Blood-based biomarkers reflect systemic inflammation status and have prognostic and predictive value in solid malignancies. As a recently defined biomarker, Pan-Immune-Inflammation-Value (PIV) integrates different peripheral blood cell subpopulations. This retrospective study of collected data aimed to assess whether PIV may predict the pathological complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in Turkish women with breast cancer. The study consisted of 743 patients with breast cancer who were scheduled to undergo NAC before attempting cytoreductive surgery. A pre-treatment complete blood count was obtained in the two weeks preceding NAC, and blood-based biomarkers were calculated from absolute counts of relevant cell populations. The pCR was defined as the absence of tumor cells in both the mastectomy specimen and lymph nodes. Secondary outcome measures included disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). One hundred seven patients (14.4%) had pCR. In receiver operating characteristic analysis, optimal cut-off values for the neutrophile-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte (PLR), PIV, and Ki-67 index were determined as ≥ 2.34, ≥ 0.22, ≥ 131.8, ≥ 306.4, and  ≥ 27, respectively. The clinical tumor (T) stage, NLR, MLR, PLR, PIV, estrogen receptor (ER) status, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2) status, and Ki-67 index were significantly associated with NAC response in univariate analyses. However, multivariate analysis revealed that the clinical T stage, PIV, ER status, HER-2 status, and Ki-67 index were independent predictors for pCR. Moreover, the low PIV group patients had significantly better DFS and OS than those in the high PIV group (p = 0.034, p = 0.028, respectively). Based on our results, pre-treatment PIV seems as a predictor for pCR and survival, outperforming NLR, MLR, PLR in predicting pCR in Turkish women with breast cancer who received NAC. However, further studies are needed to confirm our findings.

Our study indicated that familial Mediterranean fever constituted a large proportion of cases and increased number of patients with idiopathic amyloid A amyloidosis. Additionally, it was observed that patient survival was not affected by different etiological causes in amyloid A amyloidosis.

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Objectives: Endometrial endometrioid carcinoma (EEC) is the most encountered subtype of endometrial cancer (EC). Our study aimed to investigate the factors affecting recurrence in patients with stage 1A and 1B EEC. Material and methods:Our study included 284 patients diagnosed with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage 1A/1B EEC in our center from 2010 to 2018.The clinicopathological characteristics of the patients were obtained retrospectively from their electronic files. Results:The median age of the patients was 60 years (range 31-89). The median follow-up time of the patients was 63.6 months (range 3.3-185.6). Twenty-two (7.74%) patients relapsed during follow-up. Among the relapsed patients, 59.1% were at stage 1A ECC, and 40.9% were at stage 1B. In our study, the one-, three-, and five-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) rates were 98.9%, 95.4%, and 92.9%, respectively. In the multivariate analysis, grade and tumor size were found to be independent parameters of RFS in all stage 1 EEC patients.Furthermore, the Ki-67 index was found to affect RFS in stage 1A EEC patients, and tumor grade affected RFS in stage 1B EEC patients. In the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the statistically significant cut-off values were determined for tumor size and Ki-67 index in stage 1 EEC patients.Conclusions: Stage 1-EEC patients in the higher risk group in terms of tumor size, Ki-67, and grade should be closely monitored for recurrence. Defining the prognostic factors for recurrence in stage 1 EEC patients may lead to changes in follow-up algorithms.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a group of zinc-dependent peptidases that participate in matrix turnover in solid malignancies. The aim of this study was twofold. First, we sought to investigate under a case-control design the association between the functional -1562C/T polymorphism in the promoter region of MMP-9 and gastric cancer (GC) in a Turkish sample. Second, we examined its prognostic significance in GC patients. A total of 144 subjects were enrolled in the case-control study (79 GC cases and 65 controls). Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) served as the main outcome measures in the longitudinal study. The MMP-9 -1562C/T polymorphism was genotyped using a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. The odds ratio (OR) of GC for the CC genotype relative to the CT+TT genotypes was not significant (OR = 0.89, 95 % confidence interval [CI] = 0.44-1.82, P = 0.75). These results did not change after allowance for age and sex in multivariable regression analysis (OR = 0.81, 95 % CI = 0.40-1.94, P = 0.84). When the MMP-9 -1562C/T polymorphism was analyzed among GC patients in relation to OS and PFS, we found no significant differences between subjects with the CC and CT+TT genotypes. In conclusion, the results of our study did not point toward a major role of the MMP-9 -1562C/T polymorphism in the pathogenesis and clinical course of GC in Turkish subjects.

Introduction There is much speculation about famous artists and how their work was affected by their medical conditions. Many works reflect artists' increased anxiety as well as their physical and psychological sufferings. Paul Klee, van Gogh, Edvard Munch are some of the artists that come to mind with numerous paintings reflecting the perception of their disease (G Wolf 1999; P Wolf 2001; P L Wolf 2005). Paul Klee was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He was diagnosed with scleroderma (Gieldion-Welcker 1961). Many of his later works deal with fear, suffering, and death; other works reflect Klee's disfigured body, or at least how he perceived his illness (Grohmann 1969). Much of his work can be regarded as a direct expression of his scleroderma (Morscher 1994). Even his drawings remind us of sketches by children in which a few lines emphasise the characteristics of the subject (G Wolf 1999). His late pictures are bolder: abstract figures are painted with simple, heavy black lines; some seem childish or primitive (Varga 2004). Gefangen (The Captive) and Umarmung (Embrace) may reflect Klee's feeling of being a prisoner in his own taut and painful skin with a network of different grids or bars, thus not allowing the frightened silhouette to move (G Wolf 1999). It is not hard to look at The Captive and see the artist trapped in the prison of scleroderma (Varga 2004). The paintings and drawings of Klee's last years are a dramatic narrative of how a person with a chronic distorting disease feels and suffers (G Wolf 1999). Vincent van Gogh, a post-impressionist painter, was treated for mania or epilepsy. In the 19th century, digitalis was one of the main drugs used for the treatment of mania and epilepsy. One of the side effects of systematic treatment with digitalis is a disturbance in yellow^blue vision called`xanthopsia', which is similar to viewing the world through a yellow filter. Many of van Gogh's works, like The Starry Night, The Night Cafe¨, and Sunflowers, have an obvious yellow cast. Also, later self-portraits

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