Median survival of patients with brain metastases from nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is poor and more effective treatments are urgently needed. We have evaluated the efficacy of erlotinib in this setting and its association with activating mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene.We retrospectively identified patients with NSCLC and brain metastases treated with erlotinib. EGFR mutations in exons 19 and 21 were analysed by direct sequencing. Efficacy and tolerability were compared according to EGFR mutational status.69 NSCLC patients with brain metastases were identified, 17 of whom harboured EGFR mutations. Objective response rate in patients with EGFR mutations was 82.4%; no responses were observed in unselected patients (p,0.001). Median (95% CI) time to progression within the brain for patients harbouring EGFR mutations was 11.7 (7.9-15.5) months, compared to 5.8 (5.2-6.4) months for control patients whose EGFR mutational status had not been assessed (p,0.05). Overall survival was 12.9 (6.2-19.7) months and 3.1 (2.5-3.9) months (p,0.001), respectively. The toxicity of erlotinib was as expected and no differences between cohorts were observed.Erlotinib is active in brain metastases from NSCLC; this clinical benefit is related to the presence of activating mutations in exons 19 or 21 of the EGFR gene.

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Background and Objectives Data on the seroprevalence of viral hepatitis are limited in Haiti; consequently, the epidemiology is poorly described. This study aims to provide a descriptive analysis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) seroprevalence of blood donations in Haiti. Materials and Methods Using Haiti’s National Blood Safety Program and Haitian Red Cross reports from 2005 to 2014, we analysed the results of screening tests of donor serum samples to assess HBV and HCV seroprevalence among adults aged 17 to 65 years. Results A total of 198 758 donor samples were screened from 2005 to 2014, of which 0·56% were positive for antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) and 3·80% were positive for hepatitis B surface antigen. Over the 10-year study period, anti-HCV seroprevalence among blood donors increased by 31% from 0.66% to 0.86% (95% CI: 1·01–1·70); however, this trend was not uniform over time, with a significant decrease from 0·66% in 2005 to 0·39% in 2009 (95% CI: 0·43– 0·82) and 0·43% in 2012 (95% CI: 0·50–0·90). Conversely, HBV decreased significantly by 13% from 3·95% in 2005 to 3·42% in 2014 (95% CI: 0·77–0·97), a trend that was also observed in 2012 and 2013. Conclusion The significant, uniform decrease in HBV seroprevalence in more recent years may represent the positive impact of public health interventions in preventing the transmission of blood-borne infections. More research is needed to understand why the trends in HCV transmission are non-uniform and to investigate the significant increase in more recent years.

A multivariate analysis of the prognostic factors for clinical Stages I and II supradiaphragmatic Hodgkin's disease was carried out with a logistic regression model in 341 patients. The proportion of patients with positive staging laparotomy was greater in males, in individuals with several sites involved, mixed cellularity (MC) or lymphocyte depletion (LD) histologic types, systemic symptoms, or in patients with lower cervical involvement and higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), serum copper, and LDH levels. Histology, presence of systemic symptoms (fever and sweats), and number of involved nodal regions were independent predictors of positive laparotomy. Mediastinal involvement is correlated to a significantly lower risk of positive laparotomy. Based on these observations, the individual risk for each patient of occult abdominal disease has been defined.

Background We explored the influence of BRAF and PIK3CA mutational status on the efficacy of bevacizumab or cetuximab plus 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin and irinotecan (FOLFIRI) as first-line therapy in patients with RAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Patients and methods VISNÚ-2 was a multicentre, randomised, phase II study. Patients with RAS wild-type mCRC and <3 circulating tumour cells/7.5 ml blood were stratified by BRAF / PIK3CA status (wild-type versus mutated) and number of affected organs (1 versus >1), and allocated to bevacizumab (5 mg/kg every 2 weeks) or cetuximab (400 mg/m 2 then 250 mg/m 2 weekly) plus FOLFIRI [irinotecan 180 mg/m 2 , leucovorin 400 mg/m 2 , 5-fluorouracil 400 mg/m 2 (bolus) then 2400 mg/m 2 (46-h continuous infusion) every 2 weeks]. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). All analyses were exploratory. Results Two hundred and forty patients with BRAF / PIK3CA wild-type ( n = 196) or BRAF- and/or PIK3CA- mutated tumours ( n = 44) were enrolled. Median PFS was 12.7 and 8.8 months in patients with BRAF / PIK3CA wild-type and BRAF / PIK3CA -mutated tumours, respectively [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.22; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.80-1.85; P = 0.3602]. In the BRAF- and/or PIK3CA -mutated cohort, median PFS was 2.8, 8.8 and 15.0 months in patients with BRAF / PI3KCA -mutated ( n = 8), BRAF -mutated/ PI3KCA wild-type ( n = 16) and BRAF wild-type/ PI3KCA -mutated ( n = 20) tumours, respectively ( P = 0.0002). PFS was similar with bevacizumab plus FOLFIRI versus cetuximab plus FOLFIRI in BRAF / PIK3CA wild-type (HR = 0.99; 95% CI 0.67-1.45; P = 0.9486) and BRAF / PIK3C A-mutated tumours (HR = 1.11; 95% CI 0.53-2.35; P = 0.7820). The most common grade 3/4 treatment-related adverse events were neutropenia, diarrhoea and asthenia in both treatment groups. Conclusions BRAF ...

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La ecografía ha surgido como una técnica no invasiva que se puede utilizar en la evaluación estructural y funcional del diafragma. Los ultrasonidos permiten observar el movimiento diafragmático en una variedad de condiciones normales y patológicas. Exponemos cuatro casos clínicos en los que la evaluación de la disfunción diafragmática por ecografía permitió hacer un diagnóstico del origen de la insuficiencia respiratoria de forma rápida y no invasiva. La ecografía del diafragma tiene su aplicación principalmente en pacientes en cuidados intensivos y en un futuro podría valorarse como modalidad de elección para la evaluación de la parálisis del diafragma con potencial aplicación clínica para el destete de la ventilación mecánica y diagnóstico diferencial de las causas de insuficiencia respiratoria. ABSTRACT Ecographic evaluation of diaphragmatic function in critical ill patient Ultrasound is a non-invasive technique that can is used in the structural and functional evaluation of the diaphragm. Ultrasounds facilitates the study of diaphragmatic movement in a variety of normal and pathological conditions. We present four clinical cases in which the evaluation of diaphragmatic dysfunction by ultrasound showed the origin of respiratory failure quickly and easily. Ultrasound evaluation of diaphragm function in critically ill patients is a useful and simple technique. It provides fast and reliable data for the diagnosis of respiratory insufficiency of neuromuscular origin with clinical application for weaning from mechanical ventilation and differential diagnosis of the causes of failure respiratory.

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