Do locally advanced and metastatic human epithelial cancers evolve in 'placental/decidual-like microenvironments'?

Successful tumor microenvironments eventually kill the host. They are not only meant to nourish and protect tumor development, but to give them the right "soil" for perpetual malignant properties such as tissue invasion and metastasis. This can only be achieved if cancers avoid immune vigilance. A similar situation occurs in mammalian placental pregnancy but feto-maternal tolerance is required for a correct physiological process only until birth. Once a cancer microenvironment has acquired the genetic and epigenetic "placental immune editing switches" (PIES) phenotype, it seems likely that it will keep them "available", whenever needed, for the rest of its development, because it gives cellular clones a competitive advantage to pass unnoticed by the host's immune system. This allows primary cancers and their metastasis to continue growing in spite of new and changing antigenic landscapes.

Estudio piloto prospectivo del deterioro cognitivo en pacientes oncológicos paliativos ambulatorios / Prospective pilot study of cognitive impairment in palliative oncologic outpatiens

Diversos estudios sugieren que los trastornos cognitivos pueden ser frecuentes en pacientes con cáncer avanzado. Su prevalencia es muy variable (8-90%) y son pocos los estudios prospectivos con pacientes paliativos ambulatorios. Objetivo: estudiar la prevalencia del deterioro cognoscitivo en pacientes paliativos oncológicos ambulatorios y precisar la prueba de cribado cognitivo más sensible. Método: Muestra: dieciséis pacientes oncológicos paliativos, 7 hombres y 9mujeres, con una media de edad de 73 años (±12,9) y 3,8 años de escolarización (±3,3). El diagnóstico mayoritario fue de neoplasia digestiva. Durante la valoración cognitiva tres pacientes estaban tratados con mórficos. Material: se administró ambulatoriamente una batería cognitiva que incluía el mini-examen cognitivo de Lobo (MEC), la escala de evaluación cognitiva de Clifton (CAS), la evaluación rápida de funciones cognitivas de Gil (ERFC) y el subtest de claves del WAIS-III. Resultados: se excluyeron cuatro pacientes al presentar, tras evaluación neuropsicológica, un deterioro cognitivo cortical difuso sugestivo de posible demencia degenerativa primaria. De los 12 pacientes restantes evaluados, el CAS y el ERFC objetivaron un deterioro cognitivo leve en 4 y 9 casos respectivamente. Mediante el MEC se detectó un solo caso. Conclusiones: la mayoría de los pacientes oncológicos paliativos tienen un déficit cognoscitivo leve y, posiblemente, específico. El MEC parece tener menor sensibilidad para detectar dicho trastorno, respecto al CASy el ERFC. El enlentecimiento motor y mental parecen ser el deterioro cognoscitivo más característico de dicha población. Finalmente, el déficit cognitivo no parece ser una variable relevante para predecir la esperanza de vida (AU)

Several studies suggest that cognitive impairment can often appear in advanced cancer patients. Its prevalence is very variable (8-90%) and there is very little prospective research with palliative outpatients. Objective: studying the prevalence of the cognitive impairment in palliative oncologic outpatients and specifying the most sensitive cognitive screening test. Method: Subjects: sixteen onchological palliative patients, 7 men and 9 women, with an average age of 73 years old (±12,9) and 3,8 school years (±3,3). The main diagnosis was the digestive neoplasia. During the cognitive examination, three of the patients were being treated with morphic. Material: a battery of cognitive tests was administered in an ambulatory way. This battery included the mini-exam cognitive of Lobo (MEC), the cognitive evaluation scale of Clifton (CAS), the quick assessment of cognitive function of Gil (ERFC) and the subtest of digit symbol from WAIS-III. Results: four patients was excluded, after neuropsychological assessment, because they showed a diffuse cortical cognitive failure, which suggested the possibility of the existence of dementia. CAS and ERFC showed, in the rest of the 12 patients, a light cognitive impairment in 4 and 9 of the subjects, respectively. By the use of MEC, only one case was detected. Conclusion: the majority of the palliative onchological outpatient shave specific light cognitive deterioration. MEC seems to have less perceptibility than CAS and ERFC to detect that impairment. The slowness of mind activity and movements seem to be the most common cognitive failure in this group of outpatients. Finally, cognitive failure is not related to mortality risk (AU))

Brain blotting: a method to detect multiple DNA copies in specific brain regions.

We developed a method to detect multiple DNA copies (both cellular and viral) in specific brain regions by blotting thick frozen sections onto nylon membranes. This was achieved by "printing" the frozen sections on standard blotting paper immediately after cryotome sectioning and performing blotting according to the standard Southern technique. A "replica" of the blotted section was obtained by keeping on the glass slide the next frozen section cut, which was then stained for conventional histopathological analysis and the cell nuclei counted to give an estimate of the total amount of DNA present in each section. The blotted membranes were then denatured and hybridized with a nick-translated Alu probe either at 42 degrees C with 50% formamide or at 68 degrees C without formamide. Brain sections from mice infected with Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1), blotted and hybridized with a nick-translated HSV1 probe, clearly showed the focal nature of the Herpes simplex infection, which was also demonstrated immunohistologically using a virus specific antiserum. This method of DNA detection, conveniently modified, might also be used to detect nuclear and cytoplasmic RNAs in specific coronal sections of whole brain before localization at high power by standard in situ techniques.