Ototoxicity prognostic models in adult and pediatric cancer patients: a rapid review.

PURPOSE: A cornerstone of treatment for many cancers is the administration of platinum-based chemotherapies and/or ionizing radiation, which can be ototoxic. An accurate ototoxicity risk assessment would be useful for counseling, treatment planning, and survivorship follow-up in patients with cancer. METHODS: This systematic review evaluated the literature on predictive models for estimating a patient's risk for chemotherapy-related auditory injury to accelerate development of computational approaches for the clinical management of ototoxicity in cancer patients. Of the 1195 articles identified in a PubMed search from 2010 forward, 15 studies met inclusion for the review. CONCLUSIONS: All but 1 study used an abstraction of the audiogram as a modeled outcome; however, specific outcome measures varied. Consistently used predictors were age, baseline hearing, cumulative cisplatin dose, and radiation dose to the cochlea. Just 5 studies were judged to have an overall low risk of bias. Future studies should attempt to minimize bias by following statistical best practices including not selecting multivariate predictors based on univariate analysis, validation in independent cohorts, and clearly reporting the management of missing and censored data. Future modeling efforts should adopt a transdisciplinary approach to define a unified set of clinical, treatment, and/or genetic risk factors. Creating a flexible model that uses a common set of predictors to forecast the full post-treatment audiogram may accelerate work in this area. Such a model could be adapted for use in counseling, treatment planning, and follow-up by audiologists and oncologists and could be incorporated into ototoxicity genetic association studies as well as clinical trials investigating otoprotective agents. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: Improvements in the ability to model post-treatment hearing loss can help to improve patient quality of life following cancer care. The improvements advocated for in this review should allow for the acceleration of advancements in modeling the auditory impact of these treatments to support treatment planning and patient counseling during and after care.

The medical importance of riceland mosquitoes and their control using alternatives to chemical insecticides.

The medical importance, ecology and control of riceland mosquitoes using alternative strategies is reviewed. Over 135 pest and vector anopheline and culicine mosquito species found in association with riceland habitats and their medical importance are presented. Malaria and Japanese encephalitis are the two most serious human diseases transmitted by riceland mosquitoes, but they have been incriminated as vectors of dozens of arboviruses and other parasites and pathogens including the causal agents of West Nile and Rift Valley Fevers and lymphatic filariasis. Control of vector and pest mosquitoes using chemical pesticides has generated several problems including: insecticide resistance, safety risks for humans and domestic animals, and other environmental concerns. These problems and the high cost and sustainability of programs based predominantly on conventional insecticides have stimulated increased interest in integrated control measures in ricelands. The integrated pest management (IPM) strategy for mosquito control, also known as integrated vector control (IVC), is an ecologically based approach that may involve several complementary interventions used in combination or singly. Environmental management, and chemical, biological and mechanical control, comprise the elements of IVC proposed for use in or near riceland habitats. Some of the elements of environmental management include the use of intermittent irrigation; flushing of fields; use of rice cultivars that require less water; shifting of planting schedules to avoid optimal mosquito breeding conditions; relocation of communities or use of dry belt farming around them; and zooprophylaxis and other personal protection methods, especially use of insecticide-impregnated bed nets. Biological control agents that have been used successfully in rice fields include several species of larvivorous fish, a mermithid nematode (Romanomermis culicivorax), a fungus (Lagenidium giganteum) and bacteria (Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis and Bacillus sphaericus). The mermithid and the entomopathogens have demonstrated little or no adverse effects on populations of vertebrate and invertebrate nontarget organisms. The successful use of any particular method or combination of interventions for the control of riceland mosquitoes will depend on in-depth ecological studies on the target species and nontarget organisms, sound geographic reconnaissance and effective routine sampling and evaluation. When biological control agents are considered, additional background on the environmental factors limiting their efficacy will also be needed. In addition to the technical components of the various interventions employed in integrated control, sustained suppression of riceland mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit will require a greater sociocultural supportive background, particularly in developing countries.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Mosquito host range and field activity of Bacillus sphaericus isolate 2297 (serotype 25).

The 2297 isolate (serotype 25) of Bacillus sphaericus was bioassayed in the laboratory against 8 species of mosquitoes from 3 subfamilies. The most susceptible species were in the genus Culex and the least susceptible were the Aedes spp. and Toxorhynchites r. rutilus. Primary powders of the 2297 and 2362 (serotype 5a5b) isolates were evaluated in the field in natural and simulated habitats against Culex spp. The larvicidal activity of the two isolates was similar, with longer residual activity observed for both preparations in shaded shallow clear water. Larvicidal activity was curtailed in organically enriched and unshaded habitats. Isolate 2297 provided effective control for at least 1 week in an organically enriched habitat and for over 5 weeks in clear water in a shaded habitat when applied at the rate of 0.25 kg/ha.

Host range and selected factors influencing the mosquito larvicidal activity of the PG-14 isolate of Bacillus thuringiensis var. morrisoni.

Laboratory bioassay of the PG-14 isolate of Bacillus thuringiensis var. morrisoni (serotype 8a:8b) against early fourth instar larvae of 8 species of mosquitoes revealed a range of susceptibilities similar to the susceptibilities of these species to Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (serotype 14). The most susceptible species were: Culex quinquefasciatus, Cx. salinarius, Anopheles albimanus and Aedes aegypti. The least susceptible species tested was An. quadrimaculatus. Separate bioassays of PG-14 against the four instars of Ae. aegypti demonstrated a strong negative correlation (R = -0.97) between larval age and susceptibility. Temperature significantly affected the stability of larvicidal toxin in aqueous suspensions of PG-14. Larvicidal activity of a bacterial suspension was nearly completely eliminated after 132 days of storage at 31 degrees C, but was essentially unchanged for those suspensions stored at 4 degrees C.