External validation of a lung cancer-based prediction model for two-year mortality in esophageal cancer patient cohorts.

Purpose/objective: Chemo-radiotherapy can improve the oncological outcome of esophageal cancer (EC) patients, but may cause long term radiation-induced toxicity, including an increased risk of non-cancer related death. For lung cancer patients, a model to predict 2-year total mortality using mean heart dose (MHD) and gross tumor volume (GTV) has previously been developed and validated. This project aimed to externally validate this model in EC patients.

Treatment decision-making during outpatient clinic visit of patients with esophagogastric cancer. The perspectives of clinicians and patients, a mixed method, multiple case study.

Background: The probability of undergoing treatment with curative intent according to the hospital of diagnosis varies for esophagogastric cancer in the Netherlands. Little is known about the factors contributing to this variation. This study aimed to improve the understanding of the differences between the multidisciplinary team meeting treatment proposal and the treatment that was actually carried out and to qualitatively investigate the differences in treatment decision-making after the multidisciplinary team meeting treatment proposal between hospitals.

Response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and survival in molecular subtypes of resectable gastric cancer: a post hoc analysis of the D1/D2 and CRITICS trials.

Background: Epstein-Barr virus positivity (EBV+) and microsatellite instability (MSI-high) are positive prognostic factors for survival in resectable gastric cancer (GC). However, benefit of perioperative treatment in patients with MSI-high tumors remains topic of discussion. Here, we present the clinicopathological outcomes of patients with EBV+, MSI-high, and EBV-/MSS GCs who received either surgery only or perioperative treatment.

Effects of an Integrated Palliative Care Pathway: More Proactive GPs, Well Timed, and Less Acute Care: A Clustered, Partially Controlled Before-After Study.

Objectives: This study presents the design of an integrated, proactive palliative care pathway covering the full care cycle and evaluates its effects using 3 types of outcomes: (1) physician-reported outcomes, (2) outcomes reported by family, and (3) (utilization of) health care outcomes.

Design: A clustered, partially controlled before-after study with a multidisciplinary integrated palliative care pathway as its main intervention.

Setting And Participants: after assessment in hospital departments of oncology, and geriatrics, and in 13 primary care facilities, terminally ill patients were proactively included into the pathway.

A remarkable response to pazopanib, despite recurrent liver toxicity, in a patient with a high grade endometrial stromal sarcoma, a case report.

Background: Pazopanib is an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor registered for metastatic renal cell carcinoma and soft tissue sarcoma. Liver toxicity is a common side effect for this class of agents. The current opinion is that in case of severe liver toxicity pazopanib should be interrupted and restarted at a lower dose after returning to Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) grade 1.

Study protocol on the role of intestinal microbiota in colorectal cancer treatment: a pathway to personalized medicine 2.0.

Purpose: Investigate in patients with metastatic and/or irresectable colorectal cancer treated with systemic treatment with capecitabine or TAS-102 whether: 1. Intestinal microbiota composition can act as a predictor for response. 2.

A phase 1 'window-of-opportunity' trial testing evofosfamide (TH-302), a tumour-selective hypoxia-activated cytotoxic prodrug, with preoperative chemoradiotherapy in oesophageal adenocarcinoma patients.

Background: Neo-adjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery is the standard treatment with curative intent for oesophageal cancer patients, with 5-year overall survival rates up to 50 %. However, patients' quality of life is severely compromised by oesophagectomy, and eventually many patients die due to metastatic disease. Most solid tumours, including oesophageal cancer, contain hypoxic regions that are more resistant to chemoradiotherapy.

Prognostic parameters for response to enzalutamide after docetaxel and abiraterone treatment in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer patients; a possible time relation.

Background: Abiraterone Acetate (AA) and Enzalutamide (Enz) are effective hormonal treatments in mCRPC patients. Retrospective studies suggested clinical cross-resistance between Enz and AA. However, 12.

Locally advanced rectal cancer: is diffusion weighted MRI helpful for the identification of complete responders (ypT0N0) after neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy?

Objectives: To determine retrospectively the additional value of DWI-MRI toT2-MRI for predicting complete response (ypT0N0 = CR) after chemoradiation-therapy (CRT) in locally advanced rectal cancer.

Methods: Seventy locally advanced rectal cancer patients underwent CRT followed by restaging MRI and resection. Two readers with different experience levels independently scored T2 images for CR and, in a second reading, combined T2 and DWI.

Comparison of media for enumeration of Clostridium perfringens from foods.

Many media have been developed to enumerate Clostridium perfringens from foods. In this study, six media [iron sulfite (IS) agar, tryptose sulfite cycloserine (TSC) agar, Shahidi Ferguson perfringens (SFP) agar, sulfite cycloserine azide (SCA), differential clostridial agar (DCA), and oleandomycin polymyxin sulfadiazine perfringens (OPSP) agar] were compared in a prestudy, of which four (IS, TSC, SCA, and DCA) were selected for an international collaborative trial. Recovery of 15 pure strains was tested in the prestudy and recovery of one strain from foodstuffs was tested in the collaborative trial.

[A gastric signet ring cell carcinoma as the first expression of a breast carcinoma].

A 73-year-old woman presented with dull pain in the epigastric region, a rapid feeling of fullness upon eating and a weight loss of 10 kg in 6 months. Further examination showed linitis plastica due to a signet ring cell carcinoma in the stomach, multiple bone metastases, and an occult, small breast tumour. Immunohistochemical comparison of the tumours strongly suggested that all cases involved a metastasised breast carcinoma.

Relationship between insulin resistance and partially oxidized LDL particles in healthy, nondiabetic volunteers.

This study was performed in 36 healthy volunteers to define the relationship between plasma concentrations of partially oxidized low density lipoprotein (poxLDL), plasma glucose and insulin responses to oral glucose, and steady-state plasma glucose (SSPG) concentrations after a 180-minute infusion of somatostatin, insulin, and glucose. The concentration of poxLDL was estimated by determining the amount of conjugated dienes formed during in vitro LDL oxidation in the presence or absence of alanine. Under these conditions, the greater the in vitro antioxidant effect of alanine, the lower the amount of poxLDL that was present in plasma.

Plasma leptin concentrations do not appear to decrease insulin-mediated glucose disposal or glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in women with normal glucose tolerance.

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that plasma leptin concentrations contributed to the pathophysiology of NIDDM by decreasing both insulin-mediated glucose disposal and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. The study was performed in 60 women with normal oral glucose tolerance. Differences in insulin-mediated glucose disposal were determined by comparing the steady-state plasma glucose (SSPG) concentrations attained at the end of a 180-min constant infusion of somatostatin, glucose, and insulin, while comparisons of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion were based on the incremental increase in insulin concentration 30 min after an oral glucose challenge (deltaIns) as compared with the fasting value.