Immune-enrichment of non-small cell lung cancer baseline biopsies for multiplex profiling define prognostic immune checkpoint combinations for patient stratification.

BACKGROUND: Permanence of front-line management of lung cancer by immunotherapies requires predictive companion diagnostics identifying immune-checkpoints at baseline, challenged by the size and heterogeneity of biopsy specimens. METHODS: An innovative, tumor heterogeneity reducing, immune-enriched tissue microarray was constructed from baseline biopsies, and multiplex immunofluorescence was used to profile 25 immune-checkpoints and immune-antigens. RESULTS: Multiple immune-checkpoints were ranked, correlated with antigen presenting and cytotoxic effector lymphocyte activity, and were reduced with advancing disease. Immune-checkpoint combinations on TILs were associated with a marked survival advantage. Conserved combinations validated on more than 11,000 lung, breast, gastric and ovarian cancer patients demonstrate the feasibility of pan-cancer companion diagnostics. CONCLUSIONS: In this hypothesis-generating study, deepening our understanding of immune-checkpoint biology, comprehensive protein-protein interaction and pathway mapping revealed that redundant immune-checkpoint interactors associate with positive outcomes, providing new avenues for the deciphering of molecular mechanisms behind effects of immunotherapeutic agents targeting immune-checkpoints analyzed.

Support for the uniqueness of body dissatisfaction from drive for muscularity among men.

This study explored whether three dimensions of men's body dissatisfaction (muscularity, body fat, and height) are distinct from drive for muscularity (body image, behaviors, and attitudes) in a sample of 368 college men. If body dissatisfaction is a unique construct, then it will be associated with psychological well-being above and beyond the variance accounted for by drive for muscularity body image, behaviors, and attitudes. Findings revealed such incremental evidence, supporting body dissatisfaction's unique contribution to all five investigated indices of psychological well-being. Overall, body dissatisfaction and drive for muscularity are not completely parallel constructs, highlighting the need to assess men's dissatisfaction with their muscularity, body fat, and height for a more comprehensive picture of their body image.

Development and psychometric evaluation of the Male Body Attitudes Scale (MBAS).

A measure of men's attitudes toward their body (MBAS) was developed and evaluated via three independent samples of college men. In Studies 1 and 2, factor analyses determined and cross-validated the MBAS's underlying structure. Three factors emerged from the items: muscularity, low body fat, and height. Studies 1 and 2 provided construct (i.e., convergent, concurrent, and discriminant) validity evidence for the MBAS total scale and subscales; they were related or not related as expected to drive for muscularity, body esteem, internalization of the muscular ideal, pressures for muscularity, pressures for thinness, self-esteem, body comparison, eating disorder symptomatology, and impression management. Study 3 revealed that the MBAS total score and subscale scores were stable over a 2-week period. The internal consistency reliabilities for the total score and subscale scores were high across all three studies. The MBAS should prove useful for researchers and clinicians interested in men's body image assessment.

Picture interpretation and Jungian typology.

This study examined a Jungian picture interpretation schema, which utilizes a specific quadrant method. This proposed schema, which is used in training at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zürich, attaches significance to specific areas of a drawing. The upper left of a drawing is associated with the father; the lower left with the unconscious; the lower right with the mother; and the upper right with the future. Three questions served as the foci of this study: Is the schema valid? Do certain types within Jung's personality theory respond better than others to the schema? Does the schema work best when it elicits a strong affective response from the person who created the picture? Subjects took one of two tests: a space domain test, or a colour associative test. The results revealed only two significant effects: a positive association (in the space domain test) between unconscious material with the unconscious quadrant and a negative association (in the colour associative test) of mother material with the mother quadrant. These results suggest that the Jungian quadrant schema used to interpret drawings is invalid and of minimal practical utility. Other methods of picture interpretation are discussed as well as suggestions for future research that would be helpful to this field.