Placental metal concentrations and birth outcomes: The Environment and Childhood (INMA) project

Objective

To examine the association of placental levels of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), and chromium (Cr) with birth outcomes (birth weight, length, and head circumference, low birth weight [LBW], gestational age, preterm delivery, and small for gestational age [SGA]) in mother-child pairs from the Environment and Childhood (INMA) Project in Spain.

Safety and Efficacy of Pazopanib in First-Line Metastatic Renal-Cell Carcinoma With or Without Renal Failure: CORE-URO-01 Study

Background

Pazopanib has been approved for first-line treatment of patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma on the basis of clinical trials that enrolled only patients with adequate renal function. Few data are available on the safety and efficacy of pazopanib in patients with renal insufficiency. This study investigated the effect of kidney function on treatment outcomes in such patients.

β-blocker therapy for infantile hemangioma

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Fifteen percent of proliferating infantile hemangioma (IH) require intervention because of the threat to function or life, ulceration, or tissue distortion. Propranolol is the mainstay treatment for problematic proliferating IH. Other β-blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors have been explored as alternative treatments.     

Evaluation of <i>MGMT</i> Gene Methylation in Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

Unresectable neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) often poorly respond to standard therapeutic approaches. Alkylating agents, in particular temozolomide, commonly used to treat high-grade brain tumors including glioblastomas, have recently been tested in advanced or metastatic NENs, where they showed promising response rates. In glioblastomas, prediction of response to temozolomide is based on the assessment of the methylation status of the MGMT gene, as its product, O6 -methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase, may counteract the damaging effects of the alkylating agent. However, in NENs, such a biomarker has not been validated yet. Thus, we have investigated MGMT methylation in 42 NENs of different grades and from various sites of origin by two different approaches: in contrast to methylation-specific PCR (MSP), which is commonly used in glioblastoma management, amplicon bisulfite sequencing (ABS) is based on high-resolution, next-generation sequencing and interrogates several additional CpG sites compared to those covered by MSP. Overall, we found MGMT methylation in 74% (31/42) of the NENs investigated. A higher methylation degree was observed in welldifferentiated tumors and in tumors originating in the gastrointestinal tract. Comparing MSP and ABS results, we demonstrate that the region analyzed by the MSP test is sufficiently informative of the MGMT methylation status in NENs, suggesting that this predictive parameter could routinely be interrogated also in NENs.     

Literature Review of the Association Between Prenatal Education and Rates of Cesarean Birth Among Women at Low Risk

A review of the literature was performed to explore the association between prenatal education and rates of primary cesarean birth for women at low risk for cesarean birth. Most women who are nulliparous with a singleton fetus of term gestational age and in the vertex position are considered to be at low risk and favorable for a vaginal birth, yet the cesarean birth rate for women at low risk was 25.6% in 2019. It has been suggested that the rise in the cesarean birth rate among low-risk women may not be due to medical indications but, rather, to nonmedical factors, such as a provider’s or woman’s preference or lack of prenatal education. Evidence from this literature review supports the premise that prenatal education classes should be routinely incorporated into maternity care in an effort to reduce cesarean birth rates for the low-risk population.