White Depressed Areas and Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes: The Cancer Cure That Lies Within?

This brief overview is inspired by seminal contributions by the late Dr. Martin C. Mihm, Jr.

Exploring the role of Epstein-Barr virus infection on the clinical features and survival in locally advanced cervical cancer: a retrospective cohort study.

Introduction: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection has been linked to cervical cancer (CC), but few have described the clinical and outcome features of patients with CC and EBV infection.

Methods: We conducted a single-center matched cohort study on 94 patients with CC. Real-time Polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect (Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen 1) and (Latent membrane protein 1).

Montreal cognitive assessment as a cognitive outcome measure in progressive supranuclear palsy.

Background: The Montreal Cognitive assessment (MoCA) is a well-validated global cognitive screening instrument. Its validity in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) has not been assessed.

Objectives: To evaluate the MoCA as an outcome measure in PSP clinical trials.

Financial challenges of being on long-term, high-cost medications.

The isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) inhibitor, vorasidenib, may offer a promising new treatment option for patients with IDH-mutant gliomas. However, the indefinite nature of this targeted therapy raises significant financial concerns. High costs of targeted cancer therapies, often exceeding $150 000 annually, contribute to financial toxicity, characterized by medical debt, income loss, and psychological stress, and place stress on health systems.

Coffee drinking timing and mortality in US adults.

Background And Aims: To identify the patterns of coffee drinking timing in the US population and evaluate their associations with all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

Methods: This study included 40 725 adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2018 who had complete information on dietary data and 1463 adults from the Women's and Men's Lifestyle Validation Study who had complete data on 7-day dietary record. Clustering analysis was used to identify patterns of coffee drinking timing.

Evaluating the readability of FDA-approved JAK inhibitor medication guides in dermatology.

Prior studies have highlighted significant challenges in the readability of patient educational materials in dermatology, which may represent a barrier to optimal treatment outcomes. As newer Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKi) gain FDA approval and are integrated into treatment regimens, it is crucial for patients to understand their usage, risks, and benefits. We evaluated the readability of FDA-approved JAKi medication guides to see if lessons from prior readability studies have been incorporated into these newer materials.

Heterogeneity in American and European Peripheral Artery Disease Guidelines on Non-statin Lipid-Lowering Therapy and Rivaroxaban.

No abstract for this Commentary/Viewpoint. Glad to add if the Editorial Office sees necessary.

Survival benefit associated with liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma based on tumor burden scores at listing.

Introduction: Liver transplantation (LT) provides significant survival benefits to patients with unresectable HCC. In the United States, organ allocation policies for HCCs within the United Network for Organ Sharing criteria do not prioritize patients based on their differences in oncological characteristics. This study assessed whether transplant-associated survival benefits (TASBs) vary among patients with different tumor burden scores (TBS) measured at the time of listing.

Establishing Convergent Validity of the Face-Q Aesthetics Module Scales.

Background: FACE-Q Aesthetics scales assess patient-important outcomes following both surgical/nonsurgical facial cosmetic interventions. Convergent validity is the degree to which the scores of one measurement relate to another measuring a similar construct.

Objectives: This study aims to establish the convergent validity of 11 FACE-Q Aesthetics appearance scales using the MERZ Aesthetics scales.

Sugar-sweetened or artificially sweetened beverage consumption, physical activity and risk of type 2 diabetes in US adults.

Aims/hypothesis: A positive association between sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and diabetes risk has been shown, with inconsistent evidence between artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) and diabetes. Moreover, it is uncertain if physical activity can mitigate the negative effects of these beverages on diabetes development. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the independent and joint associations between SSB or ASB consumption and physical activity on the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Identifying and treating metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease among at-risk Veterans.

Objectives: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), an increasing public health concern, remains challenging to diagnose and risk-stratify. We assessed the 1) prevalence of MASLD risk factors among Veterans in Veterans Health Administration (VA) care, 2) factors associated with MASLD diagnosis; and 3) associations between MASLD diagnosis and receipt of care.

Methods: Veterans with MASLD risk factors, including obesity, pre-diabetes, diabetes, or dyslipidemia, were identified using International Classification of Diseases-10 codes and followed in 2019-2022.

Preoperative Multivariable Model for Risk Stratification of Hypoxemia During One-Lung Ventilation.

Background: Hypoxemia occurs with relative frequency during one-lung ventilation (OLV) despite advances in airway management. Lung perfusion scans are thought to be one of the most accurate methods to predict hypoxemia during OLV, but their complexity and costs are well-known limitations. There is a lack of preoperative stratification models to estimate the risk of intraoperative hypoxemia among patients undergoing thoracic surgery.

Obesity is Independently Associated with Increased Risk of Fecal Incontinence and Altered Rectal Sensitivity.

Background: Hindgut symptoms are poorly understood complications of obesity. The impact of obesity on fecal incontinence (FI) and anorectal physiology remains unclear, with inconsistent results in prior studies. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between obesity and FI, and the physiological changes in anorectal function.

Engaging dystonia networks with subthalamic stimulation.

Deep brain stimulation is an efficacious treatment for dystonia. While the internal pallidum serves as the primary target, recently, stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) has been investigated. However, optimal targeting within this structure and its surroundings have not been studied in depth.

Individualized temporal patterns drive human sleep spindle timing.

Sleep spindles are cortical electrical oscillations considered critical for memory consolidation and sleep stability. The timing and pattern of sleep spindles are likely to be important in driving synaptic plasticity during sleep as well as preventing disruption of sleep by sensory and internal stimuli. However, the relative importance of factors such as sleep depth, cortical up/down-state, and temporal clustering in governing sleep spindle dynamics remains poorly understood.

Side- and Disease-Dependent Changes in Human Aortic Valve Cell Population and Transcriptomic Heterogeneity Determined by Single-Cell RNA Sequencing.

Background: Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is a highly prevalent disease, especially in the elderly population, but there are no effective drug therapies other than aortic valve repair or replacement. CAVD develops preferentially on the fibrosa side, while the ventricularis side remains relatively spared through unknown mechanisms. We hypothesized that the fibrosa is prone to the disease due to side-dependent differences in transcriptomic patterns and cell phenotypes.

Preeclampsia and eclampsia: Enhanced detection and treatment for morbidity reduction.

Preeclampsia is a life-threatening complication that develops in 2-8% of pregnancies. It is characterized by elevated blood pressure after 20 weeks of gestation and may progress to multiorgan dysfunction, leading to severe maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. The only definitive treatment is delivery, and efforts are focused on early risk prediction, surveillance, and severity mitigation.

High prevalence of reverse transcriptase inhibitors associated resistance mutations among people living with HIV on dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy in Francistown, Botswana.

Objectives: We assessed HIV-1 drug resistance profiles among people living with HIV (PLWH) with detectable viral load (VL) and on dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Botswana.

Methods: The study utilised available 100 residual HIV-1 VL samples from unique PLWH in Francistown who had viraemia at-least 6 months after initiating ART in Botswana's national ART program from November 2023 to January 2024. Viraemia was categorized as low-level viraemia (LLV) (VL: 200-999 copies/mL) or virologic failure (VF) (VL ≥1000 copies/mL).

Same-Slide Spatial Multi-Omics Integration Reveals Tumor Virus-Linked Spatial Reorganization of the Tumor Microenvironment.

The advent of spatial transcriptomics and spatial proteomics have enabled profound insights into tissue organization to provide systems-level understanding of diseases. Both technologies currently remain largely independent, and emerging same slide spatial multi-omics approaches are generally limited in plex, spatial resolution, and analytical approaches. We introduce IN-situ DEtailed Phenotyping To High-resolution transcriptomics (IN-DEPTH), a streamlined and resource-effective approach compatible with various spatial platforms.

The multi-scale complexity of human genetic variation beyond continental groups.

Traditional clustering and visualization approaches in human genetics often operate under frameworks that assume inherent, discrete groupings. These methods can inadvertently simplify multifaceted relationships, functioning to entrench the idea of typological groups. We introduce a network-based pipeline and visualization tool grounded in relational thinking, which constructs networks from a variety of genetic similarity metrics.

Tacrolimus to belatacept conversion in proteinuric kidney transplant recipients.

Background: Proteinuria is associated with worse allograft outcomes in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) and treatment strategies are limited. We examined the outcomes of calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) to belatacept conversion in proteinuric KTRs.

Methods: In a pilot phase II single-arm multicenter prospective trial, we recruited adult KTRs >6 months post-kidney transplantation with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥30 ml/min/1.