Prostate imaging: Contribution of PET PSMA and MRI

Prostate cancer is the most common malignant tumour and represents the third cause of cancer-mortality in men. The management of prostate cancer has dramatically changed over the last decades, mainly due to improvement of diagnostic modalities and development of new therapeutic strategies. Imaging plays a key role in all the steps of prostate cancer management. In recent years, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron-emission tomography (PET) – computed tomography (CT) have emerged as two major tools for the detection of prostate cancer, tumour staging and treatment choice. Both MRI and PET-CT – using choline or prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) as radiotracer – have become mandatory. This article presents the contribution of the latest advances in these two imaging techniques of prostate cancer and their future developments.     

Altered crosstalk in the dipeptidyl peptidase-4-incretin-immune system in type 1 diabetes: A hypothesis generating pilot study

Both GLP1^7–36 (via GLP1 receptor) and the dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) cleaved form of GLP1 (GLP1^9–36, independently of GLP1R) may modulate the response of lymphocytes to cytokine stimuli. The incretin axis, CXCR3 (receptor of DPP4 ligand cytokines CXCL9–11) expression on T_regs and hematologic parameters were assessed in 34 patients with long standing type 1 diabetes (T1DM) and in 35 healthy controls. Serum DPP4 (sDPP4) activity, plasma total GLP1 and GLP1^7–36 concentrations were determined. GLP1^9–36 concentrations were calculated. CXCR3 expression (flow cytometry) was higher on the CD25^−/lowFoxp3⁺ than on the CD25⁺Foxp3⁺ T_regs independently from T1DM, suggesting that CD25^−/lowFoxp3⁺ T_regs are possibly waiting for orientational chemotactic stimuli in a “standby mode”. The higher sDPP4 activities in T1DM were inversely correlated with GLP1^7–36 levels and GLP1^9–36 levels directly with lymphocyte counts in controls. Our results might indicate an altered DPP4-incretin system and altered immunoregulation including a potentially dysfunctional GLP1^9–36 signaling in T1DM.     

Employment opportunities for persons with different types of disability

The employment status of groups with different disabilities was analysed as were potentially important moderating factors (work ability, structural and individual factors). A secondary analysis was performed on 4359 respondents with disabilities from Statistics Sweden's Labour Market Investigation. The respondents were divided into six disability groups (communicative-hearing, communicative-speech-reading, communicative-vision, psychological disability, medical disability, physical disability). Logistic regression analyses showed that the probability of being employed was highest among respondents with hearing disabilities and respondents with psychological disabilities were least likely to be employed. Being a woman (very young or old) with only primary education and with partially or very impaired work ability, reduced employment opportunities. Higher education did not increase employment opportunities for respondents with impaired work ability. In summary, the type of disability is essential for employment opportunities, and differences between disability groups cannot be explained by differences in other variables. The moderating factors studied were found to be of equal importance in all groups.