Effects of FOXM1 inhibition and ionizing radiation on melanoma cells.

Metastatic melanoma can be highly refractory to conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy but combinatorial-targeted therapeutics are showing greater promise on improving treatment efficacy. Previous studies have shown that knockdown of Forkhead box M1 () can sensitize various tumor types to radiation-induced cell death. The effect of combining radiation with a small molecule FOXM1 inhibitor, Siomycin A, on growth, death and migration of a metastatic melanoma cell line (SK-MEL-28) that overexpresses this pleiotropic cell cycle regulator was investigated.

Custom-Made Titanium 3-Dimensional Printed Interbody Cages for Treatment of Osteoporotic Fracture-Related Spinal Deformity.

Background: Advances in minimally invasive interbody fusion have greatly enhanced surgeons' capability to correct adult spinal deformity with reduced morbidity. However, the feasibility of such approaches is limited in patients with previous osteoporotic fractures as the resultant vertebral deformity renders the end plate geometry incongruous with conventional interbody implants. Current 3-dimensional (3D) printing technology offers a novel solution by fabricating custom-made implants tailored to individual anatomy.

A radiographic analysis of cage positioning in lateral transpsoas lumbar interbody fusion.

Direct Lumbar Interbody Fusion (DLIF) and eXtreme Lateral Interbody Fusion (XLIF) are the most common surgical platforms available for performing transpsoas spinal fusion but no study has been carried out to compare them. We evaluated 21 DLIF and 22 XLIF cage positions by measuring the distance between the posterior vertebral border and the centre of the cage normalised to the midsagittal length of the inferior end plate. We found that DLIF cages were significantly more anteriorly located than XLIF (0.

Microscopic tubular discectomy for far lateral lumbar disc herniation.

Microscopic tubular discectomy (MTD) reduces muscle trauma associated with treatment of far lateral lumbar disc herniation (FLDH), but data from randomised controlled studies concerning its efficacy on posterolateral disc herniation, has failed to demonstrate its superiority over standard open techniques. Importantly concerns have been raised that it may be inferior in terms of relief of leg and back pain. Although several FLDH series show that MTD can deliver excellent outcomes, the volume of literature in this field has remained small and evidence based on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) measures, scarce.

Glioblastoma multiforme formation and EMT: role of FoxM1 transcription factor.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most malignant cancers in human brain. The prognosis of GBM is extremely poor because it is resistant to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Improving understanding of the tumor biology brings some new hope to the treatment of GBM.

Current strategies in the surgical management of cerebral metastases: an evidence-based review.

Metastatic tumours are the most common form of cerebral neoplasm, occurring in up to 40% of patients with systemic cancer. Although the presence of metastatic disease portends limited survival, aggressive management of cerebral metastases is vital to preventing death from neurological causes and prolonging functional independence. Due to advancement in neurosurgical techniques and the advent of stereotactic radiosurgery as a non-operative alternative, current decision making for selecting the appropriate local treatment often results in clinical equipoise.

Cerebral metastases from malignant melanoma: current treatment strategies, advances in novel therapeutics and future directions.

Of all primary cancers in humans, melanoma has the highest propensity to metastasize to the brain. The prognosis of patients with this disease is extremely poor. Due to its radioresistance and poor response to existing chemotherapeutic regimes, no treatment options other than surgical extirpation, when feasible, have been shown to be effective.

Suppression of visual cortical evoked responses following deprivation of pattern vision in adult mice.

The effect of visual loss on the adult neocortex can have significant impact on the success of a visual implant. Recent research has shown that the adult neocortex retains substantial plasticity following a disruption to its afferent input. The result of these changes may hamper the development of a visual prosthesis if visual sensation cannot be effectively restored by stimulation of the surviving elements of the visual pathway.

Radical resection of focal brainstem gliomas: is it worth doing?

Objectives: Despite revolutionary technical advancement in neuroimaging and operative neurosurgery, surgical extirpation of focal brainstem glioma (BSG) remains steeped in controversy. In this study, we evaluated our senior author's (CT) surgical experience in radically treating these tumours in children to determine the safety and efficacy of such approach.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-four consecutive patients aged between 3 and 16 years who underwent endoscope-assisted microsurgery for focal BSG with the intent of radial resection from 1999 to 2005 were evaluated.

Toxicology of the retina: advances in understanding the defence mechanisms and pathogenesis of drug- and light-induced retinopathy.

The neurosensory retina is a highly specialized sense organ that is subjected to constant exposure of systemic toxins, oxidative stress and focused light rays. Important advances have been made in recent decades in unravelling a myriad of defence mechanisms against such insults and consequently in improving the understanding of the principles underlying various drug- and light-induced disease processes. To defend against circulating toxins, the retina possesses a specialized blood-retinal barrier (BRB) that tightly regulates the transport of substances across the functional boundaries of the retina at the retinal capillaries and the retinal pigmented epithelium.

In vivo evaluation of an episcleral multielectrode array for stimulation of the retina with reduced retinal ganglion cell mass.

A visual prosthesis is an experimental device designed to activate residual functional neurons in the visual pathway to generate artificial vision for blind patients. Specifically, for photoreceptor disease, a microelectrode array applied to the surface of the sclera could potentially serve to stimulate the remaining interneurons in the retina to produce topographically mapped visual percepts. However, of those neurons spared in the disease process, the retinal ganglion cells (RGC), which represent the final output neurons of the retina, can be markedly reduced in number.

Visual cortical potentials of the mouse evoked by electrical stimulation of the retina.

An electrical evoked potential (EEP) of the visual system is a summed electrical record of the visual cortex in response to electrical stimulation of the retina. It is the primary method in the assessment of a visual prosthesis which targets at restoring vision to individuals with disease of the outer retina. However despite marked enthusiasm in the fabrication of such devices, little is known about the feasibility of such devices with the visually deprived brain.

Influence of callosal transfer on visual cortical evoked response and the implication in the development of a visual prosthesis.

Background: The development of a visual prosthesis has been limited by an incomplete understanding of functional changes of the visual cortex accompanying deafferentation. In particular, the role of the corpus callosum in modulating these changes has not been fully evaluated. Recent experimental evidence suggests that through synaptic modulation, short-term (4-5 days) visual deafferentation can induce plastic changes in the visual cortex, leading to adaptive enhancement of residual visual input.

Spinal cord infarction complicating acute hydrocephalus secondary to a colloid cyst of the third ventricle. Case report.

Occipital lobe infarction secondary to tentorial herniation is a rare but well-recognized complication of posterior cerebral artery interruption during acute hydrocephalus; however, a similar event in which tonsillar herniation leads to symptomatic occlusion of the anterior spinal arteries (ASAs) has not been reported. The authors present the case of a third ventricular colloid cyst in a previously healthy 24-year-old man who presented with symptoms and signs of critically raised intracranial pressure. He subsequently survived the ictus of insults following emergency external cerebrospinal fluid drainage and definitive resection of the colloid cyst, but he sustained occipital lobe and spinal cord infarction despite the absence of systematic hypotension.

Neurolysis for meralgia paresthetica: an operative series of 45 cases.

Background: Failure of symptom relief after neurolysis for meralgia paresthetica (MP) is reported frequently, yet systematic outcome analysis is limited in the modern literature. The present operative series of 45 cases aims to address this issue.

Methods: From 1996 to 2000, all patients who had neurolysis for MP by our senior author were enrolled in the study.

Somatosensory evoked potentials predict neurolysis outcome in meralgia paraesthetica.

Background: The role of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) in predicting the outcome of nerve entrapment syndrome following surgical release has not been fully verified.

Methods: All patients included in our study had preoperative SEP recordings and had undergone neurolysis for treatment of meralgia paraesthetica by our senior author (KNC) between 1996 and 2000. The outcome of surgery was assessed 6 weeks after the procedure; follow up was continued at 3 month intervals if symptoms persisted.