Immunotherapy for urothelial carcinoma: Metastatic disease and beyond

For advanced and metastatic urothelial carcinomas (UCs), platinum (preferably cisplatin)‐based chemotherapy has been the standard treatment for many years. However, many patients are ineligible for cisplatin‐based chemotherapy because of poor performance status and/or other age‐related conditions. At the other end of the spectrum, patients with localized non‐muscle–invasive bladder cancer who are unresponsive to intravesical Bacillus Calmette‐Guérin (BCG) treatment often face radical cystectomy as the only option. In recent years, the application of immunotherapy in the form of immune‐checkpoint inhibitors has provided viable alternatives in the second‐line postplatinum and first‐line cisplatin‐ineligible settings. Recent and ongoing clinical trials are also assessing the safety and efficacy of immunotherapy for neoadjuvant and adjuvant uses before/after cystectomy, for BCG‐unresponsive cases, and for combination treatments that include the newer indoleamine 2,3‐dioxygenase‐1 inhibitors and/or BCG. This review summarizes recent developments in immunotherapy for UCs.     

Rosmarinus plants: Key farm concepts towards food applications

Rosmarinus species are aromatic plants that mainly grow in the Mediterranean region. They are widely used in folk medicine, food, and flavor industries and represent a valuable source of biologically active compounds (e.g., terpenoids, flavonoids, and phenolic acids). The extraction of rosemary essential oil is being done using three main methods: carbon dioxide supercritical extraction, steam distillation, and hydrodistillation. Furthermore, interesting antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, antileishmanial, anthelmintic, anticancer, anti‐inflammatory, antidepressant, and antiamnesic effects have also been broadly recognized for rosemary plant extracts. Thus the present review summarized data on economically important Rosmarinus officinalis species, including isolation, extraction techniques, chemical composition, pharmaceutical, and food applications.     

One Week of Hospitalization Following Elective Hip Surgery Induces Substantial Muscle Atrophy in Older Patients

Objectives

Short successive periods of skeletal muscle disuse have been suggested to substantially contribute to the observed loss of skeletal muscle mass over the life span. Hospitalization of older individuals due to acute illness, injury, or major surgery generally results in a mean hospital stay of 5 to 7 days, during which the level of physical activity is strongly reduced. We hypothesized that hospitalization following elective total hip arthroplasty is accompanied by substantial leg muscle atrophy in older men and women.