Trends in spa and balneology in postcovid era, outcomes, and perspectives.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected spa and balneology not only in the Czech Republic. Generally, almost two years without spa patients and clients led to a dramatic outflow of labor. The article main purpose is to analyze pandemic impact on the structure of spa patients and clients, to identify main current spa problems to be overcome, and to summarize possible future trends in modern spa and balneology for current and future spa clients. Spa will remain an important medical solution for treatment of some diagnoses using healing mineral-medical waters and natural sources, but they must innovate their services and treating programs to answer current questions and clients 'demands. It will be a complex patient care combining body and mental treatment and care with the use of so-called therapeutic landscape, a unique landscape surrounding spa towns and places, as well as wellness aspects. Modern spa must be an integral part of health care systems in Europe.

Horizon Europe, research and innovation programme until 2027 - what is new comparing with Horizon 2020?

Horizon Europe is the 9th framework programme of European Union (EU) funding research and innovation with the biggest budget ever of €95.5 billion. The main aims of the programme are to boost competitiveness and growth of European Union, to achieve EU sustainable development and to tackle climate change. The programme facilitates collaboration between member states and strengthens the impact of research and innovations. The structure of HEU is similar as in Horizon 2020 based on three pillars: Excellent Science, Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, and Innovative Europe. Horizon Europe brings several novelties as missions, European partnerships, open science, and gender issues. There are five mission areas and the first one of them is Cancer Mission. European partnership is a new form of objective-driven collaborations bringing together private and/or public partners together to address some of Europe´s most important challenges through concerted research and innovation initiatives. Open science policy is mandatory and refers to the open access to publications and open science principles. In the frame of gender equality strategy, the EU has established a well-established regulatory framework on gender equality, including binding directives, which apply widely across the labour market including the research sector.

[Biobanks European infrastructure]. / Biobanky evropská infrastruktura.

Biobanks are structured repositories of human tissue samples connected with specific information. They became an integral part of personalized medicine in the new millennium. At the European research area biobanks are isolated not well coordinated and connected to the network. European commission supports European infrastructure BBMRI-ERIC (Biobanks and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure European Research Infrastructure Consortium), consortium of 54 members with more than 225 associated organizations, largely biobanks from over 30 countries. The aim is to support biomedical research using stored samples. Czech Republic is a member of the consortium as a national node BBMRI_CZ, consisting of five partners.

[Horizon 2020, new EU Framework programme for research and innovation, 2014-2020]. / Horizont 2020, rámcový program Evropské komise pro výzkuma inovace na roky 2014-2020.

Horizon 2020 is a financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europes global competitiveness. Running from 2014 to 2020 with a budget of just over € 80 billion, the EUs new programme for research and innovation is part of the drive to create new growth and jobs in Europe. Societal challenge Health, demographic change and wellbeing is an important part of Horizon 2020.

[First results of participation of the Czech Republic in the 7th Framework Programme, priority Health, in years 2007-2013]. / První výsledky úcasti Ceské republiky v priorite Health 7. rámcového programu EU na roky 2007-2013.

European Commission has announced the first preliminary results of participation in the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), priority Health. The overview presents the basic statistics regarding the participation of the Czech teams, universities, institutions, and small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in FP7 projects. The aim of the article is to present the basic data on the projects with the Czech participation, the EU financial contribution for Czech teams and the main research topics.

[Joint Programming: a new instrument for intensive cooperation in biomedical research in Europe]. / Joint Programming, Spolecné programování - nový nástroj intenzivní spolupráce v oblasti biomedicínského výzkumu v Evrope

The aim of the Joint Program-ming process is to pool national research efforts in order to make better use of European precious public research and development resources and to tackle common European challenges more effectively in a few key areas. Joint programming is a structured and strategic process whereby Member States agree, on a voluntary basis and in a partnership approach, on common visions and Strategic Research Agendas (SRA) to address major societal challenges. On a variable geometry basis, Member States commit to Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) where they implement together joint Strategic Research Agendas.

[Research in biomedicine in collaboration with third country nationals within the 7th framework programme for years 2007-2013]. / Biomedicínský výzkum se tretími zememi v 7. rámcovém programu EU na roky 2007-2013.

International cooperation, in EU -funded health research with research partners on five continents, with project opportunities is open to applicants from every country on the map, with generous funding for international teams exploring issues of relevance to the global community, the EU is fostering ambitious undertakings involving scientists and organisations from Europe and beyond. This commitment to scientific collaboration characterises the EUs approach to research and innovation. The European Commission is considering further ways of boosting the impact of its research contribution. Throughout successive Framework Programmes, international cooperation in EU -funded health research has matured into a proud tradition. All health research topics are now potentially open to applicants from any country. All the projects are advancing the understanding of human health or striving to address an unmet need in prevention, diagnosis, treatment or healthcare provision.

[Preparation of the Eighth Framework Programme of the European Union--Health Priority. European Commission organizes proposal of aims in biomedical research prospecting to 2020]. / Príprava 8. rámcového programu Evropské unie--priorita Health. Evropská komise pripravuje návrh zamereni biomedicínského výzkumu s výhledem do roku 2020.

Eighth framework programme (FP8) of the European Union for years 2014-2020 undergoes the preparatory process. The overview presents current status of the programme preparation. European Commission organized three workshops (-omics in personalised medicine, 4D biology for health and disease, and Stratification biomarkers in personalised medicine) with the purpose to bring together experts from different fields to build a 2020 vision, and to identify the research needs for next years.

Education for future biobankers - The state-of-the-art and outlook.

Biobanking as a quickly growing branch of personalised medicine has undergone enormous progress during last two decades. Nowadays it is a well developed and structured multidisciplinary field that reflects developments and advances of biomedical research based on principles of predictive, preventive and personalised medicine (PPPM/3PM). All these trends in PPPM progress have to be translated into practice and education of new generation of scientists and healthcare givers. The importance of biobanks for multitasking research, personalised treatment, and health care systems was emphasised by many scientists and health care experts. As biobanking carries multidisciplinary character currently including more professionals than ten-twenty years ago, new generation of professional biobankers is urgently needed. To create new generation of biobankers who are fully competent to answer more and more scientific and practical questions, new study programmes, novel university curricula, and topic-dedicated courses are essential. The aim of the review is to present basic forms, trends of biobanking education offered by various biobanking related bodies and to highlight future needs. The first step is to cover all activities and duties of biobanks: acquiring, collecting, storageing and sharing biological samples and associated data, using adequate assessment for both - materials and data, taking into consideration ethical, legal, and societal issues (ELSI), responding to all stakeholder needs including pharmaceutical and other related industries, patient organisations and many other interested groups, emerging technologies and innovations as well as current and future requirements of health care systems. To compile educational programmes is a comprehensive task for all actors involved in the field of biobanking who contribute to the harmonised process of creating high educational level for future generation of biobankers. The exchange of experience involving extensive international collaboration is the way how to facilitate the process of creating optimal biobanking education.

Biobanks in the era of big data: objectives, challenges, perspectives, and innovations for predictive, preventive, and personalised medicine.

Biobanking is entering the new era-era of big data. New technologies, techniques, and knowledge opened the potential of the whole domain of biobanking. Biobanks collect, analyse, store, and share the samples and associated data. Both samples and especially associated data are growing enormously, and new innovative approaches are required to handle samples and to utilize the potential of biobanking data. The data reached the quantity and quality of big data, and the scientists are facing the questions how to use them more efficiently, both retrospectively and prospectively with the aim to discover new preventive methods, optimize treatment, and follow up and to optimize healthcare processes. Biobanking in the era of big data contribute to the development of predictive, preventive, and personalised medicine, for every patient providing the right treatment at the right time. Biobanking in the era of big data contributes to the paradigm shift towards personalising of healthcare.

The 39th annual conference: Immunoanalytical Days - Pilsen, Czech Republic, 11-13 March 2018.

The 39th annual conference: Immunoanalytical Days took place between 11th and 13th of March 2018 in Pilsen, Czech Republic. The title was: Personalised medicine, biobanks and biomarkers for the optimal approach to the patient. The conference was co-organized by the Czech Society of Nuclear Medicine, the Czech Society of Clinical Biochemistry, the University Hospital Pilsen and Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen and Charles University. The event attracted 150 participants from the Czech Republic and ten speakers from abroad. The program offered several main scopes of topics including personalized medicine, biobanks and biomarkers; their discovery, validation, evaluation and use of tumor biomarkers currently used in the whole process of patient's care from prevention, prediction, early diagnosis, through treatment, treatment monitoring and follow-up monitoring.

Informed Consent in the Newly Established Biobank.

Informed consent is an important document for every existing biobank or repository to obtain, store and use human biospecimens and associated data and information for current and future research. Biobanks have undergone great progress worldwide during the last three decades and have become an integral part of personalized medicine and health care systems and due to new scientific and social questions to be solved. Ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) guarantee safe sample and data management, and informed consent is one of the key ELSI documents. The form and the consent given in biobank informed consent forms differs between biobank-related institutions, national biobanks, between EU states, and to find the optimal informed consent requires one to fulfil national and international laws and regulations. The Biobank in Pilsen, Czech Republic was officially opened on April the 20th 2017 as a hospital-integrated biobank, and the informed consent was one of the essential documents that had to be ready prior the opening. The process of formulating informed consent corresponding with institutional, national, and international rules and laws to share the experience, to present the challenges, and to demonstrate the national dissimilarity are tasks of the article.

The 44th Congress of the International Society of Oncology and Biomarkers: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 7-10 September 2017.

The 44th Congress of the International Society of Oncology and Biomarkers: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 7-10 September 2017 The 44th congress followed the previous one of  International Society of Oncology and Biomarkers (ISOBM) that took place in Chicago (USA) in 2016. The title of the 44th Annual congress was: 'Biomarkers in oncology: new horizons and challenges in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer' [ 1 ]. The congress was co-organized by ISOBM, European Group on Tumor Markers (EGTM) and Brazilian Society of Clinical Pathology SBPC/ML. The event attracted more than 180 participants from all over the world. The program offered many topics regarding discovery, validation, evaluation and use of tumor biomarkers. The presentations were split into the key note lectures, oral presentations, poster presentations and satellite symposiums sponsored by companies. The congress offered participants the opportunity to link clinical and research oncologists to discuss new tools for diagnosis and monitoring of cancer diseases. Prominent people in the field of cancer research and clinical oncology were presented and offered the unique opportunity to exchange experiences and knowledge in an international forum [ 2 ]. Compared with previous ISOBM congresses, it was held in Latin America for the first time, and due to that more participants from Latin America were present.

Biobanks in Horizon 2020: sustainability and attractive perspectives.

Biobanks have during last two decades gained an important role in the whole process of biomedical research and health care not only in Europe but also worldwide. Biobanks are one of the pillars in personalised medicine tackling all its aspects such as prevention, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring closely the specific characteristics of an individual patient. The current and future power of biobanks is the amount of samples of high-quality and related information available for current and future research of diseases, for optimising patients´ prevention, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. The material stored in biobanks is a treasure for future technologies that will be able to utilise the currently uncovered information and knowledge. A great and growing number of samples and related information also opens new ways in how to tackle the big data problems and population studies. Biobanks play a substantial role in drug discovery, development and validation. Biobanks are not only an issue of biomedical research, but are becoming a public issue involving patients, to actively participate in biobanking with respect to ethical, legal and social issues. And, finally, biobanking as a multidisciplinary and modern field of science requires appropriate education at all levels of society. To be a world leader in the field of biobanking requires wide international and interdisciplinary collaboration. The topic-dedicated programmes released by the European Commission sustainably support biobank development in Europe and the main tool is the biggest European Union (EU) research and innovation programme ever-Horizon 2020. This article reviews the main Horizon 2020 biobanking projects, financing schemes and the future perspectives.

Stability of total prostate-specific antigen and free prostate-specific antigen after 10 years' storage.

INTRODUCTION: PSA is a serine protease composed of 240 amino acids in a single polypeptide chain and is a routine parameter in prostate cancer diagnostics. The aim of our study was to test the long-term stability of tPSA and fPSA after 10 years' storage at -80°C. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed two aliquots from 55 serum samples. The first was assayed in routine testing at the time of establishing the diagnosis. The second was thawed for further testing after approximately 10 years' storage at -80°C. The mean of storage time was 10.41 years (min-max: 9.35-11.40 years). We compared the results of tPSA and fPSA. We calculated the fPSA/tPSA ratio and compared the results of clinical evaluation. Serum tPSA and fPSA levels were assayed using chemiluminescent kits Access Hybritech PSA and free PSA. All measurements were performed using the instrument UniCel® DxI 800. RESULTS: tPSA decreased 3.59% on average with a correlation r=0.9213, and fPSA increased at an average of 2.41% with a correlation r=0.9338. The fPSA/tPSA ratio increased 0.80% on average with a correlation r=0.9174. On clinical evaluation, five samples had fallen to a less malignant category and three samples had risen to a higher malignant category compared with the original results. CONCLUSION: The stability of tPSA and fPSA levels in serum is sufficient after 10 years' storage at -80°C. Calculation of the fPSA/tPSA ratio is not recommended due to the change in the category of malignancy of 15% of the samples.

The Role of TPS and TPA in the Diagnostics of Distant Metastases.

AIM: The aim of the study was to assess the degree to which tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) and tissue polypeptide-specific antigen (TPS), as well as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), can assist in the detection of distant metastases. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We assessed 157 patients with colorectal and breast cancer divided into two groups. The first was a group of patients with cancer at stages 1, 2 and 3; the second was a group of patients with cancer at stage 4 with metastasis. RESULTS: We found significantly higher levels of all biomarkers in the metastatic group compared to the group with cancer at stages 1-3 (p<0.0001). The calculated area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.9929 for TPS, 0.9337 for TPA and 0.7234 for CEA. The cut-off was calculated for each biomarker at 95% specificity, TPS cut-off=255 IU/l (sensitivity 95%), TPA cut-off=200 IU/l (sensitivity 70%) and CEA cut-off=18 µg/l (sensitivity 37%). CONCLUSION: We suggest combining CEA with TPS or TPA in the detection of distant metastases or using only cytokeratins. This approach can significantly increase the quality of detection of the metastatic process.

Biobanks in the era of personalized medicine: objectives, challenges, and innovation: Overview.

Biobanks are an important compound of personalized medicine and strongly support the scientific progress in stratification of population and biomarker discovery and validation due to progress in personalized medicine. Biobanks are an essential tool for new drug discoveries and drug development. Biobanks play an important role in the whole process of patient prevention and prediction, follow-up, and therapy monitoring and optimalization. Biobanks have the specificity in that they cover multidisciplinary approach to the human health combining biological and medical approaches, as well as informative bioinformatics technologies, computationing, and modeling. The importance of biobanks has during the last decade increased in variety and capacity from small collections of samples to large-scale national or international repositories. Collected samples are population-based, disease-specific or rare diseases originating from a diverse profile of individuals. There are various purposes of biobanks, such as diagnostics, pharmacology, or research. Biobanks involve, store, and operate with specific personal information, and as a consequence, such a diversity of biobanking is associated with a broad spectrum of ethical and legal issues. Biobanks are an international phenomenon because any single country, state, or society at the moment is not able to cover all issues involving the whole biobank problematic. Biobanks have an enormous innovative potential in the whole process of biomedical research in the twenty-first century.

Reference values of IGF1, IGFBP3 and IGF1/IGFBP3 ratio in adult population in the Czech Republic.

BACKGROUND: IGF1 is responsible for regulation of growth, metabolism and differentiation of human cells. IGFBP3 is the most abundant of the carrier proteins for IGF1 in the blood. IGF1/IGFBP3 molar ratio is an indicator of IGF1 bioavailability. We decided to create a file of reference ranges of IGF1, IGFBP3 and IGF1/IGFBPP3 ratio for the adult Czech population across the age spectrum. METHODS: We selected a group of 1022 subjects, 467 males and 555 females (ages 20-98 years), from several regions in the Czech Republic. The group consisted of blood donors and patients undergoing regular preventive examinations. Serum levels of IGF1 and IGFBP3 were measured using the following radioimmunoassay kits: IRMA IGF1 (Immunotech, Marseille, France) and IRMA IGFBP3 (Immunotech, Prague, Czech Republic). The IGF1/IGFBP3 ratio was also calculated. The following groups of patients were excluded: patients with diabetes, high blood glucose, high insulin levels, post-surgery patients, polymorbid patients, and subjects with oncological diseases. Subjects were divided into seven age-groups. Changes in the levels of observed analytes in each decade across the age spectrum were evaluated. All statistical analyses were performed by SAS 9.3 (Statistical Analysis Software release 9.3; SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). RESULTS: All three parameters IGF1, IGFBP3 and IGF1/IGFBP3 decreased in parallel with decrease in age: p<0.0001, r=-0.64, -0.35 and -0.54, respectively. The dynamics of the decline was different between males and females. Linear regression models with age as independent variable fitted by gender are displayed in Fig. 1. Non-parametric reference interval curves (medians and 2.5th-97.5th percentiles) for IGF1, IGFBP3 and IGF1/IGFBP3 ratio as function of age by gender are displayed in Fig. 2(a,b,c). All medians and 2.5th-97.5th percentiles were plotted by cubic spline. For males, linear regression models were as follows: IGF1=291.34619-2.41211 × age, IGFBP3=2931.62778-6.11659 × age, IGF1/IGFBP3=0.02897-0.00021213 × age. For females, we plotted the following: IGF1=241.67406-1.98466 × age, IGFBP3=3688.60561-16.39560 × age, IGF1/IGFBP3=0.02029-0.00013233 × age. IGF1 was statistically significantly higher in males with p<0.0001 (Wilcoxon test) but decreased faster (p=0.0121). IGFBP3 was statistically significantly higher in females with p=0.0004 (Wilcoxon test) but decreased faster (p<0.0001). IGF1/IGFBP3 was statistically significantly higher in males with p<0.0001 (Wilcoxon test) but decreased faster (p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: Authors recommend using of a linear regression model based reference ranges for IGF1, IGFBP3 and IGF1/IGFBP3 ratio and using different reference ranges for genders.

Evaluation of IL-2, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10 in Malignant Melanoma Diagnostics.

AIM: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of four interleukins (IL-2, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10) for melanoma detection and correlate these interleukins with sentinel node metastasis positivity. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A group of 236 persons was assessed: 175 patients with melanomas and 61 healthy persons. Melanoma patients were divided to four groups according to Breslow score. We determined IL-2, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10 in each plasma sample. Interleukin plasma levels were assayed using a Human Cytokine Milliplex Map kit. Measurements were performed using the Bio-Plex MAGPIX Multiplex Reader. Plasma samples were collected prior to surgery or any other form of treatment. All melanoma diagnoses were histologically verified. RESULTS: We compared interleukin plasma levels in the healthy group and plasma levels in each Breslow score stage. In the first Breslow score stage, IL-2 (p<0.0001), IL-6 (p=0.0004) and IL-10 (p<0.0001) were positive. In the second Breslow score, stage IL-2 (p<0.0001), IL-6 (p<0.0001), IL-8 (p=0.0017) and IL-10 (p<0.0001) were positive. By comparing the group of positive and negative sentinel node metastasis, we observed a statistically significant difference in two interleukins: The median of IL-2 levels in the negative group was 5.88 pg/ml compared to 32.57 pg/ml in the positive group (p=0.0005). The median of IL-6 levels in the negative group was 4.80 pg/ml compared to 32.02 pg/ml in the positive group (p=0.0048). CONCLUSION: Interleukins IL-2, IL-6 and IL-10 are promising biomarkers of early-stage melanoma. IL-2 and IL-6 appear to be prognostic biomarkers.