“In a world where trimodality therapy has been the standard of care for so long, it’s remarkable to think that some of these cancers can be cured with a single systemic agent alone.”
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The world of cancer treatment is a rapidly evolving creature, and rectal cancer is no exception. In particular, locally advanced rectal cancer has a number of valid treatment options. While it’s traditionally a surgical disease, in some cases we now have evidence for watch-and-wait approaches that spare patients the morbidity and toxicity associated with oncologic resections. But even when the goal is to get the patient to a total mesorectal excision (TME), several nuances can influence decision making. Suddenly, talking to a patient about rectal cancer has become as lengthy a discussion as those we have with intermediate-risk prostate cancer patients.
We currently have good evidence to suggest that total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT) should be standard of care for locally advanced rectal cancers. But even within this algorithm of chemotherapy and chemoradiation followed by surgery, questions abound. Which treatment should we start with? Which chemotherapy should be used? What radiation fractionation should we employ? And which concurrent chemotherapy should be paired with radiation? While the 5-year follow-up of the RAPIDO trial demonstrated a statistically significant increase in the locoregional recurrence rate (10% vs 6%) with short course radiation,1 this must be viewed through a critical lens, given that the two arms did not directly compare short-and long-course radiation. Perhaps it was the addition of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, delaying surgery, that resulted in a detriment to the locoregional control. Thus, short-course radiation is still indicated as a reasonable treatment option per NCCN guidelines.
Does the cause of tricuspid regurgitation (TR) affect survival?
A new analysis of nearly 13K patients finds that survival in Primary TR is better than in Secondary or Lead-associated TR. @JabbarMMS
BackgroundTricuspid regurgitation (TR) is a common valvular disorder that can affect patients’ quality of life and survival. The impact of TR etiology on overall survival and the associated risk factors in each subgroup are not well studied.
Read it in the RedJournal: @NRGOnc
: Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is increasingly used for total body irradiation (TBI) due to its ability to deliver myeloablative doses while sparing radiosensitive organs. To enable consistent evaluation in future National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) studies, the xxx Hematologic Malignancies Working Group (HMWG) convened IMRT-TBI experts and NCTN leaders to develop consensus recommendations for standardized multi-institutional implementation.
In a randomized clinical trial including older bereaved adults, group-format grief-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (ProlongedGriefDisorder) was noninferior to individual therapy for reducing symptoms of prolonged grief, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety at 6 months.
Both formats produced large reductions in symptom burden, suggesting either delivery method is effective for older adults seeking treatment after loss.
This study examines whether cognitive behavioral therapy delivered in a group format is noninferior to cognitive behavioral therapy delivered in an individual format in reducing prolonged grief disorder symptoms in older adults.
The human body continuously generates a rich spectrum of vibrations—often without us ever noticing. Everyday unconscious activities such as breathing, speaking, and swallowing all produce subtle yet distinct mechanical signals. Although these faint vibrations carry valuable information about physiological state, they have long been difficult to capture accurately using conventional wearable devices.
Recently, a research team led by Professor Kilwon Cho of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), along with Ph.D. candidate Kang Hyuk Cho and postdoctoral researcher Dr. Jeng-Hun Lee, has developed a wearable vibration sensor capable of precisely detecting these subtle yet highly dynamic signals, without requiring any external power source. This breakthrough opens new possibilities for wearable medical and health care technologies and demonstrates strong potential as a core sensing platform for next-generation smart devices. The work was published in the inaugural issue of Nature Sensors.
Sounds produced by the human body span a wide range of frequencies. Physiological signals such as breathing, swallowing, and speech typically occur at lower frequencies, while sounds such as coughing or groaning emerge at relatively higher frequencies. Accurately capturing these signals requires precise detection of the minute vibrations transmitted to the skin surface across a broad frequency spectrum.
Researchers at the University of Vienna have uncovered a surprising phenomenon: polymer chains with segments that simply fluctuate at different intensities can spontaneously develop directional, persistent motion when densely packed—even though nothing in the system points them in any particular direction. This “entropic tug of war,” driven by fundamental physical constraints, could help explain how DNA organizes and moves inside living cells and may lead to new materials. The study is published in Physical Review X.
“Think of a chain threaded through a dense forest of trees, which represent obstacles posed by the other chains in the system. One end of the chain is being shaken much more vigorously than the other,” explains lead author Jan Smrek from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Vienna. “You might expect it to just wiggle randomly in place. But we found that because the chain has to find its way by going in-between the trees, the difference in shaking intensity creates an imbalance that actually propels the entire chain forward through the forest.”
This analogy can be conferred to a polymer, a large molecule consisting of many units linked together in a long chain, such as DNA. The Viennese research team—Adam Höfler, Iurii Chubak, Christos Likos and Jan Smrek—used computer simulations and analytical theory to show that this directed motion arises purely from topological constraints. When polymer chains are entangled and cannot pass through each other, segments with stronger fluctuations generate larger entropic forces. This creates an imbalance that pushes the entire chain forward along its own contour, with the stronger fluctuating part acting as the “head of the snake” moving through the forest of obstacles.
Lightning formation and the conditions triggering it have long been shrouded in a cloud of mystery, but new research led by Penn State scientists is lifting the fog. Using mathematical calculations, the researchers have discovered that lightning-like discharge doesn’t require a storm cloud—it could be made inside everyday material on a lab bench. The study is published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
“We applied the same exact models that we use for lightning research but shrank down the scale to slightly larger than a deck of cards,” said Victor Pasko, professor of electrical engineering at Penn State and lead author on the paper. “We calculated that when supplied with a high-powered electron source, lightning can be triggered in everyday insulating materials like glass, acrylic and quartz.”
The team used detailed numerical simulations to show that lightning-like radiation bursts could form inside small solid blocks, under conditions achievable in the lab. The work, if proven experimentally, could have implications for more compact and potentially safer X-ray sources in doctors’ offices and security checkpoints, the researchers said. The primary benefit, however, would be to enable the study of a powerful natural phenomenon on a lab bench.
Alzheimer’s disease has long been viewed as something that originates inside the brain, but an in-depth genomic analysis suggests it may initially triggered by inflammation in distant organs like the skin, lungs or gut – perhaps decades before a person’s memory starts to decline.
This radical reframing of the disease may explain why Alzheimer’s drugs have been disappointing to date, because they act too late in the disease process. Instead, we may need to redirect our efforts towards addressing inflammation in other parts of the body.
“As neuroscientists, we tend to be very brain-centric, but this study really shines a spotlight on the fact that the brain is not disconnected from the rest of the body, and when changes happen in the rest of the body, it affects how the brain functions,” says Donna Wilcock at Indiana University, who wasn’t involved in the research. “Even though Alzheimer’s is a brain disease, we need to think about the whole body when we think about how it begins.”
Image: Alamy
The Alzheimer’s field is being turned on its head as mounting evidence points to the disease beginning outside the brain many years before symptoms start. This may mean we have to totally rethink how we approach preventing and treating the condition.
By Alice Klein
However, the pathogenic contribution of PTPN11 mutations has been unclear.
John C. Byrd & team reveal PTPN11 mutations in AML can be early events in the clonal evolution of disease development and are associated with variably differentiated myeloid cells, based on human and murine studies:
The figure shows lower survival of the Npm1cA/Ptpn11E76K mouse model.
1Medical Scientist Training Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
2Department of Internal Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
3Division of Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.