How May Ramucirumab Help Improve Treatment Outcome for Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancers?

GI cancers are characterized by high recurrence rates and a dismal prognosis and there is an urgent need for new therapeutic approaches. This is a narrative review designed to provide a summary of the efficacy as measured by overall survival, progression free survival, and safety data from phase 3 randomized controlled GI clinical trials of ramucirumab including those from important pre-specified patient subgroups and evidence from real clinical practice worldwide. Quality of life (QOL) is discussed where data are available. Our aim was to summarize the efficacy and safety of ramucirumab in the treatment of GI cancers using these existing published data with a view to demonstrating how ramucirumab may help improve treatment outcome for patients with GI cancers. The data indicate that ramucirumab is efficacious, safe, and tolerable across the intent-to-treat patient populations as a whole and across several pre-specified subgroups, even those whose disease is traditionally more difficult to treat. Furthermore, survival outcomes observed in real-world clinical practice demonstrate similar data from phase 3 clinical trials even in patients with complications, suggesting that the benefits of ramucirumab translate in actual clinical practice.

Cascade targeting tumor mitochondria with CuS nanoparticles for enhanced photothermal therapy in the second near-infrared window

Photothermal therapy, assisted by local heat generation using photothermal nanoparticles (NPs), is an emerging strategy to treat tumors noninvasively. To improve treatment outcome and to alleviate potential side effect on...

Efekt abskopalny – mechanizm i znaczenie we współczesnej radioterapii.

Choroba oligometastatyczna pozostaje istotnym problemem klinicznym współczesnej radioterapii. Wyzwaniem dla onkologa radioterapeuty jest zarówno kwalifikacja chorych do leczenia, jak i odpowiedni dobór leczenia. Nadzieją na poprawę wyników leczenia tej specyficznej grupy pacjentów niesie, jak się wydaje, wykorzystanie efektu abskopalnego. Niniejsza praca poglądowa przybliża mechanizm zjawiska oraz jego zastosowanie w klinice. Oligometastatic disease remains an essential clinical issue in modern radiotherapy. Both proper patients selection and optimal therapy approach are a chalange for radiation oncologist. It seems that abscopal effect may improve treatment outcome. This review paper presents the mechanism of the phenomenon and its application in the clinic.

Family Psychoeducation Approaches for Borderline Personality Disorder

This chapter provides a rationale for training family members of individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) to help them develop into therapeutic allies and treatment adjuncts. It also describes the experiences of family members in finding help for their loved ones with BPD and the family psychoeducation programs currently available for BPD and other disorders. By default, families often are the only alternative available to handle crisis situations since some individuals with BPD refuse to participate in therapy, have dropped out of therapy, or appropriate BPD services are not available in their communities. With an understanding of BPD, social support, and appropriate training, families can potentially develop as adjuncts and that can help improve treatment outcome