Dialysis prescription in acute kidney injury: when and how much?

Acute kidney injury (AKI) constitutes a serious public health problem because of its very high cost and mortality rate, with an increasing incidence, phenomenon which is explained by the increasingly number of older patients suffering from several comorbidities admitted in the intensive care units. Despite the new AKI definition and classification, the use of novel AKI biomarkers and modern technologies, as an attempt to achieve an early AKI detection and treatment, and consequently to better clinical outcomes, AKI mortality particularly in ICU patients remains persistently high. In the present article, the currently accepted concepts regarding dose and time of hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis prescription in AKI patients have been reviewed.

Pulmonary Sarcomatoid Carcinomas Commonly Harbor Either Potentially Targetable Genomic Alterations or High Tumor Mutational Burden as Observed by Comprehensive Genomic Profiling.

INTRODUCTION: Pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma (PSC) is a high-grade NSCLC characterized by poor prognosis and resistance to chemotherapy. Development of targeted therapeutic strategies for PSC has been hampered because of limited and inconsistent molecular characterization. METHODS: Hybrid capture-based comprehensive genomic profiling was performed on DNA from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sections of 15,867 NSCLCs, including 125 PSCs (0.8%). Tumor mutational burden (TMB) was calculated from 1.11 megabases (Mb) of sequenced DNA. RESULTS: The median age of the patients with PSC was 67 years (range 32-87), 58% were male, and 78% had stage IV disease. Tumor protein p53 gene (TP53) genomic alterations (GAs) were identified in 74% of cases, which had genomics distinct from TP53 wild-type cases, and 62% featured a GA in KRAS (34%) or one of seven genes currently recommended for testing in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network NSCLC guidelines, including the following: hepatocyte growth factor receptor gene (MET) (13.6%), EGFR (8.8%), BRAF (7.2%), erb-b2 receptor tyrosine kinase 2 gene (HER2) (1.6%), and ret proto-oncogene (RET) (0.8%). MET exon 14 alterations were enriched in PSC (12%) compared with non-PSC NSCLCs (∼3%) (p < 0.0001) and were more prevalent in PSC cases with an adenocarcinoma component. The fraction of PSC with a high TMB (>20 mutations per Mb) was notably higher than in non-PSC NSCLC (20% versus 14%, p = 0.056). Of nine patients with PSC treated with targeted or immunotherapies, three had partial responses and three had stable disease. CONCLUSION: Potentially targetable GAs in National Comprehensive Cancer Network NSCLC genes (30%) or intermediate or high TMB (43%, >10 mutations per Mb) were identified in most of the PSC cases. Thus, the use of comprehensive genomic profiling in clinical care may provide important treatment options for a historically poorly characterized and difficult to treat disease.

Giant condyloma of the cervix: an uncommon entity associated with low-risk human papilloma virus infection.

"Giant Condylomas" of the cervix are very uncommon, and have not been fully characterized in the English literature. We report 4 cases of cervical giant condyloma seen in our practice. Patients were predominantly young and presented with a cervical lesion producing bleeding or a mass effect. Biopsy/excision revealed a uniformly bland, exophytic squamous epithelial proliferation with viral cytopathic changes and absence of stromal invasion. Human papilloma virus types 6 and 11 were detected in all cases. Follow-up was uneventful without recurrence or spread. Giant condylomas of the cervix as defined in this report signify a benign albeit extensive variant of low-risk human papilloma virus infection. This term is proposed as a specific descriptor for such lesions and should be considered in the setting of any large well-differentiated exophytic cervical squamous lesion in young or immunosuppressed women. The term "giant condyloma of Buschke and Loewenstein" should be discontinued given the lack of specificity.