Pancreatic adenocarcinoma treated with surgical resection, toceranib phosphate and firocoxib in a dog: a case report.

Exocrine pancreatic carcinomas are rarely reported in dogs. A ductal pancreatic adenocarcinoma in a 10-year-old intact beagle is described in this report. The diagnosis was made based on clinical signs, imaging (abdominal ultrasound and CT scan) and histopathology. Treatment consisted of partial right lobe pancreatectomy followed by adjuvant therapy with toceranib phosphate (Palladia®) and firocoxib (Previcox®) for six months. The treatment was well tolerated, and the survival time was 445 days. To our knowledge, this is the longest survival reported in the literature for a dog diagnosed with exocrine pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The results described here may contribute to provide a better understanding about this neoplasia and potential treatment options.

Sedative effects of two doses of alfaxalone in combination with methadone and a low dose of dexmedetomidine in healthy Beagles.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the sedative effects of two doses of alfaxalone when added to a combination of dexmedetomidine and methadone injected intramuscularly (IM) in healthy Beagles. STUDY DESIGN: Randomized, blinded, crossover, experimental study. ANIMALS: A group of six adult Beagles. METHODS: Dogs were sedated on three different occasions with IM dexmedetomidine (3 µg kg-1) and methadone (0.3 mg kg-1) combined with two doses of alfaxalone (0.5 and 1 mg kg-1; A0.5 and A1, respectively) or saline (A0). Quality of sedation, response to tail clamping and rectal temperature were recorded at baseline, 5, 15, 25, 35 and 45 minutes. Pulse and respiratory rates, oxygen saturation of haemoglobin (SpO2) and noninvasive blood pressure (NIBP) were recorded every 5 minutes. Onset of sedation and duration of recumbency, response to venous catheterization and recovery quality were assessed. Physiological variables (analysis of variance) were analysed between treatments and within treatments compared with baseline (Student t test). Nonparametric data were analysed using Friedman and Cochran's Q tests. Significance was p < 0.05. RESULTS: Sedation scores were significantly higher when alfaxalone was co-administered (area under the curve; p = 0.024, A0.5; p = 0.019, A1), with no differences between doses. Onset of sedation was similar, but duration of recumbency was longer in A0.5 than in A0 [median (minimum-maximum), 43 (35-54) versus 30 (20-47) minutes, p = 0.018], but not in A1. Response to venous catheterization and tail clamping, and quality of recovery (acceptable) presented no differences between treatments. A decrease in all physiological variables (compared with baseline) was observed, except for NIBP, with no differences between treatments. All dogs required oxygen supplementation due to reduced SpO2. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Adding alfaxalone to methadone and dexmedetomidine enhanced sedation and duration of recumbency. Although cardiopulmonary depression was limited, oxygen supplementation is advisable.

Ground-based detection of an extended helium atmosphere in the Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-69b.

Hot gas giant exoplanets can lose part of their atmosphere due to strong stellar irradiation, and these losses can affect their physical and chemical evolution. Studies of atmospheric escape from exoplanets have mostly relied on space-based observations of the hydrogen Lyman-α line in the far ultraviolet region, which is strongly affected by interstellar absorption. Using ground-based high-resolution spectroscopy, we detected excess absorption in the helium triplet at 1083 nanometers during the transit of the Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-69b, at a signal-to-noise ratio of 18. We measured line blueshifts of several kilometers per second and posttransit absorption, which we interpret as the escape of part of the atmosphere trailing behind the planet in comet-like form.

Evaluación de la citotoxidad del trióxido de arsénico en líneas celulares tumorales humanas con la técnica colorimétrica de la sulforhodamina B / Evaluation of the cytotoxicity of arsenic trioxide in human tumoral cellular lines by the sulforhodamine B colorimetric technique

El trióxido de arsénico ha demostrado ser un inductor de apoptosis en líneas celulares de leucemia promielocítica aguda. Estudios clínicos han demostrado su efectividad en el tratamiento de esta enfermedad en pacientes refractarios al tratamiento con ácido retinoico. En este trabajo se determinó la actividad citotóxica de este producto frente a un panel de 3 líneas celulares tumorales humanas de tumores sólidos (M14, MCF7, HT-29) y una línea de leucemia promielocítica aguda, utilizando la técnica de la sulforhodamina B. Se realizaron 2 experimentos en los cuales las células fueron incubadas durante 48 h en presencia del producto. Las IC50 s obtenidas en ambos experimentos fueron: M14 (0,471 y 0,450 µg/mL), MCF7 (0,122 µg/mL), HT-29 (0,543 y 0,659 µ g/mL) y HL60 (0,487 y 0,351 µg/mL). Se concluyó que el trióxido de arsénico posee una marcada actividad citotóxica, no solo en la línea de leucemia promielocítica aguda, sino también, en las líneas de tumores sólidos humanos estudiadas por lo que se recomendó realizar un estudio de actividad antitumoral de este producto