Cancer
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The Medicare population has documented racial/ethnic disparities in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, but it is unknown whether these disparities differ across geographic regions. ⋯ Significant geographic variation in up-to-date status among black and API Medicare enrollees is associated with heterogeneous racial/ethnic disparities for these groups across US regions.
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Brain metastases (BM) arising from triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) portend a poor prognosis. TNBC is more common in premenopausal and African-American (AA) patients; both of these characteristics also confer a poor prognosis. In a single-institution cohort study, the authors attempted to determine whether the inferior outcome noted with TNBC brain metastases is more reflective of a higher risk population or the subtype itself. ⋯ TNBC confers a high risk of death after brain metastases regardless of patient race and age, supporting the need for novel agents capable of controlling both intracranial and extracranial TNBC across all races and ages.
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AKT (AKT1, AKT2, and AKT3) was a downstream effector of phosphatidylinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) and played crucial roles in protein synthesis, cellular metabolism, survival, and proliferation. The PI3K/AKT pathway was commonly activated in human cancers and was recognized as a potential target for anticancer therapy. Nonetheless, clinical, molecular, or prognostic features of AKT-activated colon cancer remained uncertain. ⋯ p-AKT expression in colorectal cancer is associated with low stage and good prognosis. p-AKT may serve as a tissue biomarker to identify patients with superior prognosis and a possible therapeutic target (analogous to estrogen receptor ESR1 in breast cancer).