Search

Despite reaching enormous achievements in therapeutic approaches worldwide, GBM still remains the most incurable malignancy among various cancers. It emphasizes the necessity of adjuvant therapies from the perspectives of both patients and healthcare providers. Therefore, most emerging studies have focused on various complementary and adjuvant therapies. Among them, metabolic therapy has received special attention, and metformin has been considered as a treatment in various types of cancer, including GBM. It is clearly evident that reaching efficient approaches without a comprehensive evaluation of the key mechanisms is not possible. Among the studied mechanisms, one of the more challenging ones is the effect of metformin on apoptosis and senescence. Moreover, metformin is well known as an insulin sensitizer. However, if insulin signaling is facilitated in the tumor microenvironment, it may result in tumor growth. Therefore, to partially resolve some paradoxical issues, we conducted a narrative review of related studies to address the following questions as comprehensively as possible: 1) Does the improvement of cellular insulin function resulting from metformin have detrimental or beneficial effects on GBM cells? 2) If these effects are detrimental to GBM cells, which is more important: apoptosis or senescence? 3) What determines the cellular decision between apoptosis and senescence? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blood product transfusion is a double-edged sword; it can be lifesaving in many circumstances, yet life-threatening serious complications may occur. Although transfusion-related reactions have decreased over the years as a result of hemovigilance networks all over the world, human errors still remain an important concern. In this case report, we describe a patient undergoing elective spinal surgery who received an incompatible blood product. Then we will describe measures to mitigate such errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Accompaniment of meningioma with other tumors especially cerebral tumors is quite rare. In some institutes, cases of simultaneous meningioma and glioma are seen and reported previously. Case Presentation: We reported a meningioma with the accompaniment of scalp basal cell carcinoma (BCC) with no signs and symptoms of Gorlin syndrome and no history of radiation. Conclusions: Expression of some adjacent cancerous lesionsmight have a local cancerous induction effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meningioma is associated with the development of vasogenic edema defined as disrupted blood brain barrier. Vitamin D3 through its own nuclear receptor can regulate the expression of many effective agents on the integrity of the blood brain barrier. This study aimed to investigate the association between preoperative serum levels of 25(OH)D and peritumoral brain edema in patients with meningioma. One hundred and twelve patients with meningioma completed the study. Serum 25(OH)D levels assessment and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were done for all patients at the beginning of the study. The percentage of edema index (EI) was used to estimate the extent of peritumoral brain edema through preoperative MRI. The median serum level of 25(OH)D in the patients with the percentage of EI < 100% was significantly higher than those with > 100% (65.58 vs. 37.33, P < 0.001). The median percentage of EI was 24.9. Preoperative serum levels of 25(OH)D had an inverse and significant correlation with the percentage of EI as by increasing each 1 ng/mL of serum 25(OH)D, EI was decreased approximately 4% (95% CI; −5.984 to −1.952, P < 0.001). Vitamin D may be a protective factor for peritumoral brain edema of meningioma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]