Recent Advances in the Medical Treatment of Recurrent or Metastatic Renal Cell Cancer.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) historically has had limited treatment options in the metastatic setting but in the last decade, a significant arsenal of new therapies has emerged. Specifically, targeted anti-angiogenic therapies through vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibition and immunotherapy through PD-1 inhibition have become the foundation of metastatic RCC treatment increasing not only progression-free survival but also an improved overall survival with improved toxicity profiles compared with older therapies such as IL-2 and interferon. With the development of these newer medications, the optimal sequence and pairing of treatments is not yet well understood but important studies are ongoing as this information will allow for more effective and safe treatment of patients.

Cytomegalovirus strain diversity in seropositive women.

Infection and reinfection with multiple cytomegalovirus (CMV) strains have been shown to occur in immunocompromised individuals, sexually transmitted disease clinic attendees, and children attending day care centers. To characterize the CMV diversity in healthy seropositive individuals, 16 CMV PCR-positive specimens from 113 seropositive women were analyzed for glycoprotein gN and gB genotypes by cloning, followed by nucleotide sequencing of the plasmid DNA and/or restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The results showed that most (93.7%) of the PCR-positive specimens contained multiple gN and/or gB genomic variants, suggesting that the majority of women were infected with more than one virus strain. The results also showed that the RFLP technique might not be sufficiently sensitive to detect all of the genomic variants present in a sample.