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Ependymomas are common childhood brain tumours that occur throughout the nervous system, but are most common in the paediatric hindbrain. Current standard therapy comprises surgery and radiation, but not cytotoxic chemotherapy as it does not further increase survival. Whole-genome and whole-exome sequencing of 47 hindbrain ependymomas reveals an extremely low mutation rate, and zero significant recurrent somatic single nucleotide variants. Although devoid of recurrent single nucleotide variants and focal copy number aberrations, poor-prognosis hindbrain ependymomas exhibit a CpG island methylator phenotype. Transcriptional silencing driven by CpG methylation converges exclusively on targets of the Polycomb repressive complex 2 which represses expression of differentiation genes through trimethylation of H3K27. CpG island methylator phenotype-positive hindbrain ependymomas are responsive to clinical drugs that target either DNA or H3K27 methylation both in vitro and in vivo. We conclude that epigenetic modifiers are the first rational therapeutic candidates for this deadly malignancy, which is epigenetically deregulated but genetically bland.

Objectives: To investigate reticulocyte hemglobin content (CHr) as a primary screening test to detect iron deficiency (ID) in healthy toddlers. Demographic and dietary risk factors associated with ID were studied for an association with low CHr.Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional study of healthy toddlers aged 12 to 36 months coming to well-child visits at two military pediatric ambulatory clinics in the Washington, DC, area from August 2006 to November 2007. Data were collected on medical, demographic, and dietary intake by parental questionnaire. A sample of blood was drawn from each subject for complete blood count and CHr. A logistic regression model was used to determine which factors may be predictive of ID.Results: A total of 144 children were studied. An abnormal low CHr of 27.5 was identified in 18.8% of our toddler population. Two variables were determined to be independent predictors of low CHr; an age of 12 to 23 months and black race.Conclusions: Used alone as a primary screening marker, CHr identified a high prevalence of ID in our population of toddlers. Black race and younger age were associated with a lower CHr. Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) has become the most common cause of skin and soft-tissue infections in the United States. However, no studies have yet examined its importance in the deployed environment. We retrospectively reviewed culture results obtained at a level II military treatment facility in Iraq over a 5-month period to determine the incidence of CA-MRSA in this population. Eighty-five percent of the cultures obtained from skin abscesses were positive for S. aureus, and 70% were methicillin-resistant S. aureus. All of the isolates recovered were sensitive to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. CA-MRSA is a significant problem in deployed service members and civilians and empiric antibiotics for skin and soft-tissue infections need to provide coverage for this important pathogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]