Arginine deprivation as an anticancer therapy has historically been met with limited success. The development of pegylated arginine deiminase (ADI-PEG20) has renewed interest in arginine deprivation for the treatment of some cancers. The efficacy of ADI-PEG20 is directly correlated with argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS) deficiency. CWR22Rv1 prostate cancer cells do not express ASS, the rate-limiting enzyme in arginine synthesis, and are susceptible to ADI-PEG20 in vitro. Interestingly, apoptosis by 0.3 Mg/mL ADI-PEG20 occurs 96 hours posttreatment and is caspase independent. The effect of ADI-PEG20 in vivo reveals reduced tumor activity by micropositron emission tomography as well as reduced tumor growth as a monotherapy and in combination with docetaxel against CWR22Rv1 mouse xenografts. In addition, we show autophagy is induced by single amino acid depletion by ADI-

RT after local surgical therapy for ACC of the breast improved both cause-specific and overall survival. Use of RT in this rare tumor should be considered in patients otherwise eligible for RT.

Although preoperative biliary stents may complicate the intraoperative management and lessen the postoperative complications of patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy, only estimated blood loss and reoperation were significantly different in this cohort. Further study may reveal patient subgroups who may specifically benefit or suffer from preoperative biliary stenting. Currently, selective preoperative BD appears appropriate in the multidisciplinary management of patients with periampullary lesions.

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Background There are conflicting data regarding improvements in postoperative outcomes with perioperative epidural analgesia. We sought to examine the effect of perioperative epidural analgesia versus intravenous narcotic analgesia on perioperative outcomes including pain control, morbidity, and mortality in patients undergoing gastric and pancreatic resections. Methods We evaluated 169 patients from 2007 to 2011 who underwent open gastric and pancreatic resections for malignancy at a university medical center. Emergency, traumatic, pediatric, enucleations, and disseminated cancer cases were excluded. Clinicopathologic data were reviewed among epidural (E) and non-epidural (NE) patients for their association with perioperative endpoints. Results 120 patients (71%) received an epidural, and 49 (29%) did not. There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in mean pain scores at each of the four days (days 0-3) among E ( 3.2 ± 2.7, 3.2 ± 2.3, 2.3 ± 1.9, and 2.1 ± 1.9, respectively) and NE patients ( 3.7 ± 2.7, 3.4 ± 1.9, 2.9 ± 2.1, and 2.4 ± 1.9, respectively). Within each of the E and NE patient groups, there were significant differences (P < 0.0001) in mean pain scores from day 0 to day 3 (P < 0.0001). 69% of E patients also received intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA). Ileus (13% E vs. 8% NE), pneumonia (12% E vs. 8% NE), venous thromboembolism (6% E vs. 4% NE), length of stay [ 11.0±12.1(8,4-107) E vs. 12.2±10.7(7,3-54) NE], overall morbidity (36% E vs. 39% NE), and mortality (4% E vs. 2% NE) were not significantly different. Conclusions Routine use of epidurals in this group of patients does not appear to be superior to PCA.