1,721,047 research outputs found
Health as a human right, the right to life and the freedom to choose
No full textIn a work recently published in an important international journal of medical oncology one of the most relevant names in the field of palliative care and pain therapy in Italy, reiterated once again the importance of a good end of life for cancer patients. All this in light of a recent ruling by the Italian Constitutional Court on the decriminalization decision in case of support for suicide in particular conditions, inviting the Parliament to legislate on the delicate issue concerning assisted suicide and euthanasia. By sharing the master's thought, we felt the need to make a more open reflection by putting heart and soul into it
Comprehensive genomic profiling in large cell neuroendocrine lung cancer: the times they are a-changin'
Full text linkThe discovery of gene driver mutations and the increase of next-generation sequencing techniques have radically changed the natural history of NSCLCs. Neuroendocrine lung cancers are a heterogeneous entity whose biology is little known. Sporadic actionable mutations are also reported in this subtype of neoplasms, especially in tumors derived from a transformation of adenocarcinomas. ROS-1 gene rearrangements are found in about 1-2% of lung neoplasms and are characterized by a high sensitivity to specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKis). Here we report the case of a large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma precisely framed and treated thanks to a next-generation genomic approach
La medicina di precisione come opera d’arte collettiva
Full text linkRiassunto. Per approfondire la nostra comprensione delle
malattie complesse è necessario instaurare un dialogo interdisciplinare che vada oltre l’intelligenza artificiale (IA) nel
campo della medicina. A due decenni dal completamento
del Progetto genoma umano, il sequenziamento genetico
ha reso possibili terapie mirate per le malattie correlate
a mutazioni genetiche. Tuttavia, questo risultato ha evidenziato le immense lacune nella nostra comprensione dei
meccanismi della vita e delle malattie. Le malattie complesse, tra cui il cancro, il diabete e le patologie autoimmuni,
rimangono sfuggenti a causa della loro natura multifattoriale. Di conseguenza, diventa imperativo adottare un
approccio più olistico che integri I'lA con diverse discipline
scientifiche. Questo articolo sottolinea I'urgenza di favorire
la collaborazione tra genetica, biologia molecolare, biologia computazionale e ricerca clinica per svelare le complessita intricate alla base di queste malattie. Integrando le
competenze e i dati provenienti da diverse aree, possiamo
compiere progressi significativi nel decifrare la rete intricata
delle malattie complesse, migliorando la diagnosi, il trattamento e, in definitiva, la prognosi per i pazienti.Advancing our understanding of complex diseases necessitates an interdisciplinary dialogue beyond artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of medicine. Two decades after the completion of the Human Genome Project, genetic sequencing has facilitated targeted therapies for gene mutation-related ailments. However, this achievement has unveiled the immense gaps in our comprehension of life and disease mechanisms. Complex diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders, remain elusive due to their multifactorial nature. Consequently, a more holistic approach integrating AI with diverse scientific disciplines becomes imperative. This paper emphasizes the urgency of fostering collaboration among genetics, molecular biology, computational biology, and clinical research to unravel the intricate complexities underlying these diseases. By synergizing expertise and data from various domains, we can make significant strides towards unraveling the intricate web of complex diseases, leading to improved diagnosis, treatment, and ultimately, patient outcomes
Predictive biomarkers for checkpoint inhibitor-based immunotherapy: The Galectin-3 signature in NSCLCs
Full text linkCheckpoint inhibitor-based immunotherapy is opening a promising scenario in oncology, with objective responses registered in multiple cancer types. However, reliable predictive markers of tumor responsiveness are still lacking. These markers need to be urgently identified for a better selection of patients that can be candidates for immunotherapy. In this pilot study, a cohort of 34 consecutive patients bearing programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)-positive non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), treated with pembrolizumab, was considered. The retrospective immuno-phenotypic analysis performed on the original tumor biopsies allowed for the identification of a specific “galectin signature”, which strongly correlated with tumor responsiveness to anti PD-1 immunotherapy. We observed that the large majority of patients (about 90%) with high galectin-3 tumor expression (score 3+) showed an early and dramatic progression of the disease after three cycles of treatments. In contrast, all patients with negative or low/intermediate expression of galectin-3 in tumor cells showed an early and durable objective response to pembrolizumab, indicating galectin-3 as an interesting predictive marker of tumor responsiveness. The galectin-3 signature, at least in NSCLCs, promises a better selection of patient candidates for immunotherapy, reducing unnecessary treatment exposures and social costs. A large multicenter study is ongoing to validate this finding
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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