tumour volume (MTV and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) were obtained on Flourine-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (F-FDG PET/CT) images of women referred with suspected or confirmed vulva cancer recurrence. We compared HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected patients regarding pattern disease recurrence, age at diagnosis, and the PET-derived metabolic indices.
Unlabelled: F-FDG and Ga-citrate PET/CT have both been shown to be useful in the management of tuberculosis (TB). We compared the abnormal PET findings of F-FDG- and Ga-citrate-PET/CT in patients with TB.
Methods: Patients with TB on anti-TB therapy were included.