The Rohingya people are one of the most ill-treated and persecuted refugee groups in the world, having lived in a realm of statelessness for over six generations, and who are still doing so. In recent years, more than 500,000 Rohingyas fled from Myanmar (Burma) to neighboring countries. This article addresses the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh, with special emphasis on the living conditions of this vulnerable population. We reviewed several documents on Rohingya refugees, visited a registered refugee camp (Teknaf), collected case reports, and conducted a series of meetings with stakeholders in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh. A total of 33,131 registered Rohingya refugees are living in two registered camps in Cox’s Bazar, and up to 80,000 additional refugees are housed in nearby makeshift camps. Overall, the living conditions of Rohingya refugees inside the overcrowded camps remain dismal. Mental health is poor, proper hygiene conditions are lacking, malnutrition is endemic, and physical/sexual abuse is high. A concerted diplomatic effort involving Bangladesh and Myanmar, and international mediators such as the Organization of Islamic Countries and the United Nations, is urgently required to effectively address this complex situation.

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype that accounts for 15-20% of cases, with a higher incidence of relapse/death. Even with adjuvant chemotherapy, the 5 year distant metastasis-free survival rate remains low. A total of 452 tumor registry patients with TNBC and no evidence of metastatic disease were identified over the period of 1996-2011. The median age and follow-up time were 51 (range=21-88) and 3.9 (range=0.14-14) years. Approximately 75% of patients with stage III disease received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) compared with 47% for stage II. Patients with stage I disease predominantly received adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT). Among those who underwent NACT (n=202), 33% had a pathological complete response (pCR). Overall (OS) and disease-free (DFS) survival were significantly longer among patients achieving pCR (versus residual disease) following NACT (OS: all patients P<0.0001, stage II P<0.0001, stage III P=0.0062; DFS: all patients P<0.0001, stage II P=0.0011, stage III P=0.015). ACT was not associated with improved OS or DFS for stage III disease. Adjustment for age, chemotherapy, health insurance type, lymphovascular invasion, race, radiation, and surgery did not alter our results. These findings suggest that pCR following NACT is associated with improved survival among patients with TNBC, independent of diagnostic stage.

In this US-based study of the National Cancer Database (NCDB), we examined 8550 patients diagnosed with non-metastatic, invasive inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) who received surgery from 2004–2013. Patients were grouped into four biologic subtypes (HR+/HER2−, HR+/HER2+, HR−/HER2+, HR−/HER2−). On average, women were 56 years of age at diagnosis and were followed for a median of 3.7 years. The majority were white (80%), had private health insurance (50%), and presented with poorly differentiated tumors (57%). Approximately 46% of the cancers were >5 cm. Most patients underwent mastectomy (94%) and received radiotherapy (71%). Differences by biologic subtypes were observed for grade, lymph node invasion, race, and tumor size (p < 0.0001). Patients experiencing pathologic complete response (pCR, 12%) vs. non-pCR had superior 5-year overall survival (OS) (77% vs. 54%) (p < 0.0001). Survival was poor for triple-negative (TN) tumors (37%) vs. other biologic subtypes (60%) (p < 0.0001). On multivariable analysis, TN-IBC, positive margins, and not receiving either chemotherapy, hormonal therapy or radiotherapy were independently associated with poor 5-year survival (p < 0.0001). In this analysis of IBC, categorized by biologic subtypes, we observed significant differential tumor, patient and treatment characteristics, and OS.

We read with interest several manuscripts recently published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. While these articles provide a well-rounded overview on the risk and current status of this virus, we herein add some relevant information on its etiology, prevention and management, especially for resource-limited healthcare systems. The use of protective actions is both complex and expensive. Affordable options are essential to respond to this and future viral outbreaks.

In this large series of patients with stage II/III resected gastric/GEJ adenocarcinomas from >1500 American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer-accredited facilities, patients receiving PECT were shown to survive longer than those receiving POCRT. Cancer 2017;123:2909-17. © 2017 American Cancer Society.