The combination of oral-recombinant methioninase and azacitidine arrests a chemotherapy-resistant osteosarcoma patient-derived orthotopic xenograft mouse model

Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology - Cancers are methionine (MET) and methylation addicted, causing them to be highly sensitive to MET restriction. The present study determined the efficacy of...     

Homeobox transcription factor DLX4 is not necessary for skin development and homeostasis

Dlx4 is a member of a family of homeobox genes with homology to Drosophila distal‐less (dll) gene. We show that Dlx4 expression pattern partially overlaps with its cis‐linked gene Dlx3 during mouse development as well as in neonatal and adult skin. In mice, Dlx4 is expressed in the branchial arches, embryonic limbs, digits, nose, hair follicle and in the basal and suprabasal layers of mouse interfollicular epidermis. We show that inactivation of Dlx4 in mice did not result in any overtly gross pathology. Skin development, homeostasis and response to TPA treatment were similar in mice with loss of Dlx4 compared to wild‐type counterparts.     

Nodal Langerhans cell histiocytosis with prominent eosinophilic emperipolesis

Multinucleated giant cells of osteoclastic type are known to occur in nodal and extranodal lesions of Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH). These giant cells are thought to be derived from phagocytic histiocytes, which correlate with the degree of necrosis in LCH lesions. Emperipolesis commonly seen in Rosai–Dorfman disease is a distinct phenomenon characterized by intact phagocytosed cells in an intracytoplasmic vacuole protected from proteolytic digestion. We present a case of emperipolesis of inflammatory cells especially of eosinophils by multinucleated giant cells of Langhans type in a lymph node involved by LCH—a finding that has not been described previously in the literature. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2015;43:1000–1002. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The effect of smoking on survival in lung carcinoma patients with brain metastasis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The effects of smoking on survival in BM patients have yet to be reviewed and meta-analysed. However, previous studies have shown that smokers had a greater risk of dying from lung cancer compared to non-smokers. This meta-analysis, therefore, aimed to analyse the effects of cigarette smoking on overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in lung cancer BM patients. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane and Google Scholar were searched for comparative studies regarding the effects of smoking on incidence and survival in brain metastases patients up to December 2020. Three independent reviewers extracted overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival data (PFS). Random-effects models were used to pool multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios (HR). Out of 1890 studies, fifteen studies with a total of 2915 patients met our inclusion criteria. Amongst lung carcinoma BM patients, those who were smokers (ever or yes) had a worse overall survival (HR: 1.34, 95% CI 1.13, 1.60, I2: 72.1%, p-heterogeneity?<?0.001) than those who were non-smokers (never or no). A subgroup analysis showed the association to remain significant in the ever/never subgroup (HR: 1.34, 95% CI 1.11, 1.63) but not in the yes/no smoking subgroup (HR: 1.30, 95% CI 0.44, 3.88). This difference between the two subgroups was not statistically significant (p?=?0.91). Amongst lung carcinoma BM patients, smoking was associated with a worse OS and PFS. Future studies examining BMs should report survival data stratified by uniform smoking status definitions.