Merkel cell carcinoma: epidemiology, clinical features, diagnosis and treatment of a rare disease.

Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare skin cancer with neuroendocrine differentiation. The risk factors include sun exposure, advanced age, immunosuppression (such as transplant recipients, patients with lymphoproliferative neoplasms, or patients with HIV), and Merkel cell polyomavirus infection. Clinically, Merkel cell carcinoma appears as a cutaneous or subcutaneous plaque or nodule, but this tumor diagnosis is rarely made clinically.

Cancer inpatients with COVID-19: A report from the Brazilian National Cancer Institute.

Objective: This study aimed to describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of cancer inpatients with COVID-19 exploring clinical outcomes.

Methods: A retrospective search in the electronic medical records of cancer inpatients admitted to the Brazilian National Cancer Institute from April 30, 2020 to May 26, 2020 granted identification of 181 patients with COVID-19 confirmed by RT-PCR.

Results: The mean age was 55.

Patient-doctor relationship and adherence to capecitabine in outpatients of a German comprehensive cancer center.

Purpose: The prescribing of oral chemotherapy agents has introduced the new challenge of ensuring patients' adherence to therapy. Aspects of a close patient-doctor relationship are reported to be correlated with adherence to oral anticancer drugs, but data on capecitabine are scarce.

Patients And Methods: Sixty-four outpatients with a diagnosis of cancer and prescribed capecitabine were recruited from a German Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Relationship between skeletal muscle function, body composition, and weight loss in patients with advanced pancreatic and gastrointestinal cancers.

Background: Muscle function and its correlation with body composition and weight loss have not been studied deeply in pancreas and gastrointestinal cancers. This research aims to determine the skeletal muscle function and its relationship with body compartments, significant weight loss, and performance status (ECOG) 0-2 in a population with advanced digestive cancers.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed to determine the relationship between muscular function, weight loss, and body composition.

New insights into frequency and contents of fear of cancer progression/recurrence (FOP/FCR) in outpatients with colorectal carcinoma (CRC) receiving oral capecitabine: a pilot study at a comprehensive cancer center.

Background: Fear of cancer progression/recurrence (FOP/FCR) is considered one of the most prevalent sources of distress in cancer survivors and associated with lower quality of life and functional impairment. Detailed measures of FOP/FCR are needed because little is known about the knowledge of FOP/FCR, its associations with the patient-doctor relationship, and the rate of adequate therapy. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent cancer entities, and oral capecitabine is widely prescribed as treatment.

Corrigendum to "Immune Profile of Obese People and In Vitro Effects of Red Grape Polyphenols on Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2017/9210862.].

Poncet's disease after the intravesical instillation of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG): a case report.

Background: Poncet's disease is a rare syndrome characterized by articular impairment in a form of rare tuberculid. One of the theories of its cause involves an autoimmune response induced by the intravesical administration of the Calmette-Guerin Bacillus or the treatment of bladder carcinoma. Furthermore, there may be an appearance of oligoarticular or polyarticular arthritis, beginning 1-3 months after the start of therapy.

Wide Variation in the Use of Radiotherapy in the Management of Surgically Treated Rectal Cancer Across the English National Health Service.

Aims: Radiotherapy is an important treatment modality in the multidisciplinary management of rectal cancer. It is delivered both in the neoadjuvant setting and postoperatively, but, although it reduces local recurrence, it does not influence overall survival and increases the risk of long-term complications. This has led to a variety of international practice patterns.

Anti-centromere protein A antibodies in systemic sclerosis: Significance and origin.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is systemic, autoimmune, connective tissue disorder characterized by vascular abnormalities, collagen deposition (fibrosis), and the production of autoantibodies to nuclear proteins. About 20%-40% of patients have antibodies to centromere protein (CENP)-A or -B. Despite the known association of anti-CENP antibodies with certain clinical features of SSc, the role of these antibodies in SSc physiopathology is still poorly understood.

Para- and perirenal ultrasonographic fat thickness is associated with 24-hours mean diastolic blood pressure levels in overweight and obese subjects.

Background: Renal sinus fat (RSF) has been recognized as a risk factor for arterial hypertension. This study was addressed to examine whether also para- and perirenal fat accumulation is associated to higher 24-h mean systolic (SBP) and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) levels in overweight and obese subjects.

Methods: A cohort of 42 overweight and obese patients, 29 women and 13 men, aged 25-55 years, not treated with any kind of drug, was examined.

30 day mortality in adult palliative radiotherapy--A retrospective population based study of 14,972 treatment episodes.

Background: 30-day mortality (30DM) has been suggested as a clinical indicator of the avoidance of harm in palliative radiotherapy within the NHS, but no large-scale population-based studies exist. This large retrospective cohort study aims to investigate the factors that influence 30DM following palliative radiotherapy and consider its value as a clinical indicator.

Methods: All radiotherapy episodes delivered in a large UK cancer centre between January 2004 and April 2011 were analysed.

Targeting bone metastatic cancer: Role of the mTOR pathway.

One of the great challenges of cancer medicine is to develop effective treatments for bone metastatic cancer. Most patients with advanced solid tumors will develop bone metastasis and will suffer from skeletal related events associated with this disease. Although some therapies are available to manage symptoms derived from bone metastases, an effective treatment has not been developed yet.

Possible direct influence of complement 3 in decreasing insulin sensitvity in a cohort of overweight and obese subjects.

Unlabelled: A group of 608 apparently healthy patients, 136 men and 472 women, either overweight or obese, aged 18-69 years, were examined. BMI, waist circumference, fasting blood glucose (FBG), insulin, and complement 3 (C3) serum levels were measured; the homeostasis model assessment (HOMAIR) was used to evaluate insulin resistance; and physical activity was quantified by a questionnaire.

Results: HOMAIR showed a positive correlation with BMI (r: 0.

Cytotherapies in multiple myeloma: a complementary approach to current treatments?

Introduction: Based on their tumor tropism, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been proposed as carriers of cytotoxic molecules in pioneering strategies of anti-cancer gene therapy. Similar to solid tumors, MSCs, genetically modified to stably express the TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), have been applied to counter-attack multiple myeloma (MM) in vitro and envisioned as a promising strategy for future anti-MM treatments.

Areas Covered: Accumulating evidence based on the detection of genetic and functional abnormalities in MSCs from MM patients points to the supportive function of MSCs in both the development and progression of MM, driven by chronic interplays with malignant cells within the marrow milieu.

Possible role of hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance in lower vitamin D levels in overweight and obese patients.

Unlabelled: A cohort of 66 healthy overweight and obese patients, 53 women and 13 men were examined. Waist circumference and fasting 25(OH)D, insulin, glucose, lipid (cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglyceride), C-reactive protein (CRP), and complement 3 (C3), and 4 (C4) serum concentrations were measured. Insulin resistance was assessed by the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA(IR)).

Obesity and heart failure.

Epidemiological studies have recently shown that obesity, and abdominal obesity in particular, is an independent risk factor for the development of heart failure (HF). Higher cardiac oxidative stress is the early stage of heart dysfunction due to obesity, and it is the result of insulin resistance, altered fatty acid and glucose metabolism, and impaired mitochondrial biogenesis. Extense myocyte hypertrophy and myocardial fibrosis are early microscopic changes in patients with HF, whereas circumferential strain during the left ventricular (LV) systole, LV increase in both chamber size and wall thickness (LV hypertrophy), and LV dilatation are the early macroscopic and functional alterations in obese developing heart failure.

Cell fusion in myeloma marrow microenvironment: role in tumor progression.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a B cell malignancy characterized by uncontrolled expansion of malignant plasma cells within the bone marrow that contribute to formation of multiple osteolytic bone disease and severe skeletal devastation. Recently, direct and indirect observations suggest that fusion events between cells housed within the MM marrow microenvironment often occur and may play a role in tumor progression, including myeloma bone disease (MBD). A number of cells resident in the marrow, such as myeloid progenitors and dendritic cells, have inherited fusogenicity and osteoclastogenic potential due to the expression of a number of fusogenic proteins as well as a high sensitivity to fusogenic factors produced within the MM marrow milieu.

Annual increase in the frequency of papillary thyroid carcinoma as diagnosed by fine-needle aspiration at a cytology unit in Sicily.

Objective: An increased frequency of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) has been reported in the literature, including studies based on fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC).

Design: To substantiate our own ascertainment of such an increase, we retrieved all the diagnoses of ultrasound-guided FNAC which was performed on 11,389 patients referred for cytological evaluation of a single or dominant thyroid nodule from 1988 to 2010. FNAC yielded 11,258 adequate specimens.

Acalculous cholecystitis in a patient with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with sunitinib.

A 62-year-old woman was treated with sunitinib as a second-line therapy for metastatic clear-cell renal carcinoma. She was given oral sunitinib 50 mg once daily, 4 weeks on followed by 2 week off. During the fourth week of her first cycle, the patient was admitted to our hospital because of an acute-onset, right upper quadrant pain associated with nausea and vomiting.

MMP-2, MMP-9 and activin A blood levels in patients with breast cancer or prostate cancer metastatic to the bone.

Background: The clinical significance of the circulating levels of activin A and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and -9 (MMP-9) was investigated in patients with breast cancer (BC) or prostate cancer (PC) with (M1) or without (M0) bone metastasis.

Patients And Methods: MMP-2, MMP-9 and activin A blood concentrations were measured by enzyme immunoassays in 79 cancer patients and in 57 healthy blood donors (HS) who served as a control group. The diagnostic accuracy of these molecules to discriminate between M0 and M1 patients was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and compared to that of tumor markers CA15.

Adhesion and signaling by B cell-derived exosomes: the role of integrins.

Exosomes are nanometer-sized vesicles secreted by various cells, with potentially diverse roles in physiology. Although emphasis has been placed on their involvement in immune modulation, their potential for more wide-ranging biological effects has not been appreciated. A common exosome feature is the expression of adhesion molecules, which include the integrin family.

Introduction of autopsy imaging redefines the concept of autopsy: 37 cases of clinical experience.

A new autopsy imaging (AI) system was introduced at the Research Center Hospital for Charged Particle Therapy (RCCPT) in January 2000. Autopsy imaging is a postmortem and preautopsy diagnostic procedure using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Scanning is performed with a 1.

Antigen-presenting cell exosomes are protected from complement-mediated lysis by expression of CD55 and CD59.

Exosomes are secreted nanometer-sized vesicles derived from antigen-presenting cells, which have attracted recent interest as they likely play important roles in immune regulation, and their use as cell-free tools for immunotherapy has been proposed. Liposomes used clinically as transport vehicles can activate the complement system, leading to their rapid degradation and significant inflammatory toxicity. The use of isolated exosomes in therapy, therefore, may also elicit complement activation, reducing their potential efficacy.