hPG (Circulating Progastrin), a Novel Blood-Based Biomarker for Detection of Poorly Differentiated Neuroendocrine Carcinoma and Well Differentiated Neuroendocrine Tumors.

Current blood-based biomarkers for neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) lack both sensitivity and specificity. Human circulating progastrin (hPG) is a novel biomarker that can be easily measured in plasma by ELISA. This study is the first to examine hPG in NENs.

Post FDA approval analysis of 200 gallium-68 DOTATATE imaging: A retrospective analysis in neuroendocrine tumor patients.

Gallium-68 DOTATATE provides physiologic imaging and assists in disease localization for somatostatin receptor (SSTR) positive neuroendocrine tumor (NET) patients. However, questions regarding usefulness of gallium- 68 DOTATATE imaging in identifying the primary site in neuroendocrine tumors (NETS) of unknown primary, correlation of NET grade with median Standardized Uptake Value (SUV) and effects of long acting somatostatin analog on gallium-68 DOTATATE imaging quality needs to be evaluated. A single institution retrospective review of the first 200 NET patients with gallium-68 DOTATATE imaging from Dec 2016 to Dec 2017 was conducted.

Disease-Specific Survival of Type I and Type II Epithelial Ovarian Cancers-Stage Challenges Categorical Assignments of Indolence & Aggressiveness.

Epithelial ovarian cancers (EOC) consist of several sub-types based on histology, clinical, molecular and epidemiological features that are termed "histo-types", which can be categorized into less aggressive Type I and more aggressive Type II malignancies. This investigation evaluated the disease-specific survival (DSS) of women with Type I and II EOC using histo-type, grade, and stage. A total of 200,658 EOC cases were identified in the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data.

Effect of vitamin D supplementation on serum lipid profiles: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Context: Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent across the world. The existing evidence suggests vitamin D may have beneficial effects on serum lipid profiles and thus cardiovascular health.

Objective: The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to examine the effect of vitamin D supplementation on serum lipid profiles.

A Multigene Assay Determines Risk of Recurrence in Patients with Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

Approximately 40% of patients with stage I-III triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) recur after standard treatment, whereas the remaining 60% experience long-term disease-free survival (DFS). There are currently no clinical tests to assess the risk of recurrence in TNBC patients. We previously determined that TNBC patients with MHC class II (MHCII) pathway expression in their tumors experienced significantly longer DFS.

Assessing Research Collaboration through Co-authorship Network Analysis.

Interdisciplinary research collaboration is needed to perform transformative science and accelerate innovation. The Science of Team Science strives to investigate, evaluate, and foster team science, including institutional policies that may promote or hinder collaborative interdisciplinary research and the resources and infrastructure needed to promote team science within and across institutions. Social network analysis (SNA) has emerged as a useful method to measure interdisciplinary science through the evaluation of several types of collaboration networks, including co-authorship networks.

Ten Important Considerations for Ovarian Cancer Screening.

The unique intricacies of ovarian cancer screening and perspectives of different screening methods are presented as ten considerations that are examined. Included in these considerations are: These considerations are presented in depth along with illustrations of how they impact the outcomes of ovarian cancer screening. The considerations presented provide alternative explanations of effects that have an important bearing on interpreting ovarian screening outcomes.

Complications from Surgeries Related to Ovarian Cancer Screening.

The aim of this study was to evaluate complications of surgical intervention for participants in the Kentucky Ovarian Cancer Screening Program and compare results to those of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening trial. A retrospective database review included 657 patients who underwent surgery for a positive screen in the Kentucky Ovarian Cancer Screening Program from 1988-2014. Data were abstracted from operative reports, discharge summaries, and office notes for 406 patients.

A Perspective on Ovarian Cancer Biomarkers: Past, Present and Yet-To-Come.

The history of biomarkers and ultrasonography dates back over more than 50 years. The present status of biomarkers used in the context of ovarian cancer is addressed. Attention is given to new interpretations of the etiology of ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer screening effectiveness: A realization from the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening.

Effects on survival in the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) was reported in The Lancet, and demonstrate that reductions in disease-specific mortality in this randomized control trial (RCT) indicate that ovarian cancer screening works. The UKCTOCS was large enough for sufficient accrual and follow-up, using two intervention arms: MMS (a multimodal strategy using the biomarker Ca125 combined with ultrasound as a secondary test) and USS (ultrasound alone) compared against a no-screen control group. MMS and USS performed similarly, showing a statistically significant reduction in mortality that increased with follow-up surveillance (8% reduction in years 0-7 vs 28% in years 7-14).

Evaluation and Management of Ultrasonographically Detected Ovarian Tumors in Asymptomatic Women.

Data from screening trials indicate that a significant percent of asymptomatic women older than 50 years of age will develop ovarian abnormalities that are detectable by ultrasonography. Most of these abnormalities are benign, and many will resolve spontaneously. However, the risk of ovarian cancer, particularly in postmenopausal women, is of concern.

Trends in cigarette smoking and obesity in Appalachian Kentucky.

Objectives: The southern region of the United States, particularly central and southern Appalachia, has long been identified as an area of health inequities. An updated and more complete understanding of the association among the leading risk factors for such health inequities allows researchers, clinicians, and policymakers to focus their efforts on the most effective strategies to minimize these risks.

Methods: Using the most recent survey data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we examined 10-year trends in rates of cigarette smoking and obesity in Appalachian Kentucky, comparing these trends with national and non-Appalachian Kentucky rates.

Cytoskeleton targeting value in prostate cancer treatment.

Prostate cancer is a disease that affects hundreds of thousands of men in the United States each year. In the early stages of advanced prostate cancer, the disease can be suppressed by androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Eventually, however, most patients experience resistance to androgen deprivation, and their treatment transitions to alternative targeting of the androgen axis with abiraterone and enzalutamide, as well as taxane-based chemotherapy.

Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) in prostate growth and tumor progression.

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and its reversal, mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET), are essential morphological processes during development and in the regulation of stem cell pluripotency, yet these processes are also activated in pathological contexts, such as in fibrosis and cancer progression. Multi-component signaling pathways cooperate in initiation of EMT and MET programs, via transcriptional, post-transcriptional, translational, and post-translational regulation. EMT is required for tissue regeneration and normal embryonic development as it enables epithelial cells to acquire the mesenchymal phenotype, conferring them migratory and dynamic properties towards forming three-dimensional structures during gastrulation and organ formation.

The fringe benefits of cloning cancer.

A new approach to monitoring tumor clone dynamics (Carreira et al., this issue) uses sequential biopsies and circulating DNA to help optimize treatment in metastatic prostate cancer.

Proteasomal regulation of caspase-8 in cancer cell apoptosis.

Previous studies demonstrated that proteasome inhibition sensitizes TRAIL resistant prostate cancer cells to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis via stabilization of the active p18 subunit of caspase-8. The present study investigated the impact of proteasome inhibition on caspase-8 stability, ubiquitination, trafficking, and activation in cancer cells. Using caspase-8 deficient neuroblastoma (NB7) cells for reconstituting non-cleavable mutant forms of caspase-8, we demonstrated that the non-cleavable forms of caspase-8 are capable of inducing apoptosis comparably to wild-type caspase-8, in response to proteasome inhibitor and GST-TRAIL.

Delayed tumor resection in a 5-year-old child with bilateral Wilms tumor.

We describe the case of a 5-year-old girl whose abdominal pain and distension were caused by Wilms tumor of the kidney. Because of the bilateral nature of her disease, she was spared biopsy or initial nephrectomy as part of her treatment course. Rather, she was treated presumptively for Wilms tumor based primarily on radiologic findings.

ITP in children: pathophysiology and current treatment approaches.

Primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is one of the most common bleeding disorders of childhood. In most cases, it presents with sudden widespread bruising and petechiae in an otherwise well child. Thought to be mainly a disorder of antibody-mediated platelet destruction, ITP can be self-limited or develop into a chronic condition.

Caspase control: protagonists of cancer cell apoptosis.

Emergence of castration-resistant metastatic prostate cancer is due to activation of survival pathways, including apoptosis suppression and anoikis resistance, and increased neovascularization. Thus targeting of apoptotic players is of critical significance in prostate cancer therapy since loss of apoptosis and resistance to anoikis are critical in aberrant malignant growth, metastasis and conferring therapeutic failure. The majority of therapeutic agents act through intrinsic mitochondrial, extrinsic death receptor pathways or endoplasmic reticulum stress pathways to induce apoptosis.

Sarcopenia, obesity, and natural killer cell immune senescence in aging: altered cytokine levels as a common mechanism.

Human aging is characterized by both physical and physiological frailty. A key feature of frailty, sarcopenia is the age-associated decline in skeletal muscle mass, strength, and endurance that characterize even the healthy elderly. Increases in adiposity, particularly in visceral adipose tissue, are almost universal in aging individuals and can contribute to sarcopenia and insulin resistance by increasing levels of inflammatory cytokines known collectively as adipokines.

The PPARgamma antagonist T0070907 suppresses breast cancer cell proliferation and motility via both PPARgamma-dependent and -independent mechanisms.

Background: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) is overexpressed in many types of cancer, including breast cancer, and it is regulated by ligand binding and post-translational modifications. It was previously demonstrated that endogenous transactivation promotes an aggressive phenotype of malignant breast cells. This study examines whether selective antagonism of PPARγ with T0070907 is a potential strategy for breast cancer therapy.

Issues concerning the large scale cryopreservation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) for immunotherapy trials.

Immunotherapy of cancer is being developed as an alternative or adjuvant to conventional therapies such as: surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation treatment. Immunotherapy laboratories routinely process and prepare for injection large numbers of anti-tumor effector cells. The process of cryopreservation is critical to the success of immunotherapy.