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Palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia (PPE), more commonly known as hand-foot syndrome, is a dermatologic complication following chemotherapy with selective agents. In this article, we present the case of a young lady with stage III breast cancer who developed palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia following treatment with Herceptin (trastuzumab), an unusual complication of this particular drug. From our review of literature, this is the second known occurrence of PPE secondary to trastuzumab monotherapy.

A survey of noncredit activities in institutions of higher education is presented. Contents include refresher activities, health service activities, technical occupations, and registration figures. The survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire sent to all institutions of higher education. (CK)

Resistance to novel androgen signaling inhibition and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) progression is likely dependent on tumor microenvironment interactions. The Src pathway and neoangiogenesis have been implicated in prostate cancer progression. We studied the effect of adding the targeted agents dasatinib and sunitinib to abiraterone acetate (AA) in men with mCRPC.In this open-label randomized phase 2 study, mCRPC patients received AA. At resistance to AA, they were randomized 1:1 to combination with dasatinib or sunitinib. At second progression, patients crossed over. The primary end point was time to treatment failure (TTF), defined as time to progression or death. Secondary end points included overall survival and safety.From March 2011 to February 2015, a total of 179 patients were enrolled and 132 subsequently randomized. Median TTF was 5.7 months in the dasatinib group and 5.5 months in the sunitinib group. There was no difference between the two groups in terms of TTF (hazard ratio, 0.85; 95% confidence interval, 0.59-1.22). Median overall survival from study entry was 26.3 months in the dasatinib group and 27.7 months in the sunitinib group (hazard ratio, 1.02; 95% confidence interval, 0.71-1.47). Grade 3 or higher adverse events related to study medication were more frequent with sunitinib (n = 44, 46%) compared to dasatinib (n = 26, 24%). At data cutoff, 7 patients were experiencing a continuous response to AA, with a median duration of treatment of 5.7 years.There is no difference in overall survival and TTF between dasatinib and sunitinib combined with abiraterone in the treatment of patients with bone mCRPC.

Axonal plasticity is critical for functional recovery after stroke. Our previous study suggested that Rac1, a small GTPase, contributes to post-stroke axonal regeneration. However, the specific cellular and molecular mechanisms mediating its effects remain unknown. The two major factors controlling axonal plasticity in the injured brain are the neuronal intrinsic property for outgrowth and astrocytic inhibition of axonal growth. We investigated the selective roles of neuronal and astrocytic Rac1 in post-stroke recovery and axonal regeneration. Stroke was induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion for 60 minutes in 7 to 8 week old male mice. Brain injection of lentivirus encoding Rac1 with neuronal (NSE) or astrocytic (GFAP) promotors was performed 7 days after stroke in wild type mice to overexpress neuronal or astrocytic Rac1. Tamoxifen administration was started 7 days after stroke in Thy1-cre/Rac1 floxed mice to induce genetic deletion of neuronal Rac1. Delayed overexpression of neuronal Rac1 promoted sensorimotor recovery assessed using a single pellet reaching test (% success rate) from 21 to 28 days after stroke (Day 28: GFP control 51.25±4.41 vs. NSE-Rac1 66.67±2.36, n=8-9, p

Objectives: To determine whether the online patient education material offered by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) is written at a higher level than the 6th-7th grade level recommended by the National Institute of Health (NIH). Methods: Online patient education material from each website was subjected to reading grade level (RGL) analysis using the Readability Studio Professional Edition. One-sample t testing was used to compare the mean RGLs obtained from 8 formulas to the NIH-recommended 6.5 grade level and 8th grade national mean. Results: In total, 372 articles from the ACC website and 82 from the AHA were studied. Mean (±SD) RGLs for the 454 articles were 9.6 ± 2.1, 11.2 ± 2.1, 11.9 ± 1.6, 10.8 ± 1.6, 9.7 ± 2.1, 10.8 ± 0.8, 10.5 ± 2.6, and 11.7 ± 3.5 according to the Flesch-Kincaid grade level (FKGL), Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG Index), Coleman-Liau Index (CLI), Gunning-Fog Index (GFI), New Dale-Chall reading level formula (NDC), FORCAST, Raygor Readability Estimate (RRE), and Fry Graph (Fry), respectively. All analyzed articles had significantly higher RGLs than both the NIH-recommended grade level of 6.5 and the national mean grade level of 8 (p < 0.00625). Conclusions: Patient education material provided on the ACC and AHA websites is written above the NIH-recommended 6.5 grade level and 8th grade national mean reading level. Additional studies are required to demonstrate whether lowering the RGL of this material improves outcomes among patients with cardiovascular disease.

To identify preoperative factors associated with an increased risk of postoperative pneumonia and subsequently develop and validate a risk calculator.The American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, a multicenter, prospective data set (2007-2008) was used. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. The 2007 data set (N=211,410) served as the training set, and the 2008 data set (N=257,385) served as the validation set.In the training set, 3825 patients (1.8%) experienced postoperative pneumonia. Patients who experienced postoperative pneumonia had a significantly higher 30-day mortality (17.0% vs 1.5%; P.001). On multivariate logistic regression analysis, 7 preoperative predictors of postoperative pneumonia were identified: age, American Society of Anesthesiologists class, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dependent functional status, preoperative sepsis, smoking before operation, and type of operation. The risk model based on the training data set was subsequently validated on the validation data set, with model performance being very similar (C statistic: 0.860 and 0.855, respectively). The high C statistic indicates excellent predictive performance. The risk model was used to develop an interactive risk calculator.Preoperative variables associated with an increased risk of postoperative pneumonia include age, American Society of Anesthesiologists class, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dependent functional status, preoperative sepsis, smoking before operation, and type of operation. The validated risk calculator provides a risk estimate for postoperative pneumonia and is anticipated to aid in surgical decision making and informed patient consent.