Trends in the 15D health-related quality of life over the first year following diagnosis of head and neck cancer.

Management of head and neck cancer influences both physical and mental wellbeing. Measuring the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is important, as various treatment modalities are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. In this prospective cohort study, we tested the feasibility of the generic 15D HRQoL instrument in 214 head and neck cancer patients managed with surgery, definitive (chemo)radiotherapy, or with combined modality treatment.

Proteomics Reveals a Role for Attachment in Monocyte Differentiation into Efficient Proinflammatory Macrophages.

Monocytes are blood-borne cells of the innate immune system. They can be differentiated and activated into proinflammatory macrophages that might be employed in tumor immune therapy. Monocyte exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a standard method to induce a proinflammatory macrophage state, with the resultant population comprising both adherent and nonadherent cells.

Incidence of gastric cancer among patients with gastric precancerous lesions: observational cohort study in a low risk Western population.

Objective: To accurately measure the incidence of gastric cancer among patients with gastric precancerous lesions, and to quantify the excess incidence in comparison with people with normal mucosa on endoscopy and a general population.

Design: Population based cohort study.

Setting: Population of Sweden using data from its national disease registers.

Phosphorylation of serine 523 on 5-lipoxygenase in human B lymphocytes.

The key enzyme in leukotriene (LT) biosynthesis is 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO), which is expressed in myeloid cells and in B lymphocytes. There are three phosphorylation sites on 5-LO (Ser271, Ser523 and Ser663). Protein kinase A (PKA) phosphorylates 5-LO on Ser523.

Towards host-directed therapies for tuberculosis.

The treatment of tuberculosis is based on combinations of drugs that directly target Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A new global initiative is now focusing on a complementary approach of developing adjunct host-directed therapies.

Guidelines for the Management of Extremely Premature Deliveries: A Systematic Review.

Background And Objectives: Available data on survival rates and outcomes of extremely low gestational age (GA) infants (22-25 weeks' gestation) display wide variation by country. Whether similar variation is found in statements by national professional bodies is unknown. The objectives were to perform a systematic review of management from scientific and professional organizations for delivery room care of extremely low GA infants.

Interactions between amino acid-defined major histocompatibility complex class II variants and smoking in seropositive rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To define the interaction between cigarette smoking and HLA polymorphisms in seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA), in the context of a recently identified amino acid-based HLA model for RA susceptibility.

Methods: We imputed Immunochip data on HLA amino acids and classical alleles from 3 case-control studies (the Swedish Epidemiological Investigation of Rheumatoid Arthritis [EIRA] study [1,654 cases and 1,934 controls], the Nurses' Health Study [NHS] [229 cases and 360 controls], and the Korean RA Cohort Study [1,390 cases and 735 controls]). We examined the interaction effects of heavy smoking (>10 pack-years) and the genetic risk score (GRS) of multiple RA-associated amino acid positions (positions 11, 13, 71, and 74 in HLA-DRβ1, position 9 in HLA-B, and position 9 in HLA-DPβ1), as well as the interaction effects of heavy smoking and the GRS of HLA-DRβ1 4-amino acid haplotypes (assessed via attributable proportion due to interaction [AP] using the additive interaction model).

Increased risk of preterm birth in women with autoimmune hepatitis - a nationwide cohort study.

Background & Aims: The aim of our study was to investigate the risks of pregnancy and childbirth complications in women with autoimmune hepatitis compared to the population controls.

Methods: In a nationwide cohort study of all pregnancies between 2006 and 2011 we investigated the risks of adverse pregnancy outcome in 171 births in women with diagnosed autoimmune hepatitis using the data from the Swedish Medical Birth and Patient Registries. Births to women without autoimmune hepatitis served as population controls (n = 576 642).

Towards Development of a Dermal Pain Model: In Vitro Activation of Rat and Human Transient Receptor Potential Ankyrin Repeat 1 and Safe Dermal Injection of o-Chlorobenzylidene Malononitrile to Rat.

During clinical development of analgesics, it is important to have access to pharmacologically specific human pain models. o-Chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (CS) is a selective and potent agonist of the transient receptor potential ankyrin repeat 1 (TRPA1), which is a transducer molecule in nociceptors sensing reactive chemical species. While CS has been subject to extensive toxicological investigations in animals and human beings, its effects on intradermal or subcutaneous injection have not previously been reported.

Clinical characteristics and quality-of-life in patients surviving a decade of prostate cancer with bone metastases.

Objective: To describe characteristics and quality-of-life (QoL), and to define factors associated with long-term survival in a subgroup of patients with prostate cancer with M1b disease.

Patients And Methods: The study was based on 915 patients from a prospective randomised multicentre trial (No. 5) by the Scandinavian Prostate Cancer Group, comparing parenteral oestrogen with total androgen blockade.

Exposure to organophosphate and polybrominated diphenyl ether flame retardants via indoor dust and childhood asthma.

Although the ubiquitous detection of polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) and organophosphate flame retardants (PFRs) in indoor dust has raised health concerns, only very few epidemiological studies have assessed their impact on human health. Inhalation of dust is one of the exposure routes of FRs, especially in children and can be hazardous for the respiratory health. Moreover, PFRs are structurally similar to organophosphate pesticides, which have been associated with allergic asthma.

Characteristics in childhood and adolescence associated with future multiple sclerosis risk in men: cohort study.

Background And Purpose: Associations with multiple sclerosis (MS) of living conditions in childhood and characteristics in adolescence including physical fitness, cognitive function and psychological stress resilience were investigated.

Methods: A cohort of male Swedish residents born 1952-1956 who were included in the Swedish Military Conscription Register was used to create a nested case-control study comprising 628 MS cases and 6187 controls matched on birth year, county of residence and vital status at time of diagnosis. Conscription examination records were linked with other national register data.

Assessment of antibiotic resistance of Escherichia coli isolates and screening of Salmonella spp. in wild ungulates from Portugal.

Antibiotic resistance is an emerging global problem. Wild animals are rarely exposed to antibiotics and therefore low levels of antibiotic resistance are expected. However, the growing interactions of these animals with humans and livestock may have a huge impact on their bacterial flora.

The history of tuberculosis management in Sweden.

We review the history of TB in Sweden beginning in 1800, when 25% of mortality in Sweden was associated with TB. The Royal Family was involved in establishing dedicated sanatoria in Sweden to offer better diagnostics and clinical care. TB has declined in Sweden steadily, with some recent increases due to local spread of TB and challenging international and national socio-economical structures.

Surgical treatment of complications of pulmonary tuberculosis, including drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Surgery for drug-resistant tuberculosis has been shown to be safe and effective, with similar level of mortalities associated with surgical intervention observed with that for lung cancer. While surgery has been an option to treat TB in the pre-antibiotic era, it is now increasingly used to treat complications of pulmonary TB, particularly in patients with drug-resistant TB who do not respond to medical treatment. The two most frequent indications for lung resection in drug- resistant TB, are i) failed medical treatment with persistent sputum positivity or ii) patients who have had medical treatment and are sputum negative, but with persistent localized cavitary disease or bronchiectasis.

Cellular therapy in tuberculosis.

Cellular therapy now offer promise of potential adjunct therapeutic options for treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). We review here the role of Mesenchymal stromal cells, (MSCs), as well as other immune effector cells in the therapy of infectious diseases with a focus on TB. MSCs represent a population of tissue-resident non-hematopoietic adult progenitor cells which home into injured tissues increase the proliferative potential of broncho-alveolar stem cells and restore lung epithelium.

Host-directed therapies for tuberculous pericarditis.

TB Pericarditis is associated with significant inflammatory and immune responses which can paradoxically cause injury to the pericardium and myocardium. Management with anti-TB therapy alone does not prevent complications or reduce mortality. Thus the prevailing view is that adjunct host-directed therapies such as use of glucocorticoid treatment could attenuate destructive inflammatory responses and improve morbidity and mortality rates.

Haploinsufficiency of TBK1 causes familial ALS and fronto-temporal dementia.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a genetically heterogeneous neurodegenerative syndrome hallmarked by adult-onset loss of motor neurons. We performed exome sequencing of 252 familial ALS (fALS) and 827 control individuals. Gene-based rare variant analysis identified an exome-wide significant enrichment of eight loss-of-function (LoF) mutations in TBK1 (encoding TANK-binding kinase 1) in 13 fALS pedigrees.

Vorinostat in patients with advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma who have progressed on previous chemotherapy (VANTAGE-014): a phase 3, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Vorinostat is a histone deacetylase inhibitor that changes gene expression and protein activity. On the basis of the clinical benefit reported in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma treated in a phase 1 study of vorinostat, we designed this phase 3 trial to investigate whether vorinostat given as a second-line or third-line therapy improved patients' overall survival.

Methods: This double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial was done in 90 international centres.

Tuberculosis treatment and management--an update on treatment regimens, trials, new drugs, and adjunct therapies.

WHO estimates that 9 million people developed active tuberculosis in 2013 and 1·5 million people died from it. Multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis continue to spread worldwide with an estimated 480,000 new cases in 2013. Treatment success rates of MDR and XDR tuberculosis are still low and development of new, more effective tuberculosis drugs and adjunct therapies to improve treatment outcomes are urgently needed.

Pemetrexed and gemcitabine versus carboplatin and gemcitabine in non-small cell lung cancer: a randomized noninferiority phase II study in one center.

Background: The standard treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) stages IIIb and IV is a platinum compound combined with a third-generation cytotoxic agent. We decided to conduct a phase II study to assess whether the platinum compound could be replaced with pemetrexed with similar results and without an increase in side effects.

Methods: Consecutive eligible patients were randomized to either the standard arm of gemcitabine plus carboplatin (GC) or the experimental arm of gemcitabine plus pemetrexed (GP).

Epidermal growth factor receptor and AKT1 gene copy numbers by multi-gene fluorescence in situ hybridization impact on prognosis in breast cancer.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway aberrations play significant roles in breast cancer occurrence and development. However, the status of EGFR and AKT1 gene copy numbers remains unclear. In this study, we showed that the rates of EGFR and AKT1 gene copy number alterations were associated with the prognosis of breast cancer.