Postoperative radiotherapy and radiotherapy combined with CCNU chemotherapy for treatment of brain gliomas

A prospective, randomized trial evaluates the effects of two postoperative treatment regimens on survival in 198 adult patients with supratentorial gliomas. All patients were irradiated with 6 000 rads after possibly radical removal of tumors. CCNU administration in the dosis of 100 mg/sq m of body surface every 6–8 weeks following surgery proved to have no significant effect on the survival of patients. The median survival time in patients receiving radiation therapy alone was 61±7 weeks, while in those receiving additional chemotherapy was 56±4 weeks. Tumor histological malignancy and patients age were found to be the only important prognostic factors, irrespective of the treatment modality. Address for offprints: T Trojanowski, Department of Neurosurgery, Medical School, Jaczewskiego 8, 20-950 Lublin, Poland     

Singaporean men's knowledge of cervical cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV) and their attitudes towards HPV vaccination

Little is known of men's knowledge of cervical cancer and its links with human papillomavirus (HPV), or of their attitudes and beliefs about HPV vaccination. This is despite men's sexual behaviour contributing to HPV transmission and their potential role in deciding whether their children are vaccinated against HPV. To address this, a comprehensive survey was conducted in Singapore where plans are underway for an HPV vaccination program. A representative sample of 930 Singaporean men was found to have moderate knowledge of cervical cancer but poor knowledge and awareness of HPV. Although these men showed strong support for HPV vaccination, overall findings highlight the importance of including men in education campaigns that aim to decrease the incidence of cervical and other HPV-related cancers and to increase the uptake of HPV vaccination.     

The Recovery-Based Interprofessional Distance Education (RIDE) Rotation: Content and Rationale

A faculty team of two psychiatric nurse practitioners, an exercise physiologist, a registered dietician and a pharmacist developed the 8-week Recovery-Based Interprofessional Distance Education (RIDE) rotation for graduate students in the four disciplines. Organizing the RIDE rotation around the recovery model ensured an emphasis upon optimal health and quality of life. RIDE faculty engaged in project planning for several months before the RIDE rotation was offered to students. In this paper, we describe details of the 8-week program. Our next step will be to analyze student feedback and de-identified evaluation data from the first student cohort.     

Large Molecule Specific Assay Operation: Recommendation for Best Practices and Harmonization from the Global Bioanalysis Consortium Harmonization Team

The L2 Global Harmonization Team on large molecule specific assay operation for protein bioanalysis in support of pharmacokinetics focused on the following topics: setting up a balanced validation design, specificity testing, selectivity testing, dilutional linearity, hook effect, parallelism, and testing of robustness and ruggedness. The team additionally considered the impact of lipemia, hemolysis, and the presence of endogenous analyte on selectivity assessments as well as the occurrence of hook effect in study samples when no hook effect had been observed during pre-study validation.     

Tigecycline Potentiates Clarithromycin Activity against Mycobacterium avium In Vitro

The in vitro activities of clarithromycin and tigecycline alone and in combination against Mycobacterium avium were assessed. The activity of clarithromycin was time dependent, highly variable, and often resulted in clarithromycin resistance. Tigecycline showed concentration-dependent activity, and mycobacterial killing could only be achieved at high concentrations. Tigecycline enhanced clarithromycin activity against M. avium and prevented clarithromycin resistance. Whether there is clinical usefulness of tigecycline in the treatment of M. avium infections needs further study.     

Immunohistochemical Study EMT-Related Proteins in HPV-, and EBV-Negative Patients with Sinonasal Tumours

Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a biological process in which the epithelial cells, transform to mesenchymal cells via multiple biochemical modifications. Immunohistochemical method was used to examine the expression of EMT-related proteins: Slug, E-cadherin and fibronectin, in 41 cases of sinonasal inverted papilloma (SIP), 33 cases of sinonasal squamous cell carcinoma (SNC), and 22 cases of normal mucosa as a control. In all cases negative viral status was previously confirmed using both in situ hybridization and immunohistochemical method. The immunoexpression of Slug and fibronectin were significantly increased in the SNC group as compared to SIPs and control cases. The immunoexpresssion of Slug was also higher in SIPs as compared to controls. The immunoexpression of E-cadherin was significantly lower in SNCs group as compared with SIPs and controls, but no statistically significant difference in E-cadherin immunoexpression was noted between SIPs and control cases. There were statistically significant negative correlations between immunoexpression of Slug vs E-cadherin, E-cadherin vs fibronectin and positive correlation between Slug vs fibronectin in SNC. Statistically significant correlation between Slug and fibronectin immunoexpression in SIPs was also found. In conclusion, our findings suggest that relationships between Slug, E-cadherin and fibronectin could potentially point to EMT in the sinonasal cancer. Lack of correlation between EMT-related proteins in tested SIPs could reflect a benign nature of those cases.