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.     

Lung cancer incidence in young women vs. young men: A systematic analysis in 40 countries

Previous studies have reported converging lung cancer rates between sexes. We examine lung cancer incidence rates in young women vs. young men in 40 countries across five continents. Lung and bronchial cancer cases by 5-year age group (ages 30–64) and 5-year calendar period (1993–2012) were extracted from Cancer Incidence in Five Continents. Female-to-male incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) were calculated by age group and birth cohort. Among men, age-specific lung cancer incidence rates generally decreased in all countries, while in women the rates varied across countries with the trends in most countries stable or declining, albeit at a slower pace compared to those in men. As a result, the female-to-male IRRs increased among recent birth cohorts, with IRRs significantly greater than unity in Canada, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the United States. For example, the IRRs in ages 45–49 year in the Netherlands increased from 0.7 (95% CI: 0.6–0.8) to 1.5 (95% CI: 1.4–1.7) in those born circa 1948 and 1963, respectively. Similar patterns, though nonsignificant, were found in 23 additional countries. These crossovers were largely driven by increasing adenocarcinoma incidence rates in women. For those countries with historical smoking data, smoking prevalence in women approached, but rarely exceeded, those of men. In conclusion, the emerging higher lung cancer incidence rates in young women compared to young men is widespread and not fully explained by sex differences in smoking patterns. Future studies are needed to identify reasons for the elevated incidence of lung cancer among young women.