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Circulating ensembles of tumor-associated cells (C-ETACs) which comprise tumor emboli, immune cells and fibroblasts pose well-recognized risks of thrombosis and aggressive metastasis. However, the detection, prevalence and characterization of C-ETACs have been impaired due to methodological difficulties. Our findings show extensive pan-cancer prevalence of C-ETACs on a hitherto unreported scale in cancer patients and virtual undetectability in asymptomatic individuals. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from blood samples of 16,134 subjects including 5,509 patients with epithelial malignancies in various organs and 10,625 asymptomatic individuals with age related higher cancer risk. PBMCs were treated with stabilizing reagents to protect and harvest apoptosis-resistant C-ETACs, which are defined as cell clusters comprising at least three EpCAM + and CK + cells irrespective of leucocyte common antigen (CD45) status. All asymptomatic individuals underwent screening investigations for malignancy including PAP smear, mammography, low-dose computed tomography, evaluation of cancer antigen 125, cancer antigen 19-9, alpha fetoprotein, carcinoembryonic antigen, prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels and clinical examination to identify healthy individuals with no indication of cancer. C-ETACs were detected in 4,944 (89.8%, 95% CI: 89.0-90.7%) out of 5,509 cases of cancer. C-ETACs were detected in 255 (3%, 95% CI: 2.7-3.4%) of the 8,493 individuals with no abnormal findings in screening. C-ETACs were detected in 137 (6.4%, 95% CI: 5.4-7.4%) of the 2,132 asymptomatic individuals with abnormal results in one or more screening tests. Our study shows that heterotypic C-ETACs are ubiquitous in epithelial cancers irrespective of radiological, metastatic or therapy status. C-ETACs thus qualify to be a systemic hallmark of cancer.Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article.

Drying is an energy-intensive unit operation in chemical, food and allied industries. It is always desired to have low energy consumption for drying operation without compromising the quality of products. In this review, fundamental aspects of infrared heating are described in detail with the focus on its application to the drying of food materials. The modeling techniques are explained in detail to get emphasis on the design of large-scale infrared dryers. This review also contains the investigations carried out by several researchers by experimentation and/or modeling to describe the infrared drying, infrared-convective drying, infraredmicrowave drying and infrared-freeze drying. The present work describes the author's views regarding the capability and applicability of infrared source for drying of food materials. After going through a literature survey, it can be seen that infrared source especially in the far-IR range has been widely used in convective hot air dryer than other types of dryers. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSThe energy loss in convective air drying is found to be very large in chemical and allied food industries. Air, the drying medium, needs to be heated using air heaters, which generally have low thermal efficiency. On the contrary, as the infrared radiation is recognized as surface heater, it can be very suitable for drying of food materials whose drying is generally carried out in thin slices. Moreover, use of infrared heaters in other dryers is very beneficial to lower the drying time without significantly affecting the quality of the final products. Lowering the drying time can increase the productivity and decrease the cost of operation practically.

With increasing understanding of the molecular basis of carcinogenesis, its progression and metastasis, the cancer therapy has shifted from empirical approaches to targeting specific molecules that regulate the complex network of signalling pathways for cell survival and proliferation. These include key players in malignant transformation like protein kinases, transcription factors, steroid hormone receptors, cell cycle regulators, signal transduction proteins and regulators of apoptosis. Almost all these proteins depend upon the molecular chaperone Hsp90 for their proper folding, stability and function and thus are a part of the Hsp90 clientele. Dependence of these proteins on Hsp90 makes this chaperone an appealing target for cancer therapeutics. Inhibition of Hsp90 can affect multiple oncogenic pathways simultaneously. Moreover Hsp90 inhibitors selectively kill cancer cells compared to normal cells and cancer cells have greater dependence on Hsp90 for the maintenance of intracellular protein homeostasis. All this has led to a rapid pace discovery of Hsp90 clients as well as chemical inhibitors of Hsp90. The role of hsp90 in cancer, tumor selectivity of Hsp90 inhibitors and the current status of Hsp90 inhibitors are discussed in the present review.

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