1,720,983 research outputs found
Perioperative NALIRIFOX in Patients with Resectable Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: An Updated Analysis of Survival and Response Biomarkers from the Phase II nITRO Trial.
No full textIntroduction. Less than half of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients are alive after 5 years, even when diagnosed at an early stage. NALIRIFOX is a three-drug combination that has recently been shown to improve overall survival (OS) in advanced PDAC. The phase II, single-arm nITRO trial evaluated the activity of NALIRIFOX as perioperative treatment in patients with resectable PDAC (<180° contact with the wall of major veins). The study met its primary endpoint, achieving an R0 resection rate of 65.3%. Here, we report updated survival outcomes and translational analyses aimed at identifying potential biomarkers.
Methods. Plasma concentrations of 25 cytokines were measured using a multiplex xMAP/Luminex platform on baseline blood samples. Whole-exome sequencing was performed on germline DNA to evaluate genes potentially involved in PDAC pathogenesis. Variants of uncertain significance (VUS) were assessed using in silico tools. Plasma cytokine levels and germline pathogenic mutations were correlated with treatment response and survival outcomes.
Results. With a median follow-up of 50.2 months, the median OS in the intention-to-treat population was 32.3 months (95%CI 26.6-38.0). Among resected patients, median disease-free survival (DFS) and OS were 19.4 and 47.9 months, respectively. TNF-α, a potent activator of the TAK1/NF-κB chemoresistance pathway, was the circulating factor most strongly associated with response, probability of resection, and DFS. More than one-fourth of profiled patients carried germline likely pathogenic (gLPV) or pathogenic (gPV) variants in at least one of the DNA damage-repair (DDR) or cancer-predisposition genes analyzed. This subgroup showed clinically meaningful improvements in both DFS and OS. Approximately half of the VUS were reclassified as potentially damaging based on in silico analyses. Patients with both gDDR deficiency and low TNF-α levels achieved the longest OS.
Conclusions. Updated survival outcomes confirmed previous results of the nITRO trial. Biomarker analyses identified a subgroup of patients most likely to benefit from this treatment approach
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
Electronic Medical Record-Assisted Telephone Follow-Up of Breast Cancer Survivors During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Single Institution Experience
Full text linkPURPOSE: The COVID-19 outbreak rapidly became a public health emergency and led to radical changes in patient management. From the start of the pandemic, we used electronic medical record-assisted telephone follow-up (E-TFU) of cancer survivors (CS) to minimize hospital exposure. The aim of this prospective study was to assess how breast cancer survivors (bCSs) perceived E-TFU.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A 15-item survey was e-mailed to bCSs who had been managed with E-TFU. The responses were measured using Likert-like scales and were correlated with the main characteristics of the bCS using Pearson's test.RESULTS: One hundred thirty-seven of 343 bCSs (40%) completed the survey between March 9 and June 2, 2020. Their median age was 59 years. Although 80.3% of bCSs were satisfied with E-TFU, only 43.8% would like to have E-TFU in the future. A low educational level was correlated with higher COVID-19-related anxiety (P = .025). An older age (P = .002) and a low educational level (P < .0001) were correlated with the need to be accompanied to reach the hospital. A personal history of second cancer was inversely correlated with understanding medical advice (P = .015) and the expectation of feeling relief after a follow-up visit (P = .0027). Furthermore, pandemic phase II was correlated with satisfaction with E-TFU (P = .010).CONCLUSION: E-TFU was an important means of avoiding hospital contacts during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the majority of bCSs in the survey were satisfied with this procedure. Further studies are needed to investigate the implementation of telemedicine even outside an emergency situation
Integration of liposomal irinotecan in the first-line treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer: try to do not think about the white bear
No full textThe approval of novel therapeutic agents remains widely reliant on evidence derived from large phase III randomized controlled trials. Liposomal irinotecan (ONIVYDE (R)) stands out as the only drug that has demonstrated improved survival both as a first-line therapy in combination with oxaliplatin and 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin (5FU/LV) (NALIRIFOX) compared to the standard gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel in the NAPOLI3 trial, and as a second-line treatment in combination with 5FU/LV compared to the standard 5FU/LV in the NAPOLI1 trial. However, just as the white bear of the Dostoevsky's paradox, the judgment of these results is invariably distracted by the intrusive thought of how different they might be if compared to similar regimens containing standard-free irinotecan as FOLFIRINOX or FOLFIRI, respectively. Here, we present and thoroughly discuss the evidence encompassing the pharmacologic, preclinical, and clinical development of liposomal irinotecan that can dispel any intrusive thoughts and foster a rational and well-considered judgment of this agent and its potential integration into the therapeutic strategies for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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