1,721,009 research outputs found
Circulating tumor cells in early bladder cancer: insight into micrometastatic disease
No full textAlthough several studies have demonstrated the prognostic and predictive potential of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), to date their evaluation still has not impacted the treatment strategy. There is wide consensus that CTC assessment would be more beneficial in early stage cancer, especially in those tumor types characterized by early progression and a lack of prognostic markers. Non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer represents an optimal model to this purpose. In fact, the rate of metastatic spread ranges between 20 and 40%, which is unacceptable for a 'superficial' tumor and unexpected in an early stage cancer. This may be due to the presence of non-clinically detectable micrometastases. CTCs may be used as a noninvasive, real-time tool for the stratification of early stage bladder cancer patients according to individual risk of progression
Controversies in circulating tumor cell count during therapy
No full textCirculating tumor cells (CTCs) are a potential biomarker for prognosis and predictor for therapeutic response. Besides enumeration, the molecular portrait of CTCs holds promise to reveal new insights into the biology of cancer. Although CTCs may represent a liquid biopsy useful for selection of personalized treatments, to date, inconclusive clinical data support the utility of such information in terms of measurable benefit for the individual cancer patient. To finally move CTCs from translational research to the clinical setting and incorporate CTC count/characterization in routine oncological practice, we still need a definitive validation. This is a goal that will be hard to achieve, since tracing a molecular profile of CTCs is hampered by the extremely high heterogeneity of these cells
Circulating tumor cells isolation: The “post-EpCAM era”
Full text linkCirculating tumor cells (CTCs) represent a submicroscopic fraction detached from a primary tumor and in transit to a secondary site. The prognostic significance of CTCs in metastatic cancer patients was demonstrated for the first time more than ten years ago. To date, it seems clear enough that CTCs are highly heterogeneous and dynamically change their shape. Thus, the inadequacy of epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) as universal marker for CTCs detection seems unquestionable and alternative methods able to recognize a broader spectrum of phenotypes are definitely needed. In this review the pleiotropic functions of EpCAM are discussed in detail and the role of the molecule in the biology of CTCs is critically dissected
The End of Chemotherapy in Renal Cell Carcinoma: For Much But Not for All
No full text[No abstract available
EGFR inhibitor as second-line therapy in a patient with mutant RAS metastatic colorectal cancer: circulating tumor DNA to personalize treatment
Full text linkA 47-year-old male patient presented in March 2016 to our unit with a palpable painless left supraclavicular mass. A whole-body contrastenhanced
computed tomography (CT) scan revealed a left supraclavicular lymphadenopathy, transverse colon thickening (3 cm), multiple chest and abdominal lymphadenopathies, and peritoneal carcinomatosis. Colonoscopy revealed a bleeding area at 15 cm from the anal verge; biopsy was performed, and the result was negative for a primary cancer
Clinical utility of circulating tumor cell counting through CellSearch(®): the dilemma of a concept suspended in Limbo.
Full text linkTo date, 10 years after the first demonstration of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), prognostic significance in metastatic breast cancer using the US Food and Drug Administration-cleared system CellSearch (R), the potential utility of CTCs in early clinical development of drugs, their role as a surrogate marker of response to therapy, and their molecular analysis for patient stratification for targeted therapies are still major unsolved questions. Great expectations are pinned on the ongoing interventional trials aimed to demonstrate that CTCs might be of value for guiding treatment of patients and predicting cancer progression. To fill the gap between theory and practice with regard to the clinical utility of CTCs, a bridge is needed, taking into account innovative design for clinical trials, a revised definition of traditional CTCs, next-generation CTC technology, the potential clinical application of CTC analysis in non-validated settings of disease, and finally, expanding the number of patients enrolled in the studies. In this regard, the results of the first European pooled analysis definitely validated the independent prognostic value of CTC counting in metastatic breast cancer patients
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
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