COGNITION: a prospective precision oncology trial for patients with early breast cancer at high risk following neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND: COGNITION (Comprehensive assessment of clinical features, genomics and further molecular markers to identify patients with early breast cancer for enrolment on marker driven trials) is a diagnostic registry trial that employs genomic and transcriptomic profiling to identify biomarkers in patients with early breast cancer with a high risk for relapse after standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) to guide genomics-driven targeted post-neoadjuvant therapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: At National Center for Tumor Diseases Heidelberg patients were biopsied before starting NACT, and for patients with residual tumors after NACT additional biopsy material was collected. Whole-genome/exome and transcriptome sequencing were applied on tumor and corresponding blood samples. RESULTS: In the pilot phase 255 patients were enrolled, among which 213 were assessable: thereof 48.8% were identified to be at a high risk for relapse following NACT; 86.4% of 81 patients discussed in the molecular tumor board were eligible for a targeted therapy within the interventional multiarm phase II trial COGNITION-GUIDE (Genomics-guided targeted post neoadjuvant therapy in patients with early breast cancer) starting enrolment in Q4/2022. An in-depth longitudinal analysis at baseline and in residual tumor tissue of 16 patients revealed some cases with clonal evolution but largely stable genetic alterations, suggesting restricted selective pressure of broad-acting cytotoxic neoadjuvant chemotherapies. CONCLUSIONS: While most precision oncology initiatives focus on metastatic disease, the presented concept offers the opportunity to empower novel therapy options for patients with high-risk early breast cancer in the post-neoadjuvant setting within a biomarker-driven trial and provides the basis to test the value of precision oncology in a curative setting with the overarching goal to increase cure rates.

Effects of time and temperature on the viability of Toxoplasma gondii tissue cysts in enhanced pork loin.

Enhanced or pumped pork products represent a significant proportion (40 to 50%) of the commercially available pork cuts available to consumers at the retail level. In a previous study, pork loins containing viable Toxoplasma gondii tissue cysts were pumped with solutions containing 2% sodium chloride or 1.4% or higher potassium or sodium lactate and stored at 4 degrees C for 7 days. This treatment prevented transmission of T. gondii to cats. In the present study, enhanced pork loins were stored for 0, 8, 16, 24, 32, or 40 h at 4 degrees C and then fed to T. gondii-seronegative cats to determine how quickly the loss of tissue cyst viability occurred. In a second experiment, pork loins collected from pigs experimentally infected with T. gondii were stored at temperatures found in retail meat cases and then fed to T. gondii-seronegative cats to determine the effect of typical meat case storage temperatures on tissue cyst viability. In both experiments, cat feces were examined for 14 days after the infected meat meal to assess oocyst shedding. The results indicate that solutions containing 2% sodium chloride or 1.4% potassium or sodium lactate are effective within 8 h of injection for killing T. gondii tissue cysts in pork loins and that storage at meat case temperatures at or below 0 degrees C (32 degrees F) for 7 days also killed T. gondii tissue cysts in pork loins.

Prevalencia de obesidad y sobrepeso en población escolar / Prevalence of obesity and overweight in school children population

Objetivos: 1-Determinar la prevalencia de obesidad y sobrepeso en niños que cursan 5° año de la EGB en establecimientos escolares de la ciudad de Venado Tuerto. 2-Determinar si existe relación entre el estado nutricional y la actividad física en los niños. Matriales y métodos: se encuestaron 444 niños de 5to. año EGB en 23 establecimientos escolares de la ciudad de Venado Tuerto. Las encuestas realizadas constaron de 14 preguntas y un registro de las comidas que el niño realizó durante un día. Las mismas fueron entregadas en mano y se las retiró después de 1 semana. Los niños fueron previamente evaluados según su índice de masa corporal en relación de su edad. Las categorías asignadas fueron: desnutridos (D), peso normal(PN), sobrepeso (S), obesidad (O). Como punto de corte se utilizó para S (entre los percentilos 85 y 95) y para los O (> percentilo 95) según las curvas del Instituto Nacional d Estadísticas en Salud (NCHS)...

[Atrial myxoma in the aged. Apropos of 2 clinical cases]. / Il mixoma atriale nell'anziano. A proposito di due casi clinici.

Cardiac myxoma are a diagnostic dilemma, simulating a variety of cardiac and non cardiac diseases. Echocardiography is a powerful technique for diagnosing primary tumors of the heart. We report two cases of elderly patients, with atrial myxomas, for which operation was safely performed on the basis of echocardiography alone without preoperative catheterization.

[Carcinoid cardiopathy]. / La cardiopatia da carcinoide.

A series of 5 males and 2 females aged 23-73 yr with carcinoid cardiopathy is presented, all of them with clinical and instrumental signs of liver metastasis. The main clinical signs were dyspnoea and asthenia rendered ingravescent by effort, and, in the later stage, a frank picture of congestive cardiac decompensation. All subjected presented stethoscopic evidence of tricuspid valvulopathy, combined with pulmonary stenosis in 2 cases. The ECG picture displayed a constant reduction in cardiac potentials, together with right branch bundle block in 3 cases. In cases where an echocardiogram was taken, this confirmed tricuspid involvement. The disease progressed in all cases, and four patients died as a result of terminal liver failure.