Methyl gallate isolated from Mangifera pajang kernel induces proliferation inhibition and apoptosis in MCF-7 breast cancer cells via oxidative stress

Objective:To determine the lead bioactive compound in kernel extract of Mangifera pajang and its anti-cancer activity against human breast cancer cell lines with positive estrogen receptor(MCF-7).Methods:The methanolic extract of dried powder kernel of Mangifera pajang was exposed to column chromatography for isolation.The structural elucidation of the isolated compound was characterized using infrared,nuclear magnetic resonance,mass spectrometry.Furthermore,cytotoxicity,morphological changes,flow cytometry and cell cycle arrest analyses were performed to examine the mechanism of anti-proliferation and apoptosis induced by methyl gallate against MCF-7.Results:One compound was isolated from the methanolic extract of Mangifera pajang kernel and identified as methyl gallate.The flow cytometric results demonstrated induction of apoptosis in MCF-7 cells by three concentrations of methyl gallate.The cell cycle arrest showed a significant(P<0.05)decrease in cell progression at G2/M phase of MCF-7 after treatment with 100μM of methyl gallate.The cell percentage of early and late apoptosis was significant at 10 and 100μM of methyl gallate.Also,methyl gallate treatment induced up-regulation of reactive oxygen species levels in MCF-7 cells with a reduction in superoxide dismutase levels.Conclusions:These findings indicate that isolated methyl gallate from Mangifera pajang kernel extracts induces growth inhibition and apoptosis in MCF-7 cells via up-regulating oxidative stress pathway.     

Prognostic value of pre-treatment F-18-FDG PET-CT in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing radioembolization

AIM To evaluate the value of pre-treatment 18F-FDG PET/CT in patients with HCC following liver radioembolization.METHODS We identified 34 patients with HCC who underwent an FDG PET/CT scan prior to hepatic radioembolization at our institution between 2009 and 2013. Patients wereseen in clinic one month after radioembolization and then at 2-3 mo intervals. We assessed the influence of FDG tumor uptake on outcomes including local liver control(LLC), distant liver control(DLC), time to distant metastases(DM), progression free survival(PFS) and overall survival(OS).RESULTS The majority of patients were males(n = 25, 74%), and had Child Pugh Class A(n = 31, 91%), with a median age of 68 years(46-84 years). FDG-avid disease was found in 19(56%) patients with SUVmax ranging from 3 to 20. Female patients were more likely to have an FDG-avid HCC(P = 0.02). Median follow up of patients following radioembolization was 12 months(1.2-62.8 mo). FDG-avid disease was associated with a decreased 1 year LLC, DLC, DM and PFS(P 0.05). Using multivariate analysis, FDG avidity predicted for LLC, DLC, and PFS(all P 0.05).CONCLUSION In this retrospective study, pre-treatment HCC FDGavidity was found to be associated with worse LLC, DLC, and PFS following radioembolization. Larger studies are needed to validate our initial findings to assess the role of F-18-FDG PET/CT scans as biomarker for patients with HCC following radioembolization.     

Superficial fascial system repair: an abdominoplasty technique to reduce local complications after caesarean delivery

Abdominal incision complications are a major source of morbidity after caesarean delivery. Repair of the superficial fascial system may avert local complications after caesarean delivery by minimising tension to the skin and increasing the initial biomechanical strength of wound which has the potential to decrease early wound dehiscence and as a by-product correct suprapubic bulging.     

Challenges in the management of pleomorphic lobular carcinoma in situ of the breast

BackgroundPleomorphic Lobular Carcinoma in Situ (PLCIS) is a pathological variant of Lobular Carcinoma in Situ (LCIS) with distinct features. Since first described over a decade ago there are only few papers published about this condition.MethodsMedline and Pubmed based literature overview was done with the aim of describing the different histopathological, radiological and clinical features of this pathological entity to highlight the different clinicopathological presentations and modalities of treatment described.ResultsPLCIS has different biological features when compared to LCIS. It is more likely to be associated with invasive disease and the immuno-histochemical profile shows it is less likely to be ER and PR positive with higher positivity of HER2, Ki-67and p53. It has been suggested that PLCIS should be treated more aggressively than LCIS and surgically excised in similar fashion to DCIS.ConclusionPLCIS is a more aggressive variant of LCIS that needs to be managed differently. Surgical excision with clear margins is advised. Further adjuvant treatments have been described in the literature with little evidence to support their use.     

Classifying highly imbalanced ICU data

Highly imbalanced data sets are those where the class of interest is rare. In this paper, we compare the performance of several common data mining methods, logistic regression, discriminant analysis, Classification and Regression Tree (CART) models, C5, and Support Vector Machines (SVM) in predicting the discharge status (alive or deceased, with “deceased” being the class of interest) of patients from an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Using a variety of misclassification cost ratio (MCR) values and using specificity, recall, precision, the F-measure, and confusion entropy (CEN) as criteria for evaluating each method’s performance, C5 and SVM performed better than the other methods. At a MCR of 100, C5 had the highest recall and SVM the highest specificity and lowest CEN. We also used Hand’s measure to compare the five methods. According to Hand’s measure, logistic regression performed the best. This article makes several contributions. We show how the use of MCR for analyzing imbalanced medical data significantly improves the method’s classification performance. We also found that the F-measure and precision did not improve as the MCR was increased.     

Clinical Outcomes With Ring Sideroblasts and SF3B1 Mutations in Myelodysplastic Syndromes: MDS Clinical Research Consortium Analysis

Background

Recurrent somatic mutations in SF3B1 have been identified in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and are associated with ring sideroblasts (RS) and relatively favorable clinical outcomes. The 2016 World Health Organization classification categorizes patients with ≥ 5% RS and SF3B1 mutation as MDS-RS, in contrast to its prior MDS-RS classification (≥ 15% RS, no genotyping data). Treatment responses in MDS patients with mutated SF3B1 are not well described.

A population-based audit of surgical practice and outcomes of oncoplastic breast conservations in Scotland – An analysis of 589 patients

Introduction

Current evidence for oncoplastic breast conservation (OBC) is based on single institutional series. Therefore, we carried out a population-based audit of OBC practice and outcomes in Scotland.