Publications by authors named "W N Burns"

Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on pancreatic acinar cell carcinoma (pACC), a rare type of pancreatic cancer, highlighting its clinical characteristics, genetic mutations, and patient survival outcomes.
  • A total of 61 patients who underwent surgery between 1999 and 2022 were analyzed, showing a median overall survival of 73 months and a recurrence-free survival of 22 months; those with oligometastatic disease had even better outcomes.
  • Significant genetic findings included mutations in core genes related to DNA repair pathways in 26% of patients, indicating potential avenues for targeted treatment.
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Purpose: Dynamics of carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) often inform treatment decisions during and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAT) of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, considerable dispute persists regarding the clinical relevance of specific CA19-9 thresholds and dynamics. Therefore, we aimed to define optimal thresholds for CA19-9 values and create a biochemically driven composite score to predict survival in CA19-9-producing patients with PDAC after NAT.

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Introduction: Emergency providers risk encountering firearms in the emergency department, but a minority report familiarity with handling firearms. It may be unsafe if unfamiliar, untrained providers attempt to remove a firearm from the clinical care space. This study assessed the efficacy of an educational intervention training resident physicians in this task.

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Article Synopsis
  • Improved surgical techniques and therapy have enabled more patients with oligometastatic colorectal cancer to qualify for surgery, but many still experience recurrence, which varies by site and outcome.
  • A study of 195 patients who had liver metastasis resection revealed that the one-year recurrence-free survival was 46%, while overall survival rates were high at 95% for the same period; several prognostic factors for worse outcomes were identified.
  • The findings highlight the need for further research to pinpoint patients at increased risk of recurrence, potentially guiding additional preventive treatment strategies.
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The dual tumor-suppressive and -promoting functions of TGF-β signaling has made its targeting challenging. We examined the effects of TGF-β depletion by AVID200/BMS-986416 (TGF-β-TRAP), a TGF-β ligand trap, on the tumor microenvironment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) murine models with different organ-specific metastasis. Our study demonstrated that TGF-β-TRAP potentiates the efficacy of anti-programmed cell death 1 (anti-PD-1) in a PDAC orthotopic murine model with liver metastasis tropism, significantly reducing liver metastases.

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