Aims: Assessing a relationship between the negative symptoms and deficits in emotion recognition and theory of mind as well as social functioning in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Materials and Methods: Twenty patients with schizophrenia (10 male, 10 female) aged 36+11 years, with a mean duration of illness 13+9 years, were studied during an improvement period, stabilized on medications for at least 3 months. For the assessment of symptoms, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Brief Negative Symptoms Scale (BNSS) were used. Emotion recognition was measured by the Facial Emotion Identification Test (FEIT), and theory of mind-by the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (R-MET). Patients' social functioning was evaluated by the Personal and Social Performance scale (PSP). Results: Significant correlations were obtained between the negative symptoms of PANSS and BNSS, and the results of FEIT and R-MET. Association was observed between BNSS and FEIT for anhedonia, distress, asociality, avolition, blunted affect and alogia, and between BNSS and R-MET for distress, emotional blunting and alogia. Both PANSS and BNSS negative symptoms significantly correlated with the results of PSP. Discussion: Our results correspond to those of recent studies showing priority of negative over positive symptoms in determining deficits in social cognition and functioning in chronic schizophrenia. Conclusions: All domains of negative symptoms assessed by the BNSS correlated with deficits in emotion recognition and social functioning, and some domains correlated with the measure of theory of mind.
Gastrointestinal stromal tumor is the most common mesenchymal neoplasm of the gastrointestinal tract, usually found in elderly adults. It is infrequent among pediatric patients and usually differs biologically from adult-type diseases presenting mutations of KIT and PDGFR genes. In this population, more frequent is the wild-type GIST possessing SDH, TRK, RAS, NF1 mutations, among others. Both tumor types require individualized treatment with kinase inhibitors that are still being tested in the pediatric population due to the different neoplasm biology. We review the latest updates to the management of pediatric gastrointestinal tumors with a particular focus on the advances in molecular biology of the disease that enables the definition of possible resistance. Emerging treatment with kinase inhibitors that could serve as targeted therapy is discussed, especially with multikinase inhibitors of higher generation, the effectiveness of which has already been confirmed in the adult population.
Ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) is a multisystemic neurodegenerative inborn error of immunity (IEI) characterized by DNA repair defect, chromosomal instability, and hypersensitivity to ionizing radiation. Impaired DNA double-strand break repair determines a high risk of developing hematological malignancies, especially lymphoproliferative diseases. Poor response to treatment, excessive chemotherapy toxicities, and the need for avoiding exposure to ionizing radiation make the successful clinical management of patients with AT challenging for oncologists. We describe the favorable outcome of the LBCL with IRF4 rearrangement at stage III in a 7-year-old female patient diagnosed with AT. The patient was treated according to the B-HR arm of the INTER-B-NHL-COP 2010 protocol, including the administration of rituximab, cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, prednisone, etc. She presented excessive treatment toxicities despite individually reduced doses of methotrexate and cyclophosphamide. However, in the MRI there was no significant reduction in pathologic lymph nodes after three immunochemotherapy courses. Therefore, a lymph node biopsy was taken. Its subsequent histopathological examination revealed tuberculosis-like changes, though tuberculosis suspicion was excluded. After two following immunochemotherapy courses, PET-CT confirmed complete remission. From March 2022 onwards, the patient has remained in remission under the care of the outpatient children’s oncology clinic.
Brentuximab vedotin is a conjugate drug used mainly in Hodgkin lymphoma, systemic and primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphomas, and CD30-expressing peripheral T-cell lymphoma. We report a unique case of acute pancreatitis associated with brentuximab vedotin in a 17-year-old male patient suffering from classical Hodgkin lymphoma. Diagnosed in 2020, the patient was classified to an intermediate therapeutic group and disease’s grade was IIIAE. The patient was treated with brentuximab vedotin and bendamustine in the third line. Two weeks after the drug administration, the patient developed acute epigastric pain. Laboratory and radiological findings confirmed the clinical suspicion of acute pancreatitis that was managed with opioid pain medications, meropenem, parenteral nutrition, ondansetron and omeprazole. This is the first case report of brentuximab vedotin-associated acute pancreatitis in the pediatric patient reported in the literature to the best of our knowledge.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.