Cancer treatment and research
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The diagnosis of a brain tumor is a life-changing event for patients and families. High-grade gliomas are incurable and long-term survival remains limited. While low-grade glioma patients have better outcomes, their quality of life is often affected by a variety of symptoms as well. ⋯ Seizures, fatigue, depression, and anxiety are some of the more common symptoms throughout the disease course and should be managed actively. Patients with glioma also have high symptom burden at the end of life and the majority lose decision-making capacity. Advance care planning conversations early in the disease course are essential to elicit the patient's wishes for end of life care and effective communication with surrogate decision makers during all stages of the disease helps ensure that those wishes are respected.
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Nanoparticle properties such as size, shape, deformability, and surface chemistry all play a role in nanomedicine drug delivery in cancer. While many studies address the behavior of particle systems in a biological setting, revealing how these properties work together presents unique challenges on the nanoscale. "Calibration-quality" control over such properties is needed to draw adequate conclusions that are independent of parameter variability. ⋯ In doing so, translational efficacy improves as clinical tumor properties increase. Looking forward, the field of nanomedicine will continue to have significant clinical impacts as the capabilities of nanoparticulate drug delivery are further enhanced.
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Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) are a serious complication after solid organ or allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and include a range of diseases from benign proliferations to malignant lymphomas. Risk factors for developing PTLD include Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, recipient age, transplanted organ, type of immunosuppression, and genetics. Uncontrolled proliferation of EBV-infected B cells is implicated in EBV-positive PTLD, whereas the pathogenesis of EBV-negative PTLD may be similar to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the general population. ⋯ In more aggressive forms of PTLD, upfront chemotherapy may offer a better and more durable response. Sequential therapy using rituximab followed by chemotherapy has demonstrated promising results and may establish a standard of care. Novel therapies including anti-viral agents, adoptive immunotherapy, and monoclonal antibodies targeting cytokines require further study in the prevention and treatment of PTLD.