A systematic review of the influence of opioids on advanced cancer patient survival.

Purpose Of Review: Many health professionals still believe that opioids shorten the lifespan of patients. This situation implies that the ethical doctrine of double effect is often invoked to justify their use in extreme circumstances. The objective of this study is to revise the evidence existing in the recently published literature regarding the effect on patient survival of opioid used to control disease symptoms.

Fox Fordyce disease as a secondary effect of laser hair removal.

Fox Fordyce disease (FFD) has been recently described as an adverse effect of laser hair removal. It is an apocrine gland disorder characterized by pruritus and a folliculocentric papular eruption in apocrine sweat gland areas. Different etiologies have been proposed to be the cause of this entity.

An update on the importance of monitoring serum magnesium in advanced disease patients.

Purpose Of Review: Patients with advanced diseases are exposed to many causes of hypomagnesaemia, the most frequent being pharmacological causes through the administration of chemotherapy, antibiotics, proton pump inhibitors, and so on. The objective of this review is to demonstrate the importance of measuring magnesium levels in the blood of these patients.

Recent Findings: In the last decade, studies have been published showing a direct relationship between low levels of magnesium and nonspecific symptoms including pain that is difficult to control.

Identification of fibroblast growth factor 15 as a novel mediator of liver regeneration and its application in the prevention of post-resection liver failure in mice.

Objective: Cholestasis is associated with increased liver injury and morbidity after partial hepatectomy (PH), yet bile acids (BAs) are emerging as important mediators of liver regeneration. Fibroblast growth factor 15 (Fgf15, human FGF19) is a BA-induced ileum-derived enterokine that governs BA metabolism. We evaluated the relevance of Fgf15 in the preservation of BA homeostasis after PH and its potential role in the regenerative process.

Adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern and heart rate in the SUN project.

Background: A higher heart rate has been related to an increase of total and cardiovascular mortality. The aim of this study was to assess the relation between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and heart rate.

Design: The SUN project is an ongoing multipurpose cohort study based on university graduates from Spain.

Association of RRM1 -37A>C polymorphism with clinical outcome in colorectal cancer patients treated with gemcitabine-based chemotherapy.

Background: To investigate whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in gemcitabine (GMB) metabolism genes were associated with clinical outcome in pre-treated metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients.

Patients And Methods: SNPs of hCNT1, hENT1, CDA, dCTD and RRM1 genes were evaluated in 95 mCRC patients and detected using TaqMan genotyping assays. Association of genotypes with overall response rate (ORR), time to progression (TTP) and overall survival (OS) was tested by univariate and multivariate analysis.

Transcriptomic effects of Tet-on and mifepristone-inducible systems in mouse liver.

Control of transgene expression from long-term expression vectors can be achieved with inducible and regulated promoters. The two most commonly used inducible systems employ doxycycline or mifepristone as the drug activating a silent trans-activator, which is expressed from a constitutive promoter. We evaluated the alterations provoked by constitutive expression in the liver of rtTA2(S)-M2 (rtTA2; second-generation reverse tetracycline-controlled trans-activator) and GLp65, which are the trans-activators of the doxycyline- and mifepristone-inducible systems, respectively.

Effects of protein vs. carbohydrate-rich diets on fuel utilisation in obese women during weight loss.

Background: Energy restriction is a common therapeutic approach for weight reduction, but the most effective macronutrient distribution of the hypoenergetic diet as well as the role of the metabolic processes involved require further investigations.

Objective: To study the effect of a high protein (HP) hypoenergetic diet compared with a high carbohydrate (HC) hypoenergetic diet on fuel utilisation changes during the weight loss process in obese women.

Design: Eleven obese (BMI>30) women were randomly assigned to a 10w dietary intervention study comparing HP (30% protein) or HC (55% carbohydrate) energy restricted diets providing 30% energy fat content.

A comparison of Portuguese and American patients with hematological malignancies: a cross-cultural survey of health-related quality of life.

This study investigates health-related quality of life (QoL) differences between 98 Portuguese and 109 US American outpatients with hematological malignancies. These two national groups of patients were characterized in terms of patients' QoL, and socio-demographic and clinical variables. Differences were found for several socio-demographic variables (race, marital and job status, urban residence, diagnosis, age, education, and household size).