scholarly journals Therapeutic strategies and potential implications of silver nanoparticles in the management of skin cancer

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1500-1521
Author(s):  
Shaloam Dasari ◽  
Clement G. Yedjou ◽  
Robert T. Brodell ◽  
Allison R. Cruse ◽  
Paul B. Tchounwou

Abstract Skin cancer (SC) is the most common carcinoma affecting 3 million people annually in the United States and millions of people worldwide. It is classified as melanoma SC (MSC) and non-melanoma SC (NMSC). NMSC represents approximately 80% of SC and includes squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma. MSC, however, has a higher mortality rate than SC because of its ability to metastasize. SC is a major health problem in the United States with significant morbidity and mortality in the Caucasian population. Treatment options for SC include cryotherapy, excisional surgery, Mohs surgery, curettage and electrodessication, radiation therapy, photodynamic therapy, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy. Treatment is chosen based on the type of SC and the potential for side effects. Novel targeted therapies are being used with increased frequency for large tumors and for metastatic disease. A scoping literature search on PubMed, Google Scholar, and Cancer Registry websites revealed that traditional chemotherapeutic drugs have little effect against SC after the cancer has metastasized. Following an overview of SC biology, epidemiology, and treatment options, this review focuses on the mechanisms of advanced technologies that use silver nanoparticles in SC treatment regimens.

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1211
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Palazzo ◽  
Maria I. Morasso ◽  
Carlo Pincelli

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) represents the second most frequent skin cancer, recently showing a rapid increase in incidence worldwide, with around >1 million cases/year in the United States and 2500 deaths [...]


Viruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1318
Author(s):  
Scott D. Haller ◽  
Michael L. Monaco ◽  
Karim Essani

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death in Western countries. The incidence of PDAC has increased over the last 40 years and is projected to be the second leading cause of cancer death by 2030. Despite aggressive treatment regimens, prognosis for patients diagnosed with PDAC is very poor; PDAC has the lowest 5-year survival rate for any form of cancer in the United States (US). PDAC is very rarely detected in early stages when surgical resection can be performed. Only 20% of cases are suitable for surgical resection; this remains the only curative treatment when combined with adjuvant chemotherapy. Treatment regimens excluding surgical intervention such as chemotherapeutic treatments are associated with adverse effects and genetherapy strategies also struggle with lack of specificity and/or efficacy. The lack of effective treatments for this disease highlights the necessity for innovation in treatment options for patients diagnosed with early- to late-phase PDAC and immuno-oncolytic viruses (OVs) have been of particular interest since 2006 when the first oncolytic virus was approved as a therapy for nasopharyngeal cancers in China. Interest resurged in 2015 when T-Vec, an oncolytic herpes simplex virus, was approved in the United States for treatment of advanced melanoma. While many vectors have been explored, few show promise as treatment for pancreatic cancer, and fewer still have progressed to clinical trial evaluation. This review outlines recent strategies in the development of OVs targeting treatment of PDAC, current state of preclinical and clinical investigation and application.


2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 28 ◽  

Carcinomas originating in the upper gastrointestinal tract constitute a major health problem around the world. In fact, experts estimate that approximately 34,700 new cases of upper gastrointestinal carcinomas and 25,000 deaths will have occurred in the United States in 2002. This article summarizes the NCCN clinical practice guidelines for managing gastric cancer, which portray uniformity in the systemic approach to cancer in the United States. The article also discusses anticipated future advances in the treatment of gastric carcinoma. For the most recent version of the guidelines, please visit NCCN.org


Blood ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 138 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 1360-1360
Author(s):  
Dong Dai ◽  
Ji Haeng Heo ◽  
Andrew Rava ◽  
Etienne Jousseaume ◽  
Roberto Ramos ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: To determine treatment regimens used in clinical practice and the associated clinical outcomes among third line (3L) follicular lymphoma (FL) patients in the United States (US). Methods: This non-interventional, retrospective study used Optum electronic health records (EHR) database for FL patients in the US between 1 Jan 2007 and 31 Dec 2020. The start of this period was selected to align with the Morrison et al. 2019, with 5 years of additional data. The identification period was 1 Jan 2008 to 31 Dec 2019, to ensure at least 1 year of baseline before and 60 days of follow-up (unless death happens before) after the index date, defined as start date of 3L treatment. Adult patients (≥18 years) treated in integrated delivery networks with at least one of the 3L treatments of interest (rituximab, bendamustine and rituximab, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase [PI3K] inhibitors [copanlisib, duvelisib, idelalisib], lenalidomide and rituximab [R2], tazemetostat, and stem cell transplant) were included. Patients with Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) diagnosis or clinical trial enrollment on or before the index date or any other cancer diagnosis before the first FL diagnosis were excluded. All agents initiated within 90 days after the index diagnosis constituted the 1L treatment. A subsequent line of therapy (LOT) was defined as treatment initiated after ≥180 days following the runout date of all agents, or addition or substitution of a new agent in the prior LOT after 90 days. The primary endpoints were time to progression (DLBCL transformation, new LOT initiation, or supportive care), overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), while time to next treatment (TTNT) and treatment patterns were the key secondary endpoints. The analyses were conducted for the overall cohort, patients with early progression within 24 months (POD24) after 1L treatment, patients with index date after and including year 2014, as well as for different 3L treatment regimens. The sub-group with 2014 as index date was selected based on idelalisib approval in 2014. Results: The final cohort of patients (used one of the 3L treatments of interest and met inclusion/exclusion criteria) consisted of 687 patients: mean age 62.9 years (range 18 - 86), female (46.9%), Caucasians (87.3%), non-Hispanics (92.1%), and median Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) 3 (range 1 - 18). Rituximab-based regimens (73.7%) were the most common 3L treatments (mono 38.4%, combo 35.2%). Obinutuzumab was used as combination 3L therapy by 6 (0.87%) patients. Bendamustine, PI3K and lenalidomide monotherapies were administered to 3.1%, 2.2% and 1.9% patients, respectively (Figure 1). Rituximab-based regimens were also the most frequently used 1L, 2L, and 4L treatment options (50.8% moved to 4L and 33.6% had rituximab-based regimens). The median time to progression, PFS, and TTNT for 3L in the overall cohort were 16.6 (95% CI 14.4, 18.1), 12.5 (95% CI 11.3, 14.4), and 18 (95% CI 15.8, 19.9) months, respectively. The 1-, 2-and 5-year OS were 83.1%, 74.8% and 61.4%, respectively. The outcomes of 3L among POD24 , non-POD24, as well as patients with index date after and including year 2014 were similar to that of the overall cohort. The median time to progression, PFS, and TTNT with rituximab treatment were 19.1 (95% CI 16.7, 21.7), 15.7 (95% CI 14.2, 17.5), and 18.8 (95% CI 17, 21.7) months respectively. The median OS with rituximab therapy was not reached while the 5-year OS was 67% (Table 1). Moreover, we did not observe statistically significant differences in time to progression, OS, PFS, and TTNT for the 3L treatment between POD24 and non-POD24 patients using a Cox regression model with adjustment for baseline characteristics (age, gender, region, and CCI). The median time to progression, PFS, and TTNT among POD24 vs. non-POD24 were 15.7 vs. 17.9, 11.6 vs. 15.2, and 18 vs. 17.9 months, respectively. Conclusion: Rituximab-based regimens were the most common 3L treatment options for FL patients. Bendamustine, PI3K, and lenalidomide monotherapies were used by a smaller proportion of patients. R2 was used by a small number of patients for 3L treatment, but it is becoming an important option for FL treatment since its approval in 2019. The majority of outcomes observed could be considered poor, newer agents undergoing clinical trials could provide additional treatment choices to physicians to balance treatment effectiveness with safety and patients' quality of life. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures Dai: Novartis: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Heo: Genesis Research: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Rava: Genesis Research: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Jousseaume: Novartis: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Ramos: Novartis: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Bollu: Novartis: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company.


1979 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 179-182
Author(s):  
Andrea Marks

INCIDENCE AND EPIDEMIOLOGY Suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents, and yet for each fatality it is estimated that between 50 to 200 adolescents survive a suicide attempt. Most of the survivors have taken overdoses of drugs commonly found at home. The rate of suicide attempts that do not result in death peaks in adolescence. The male to female ratio is 1/2 and self-poisoning is usually the method. In contrast, suicide fatality rates generally increase with age. Overall, suicide is the ninth leading cause of death in the United States; the male to female ratio is 3/1; and the method used most often is fire-arms. Clearly, suicidal behavior by adolescents is a major health problem in the United States today. The usual challenge for the pediatrician is first managing an acute drug overdose and then facilitating subsequent psychosocial evaluation of the troubled youth. The key challenge is identification of disturbed individuals and their families prior to any suicidal acts. DIAGNOSIS AND PHYSIOLOGIC MANAGEMENT Most young people who present with a suicidal drug overdose are not comatose; many are asymptomatic. In such situations a careful history may be obtained from the patient to determine: the events surrounding the ingestion, which drug or drugs were taken, how much, and when the ingestion occurred.


2004 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Thompson

Fat. Many love to eat it, but hate to carry it. The majority of people in the United States struggle to get out of this love/hate bond. Unfortunately, they find themselves stuck in an abusive relationship.Obesity is the “fastest-growing major health problem in the United States.” Approximately two thirds of American adults are overweight or obese. In addition, 15 percent of children are overweight. The number of people suffering from this chronic ailment dwarfs the number of people afflicted with other diseases such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Obesity leads to over 400,000 deaths a year, and it costs the United States over $117 billion per year. The prevalence and cost of the disease “warrants an increased emphasis on prevention and treatment.”


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haya Jarad ◽  
Junhua Yang ◽  
Abeed Sarker

BACKGROUND Opioid misuse is a major health problem in the United States, and can lead to addiction and fatal overdose. The United States is in the midst of an opioid epidemic; in 2018, an average of approximately 130 Americans died daily from an opioid overdose and 2.1 million have an opioid use disorder (OUD). In addition to electronic health records (EHRs), social media have also been harnessed for studying and predicting physical and behavioral outcomes of OUD. Specifically, it has been shown that on Twitter the use of certain language patterns and their frequencies in subjects’ tweets are indicative of significant healthcare outcomes such as opioid misuse/use and suicide ideation. We sought to understand personal traits and behaviors of Twitter chatters relative to the motive of opioid misuse; pain or recreational. OBJECTIVE . METHODS We collected tweets using the Twitter public developer application programming interface (API) between April 13, 2018 – and May 21, 2018. A list of opioid-related keywords were searched for such as methadone, codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, vicodin, heroin and oxycodone. We manually annotated tweets into three classes: no-opioid misuse, pain-misuse and recreational-misuse, the latter two representing misuse for pain or recreation/addiction. We computed the coding agreement between the two annotators using the Cohen’s Kappa statistic. We applied the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) tool on historical tweets, with at least 500 words, of users in the dataset to analyze their language use and learn about their personality raits and behaviors. LIWC is a text processing software that analyzes text narratives and produces approximately 90 variables scored based on word use that pertain to phsycological, emotional, behavioral, and linguistic processes. A multiclass logistic regression model with backward selection based on the BIC criterion was used to identify variables associated with pain and recreational opioid misuse compared to the base class; no-opioid misuse.. The goal was to understand whether personal traits or behaviors differ across different classes. We reported the odd ratios of different variables in both pain and recreational related opioid misuse classes with respect to the no-opioid misuse class. RESULTS The manual annotation resulted in a total of 1,164 opioid related tweets. 229 tweets were assigned to the pain-related class, 769 were in the recreational class, and 166 tweets were tagged with no opioid misuse class. The overall inter-annotator agreement (IAA) was 0.79. Running LIWC on the tweets resulted in 55 variables. We selected the best model based on BIC. We examined the variables with the highest odd ratios to determine those associated with both pain and recreational opioid misuse as compared to the base class. Certain traits such as depression, stress, and melancholy are established in the literature as commonplace amongst opiod abuse indiviuals. In our analysis, these same characteristics, amongst others, were identified as significantly positively associated with both the Pain and Recreational groups compared to the no-opioid misuse group. Despite the different motivaions for opiod abuse, both groups present the same core personality traits. Interestingly, individuals who misuse opioids as a pain management tool exhibited higher odds ratios for psychological processees and personal traits based on their tweet language. These include a strong focus on discipline, as demonstrated by the variables “disciplined”, “cautious” and “work_oriented”. Their tweet language is also indicative of cheerfulness, a variable absent in the recreational misuse group. Variables associated with the reacreational misuse group revolve around external factors. They are generous and motivated by reward, while maintaining a religious orientation. Based on their tweet language, this group is also characterized as “active”; we understand that these individuals are more social and community focused . CONCLUSIONS To our best knowledge, this is the first study to investigate motivations of opioid abuse as it relates to tweet language. Previous studies utilizing Twitter data were limited to simply detecting opiod abuse likelihood through tweets. By delving deeper into the classes of opioid abuse and its motivation, we offer greater insight into opioid abuse behavior. This insight extends beyond simple identification, and explores patterns in motivation. We conclude that user language on Twitter is indicative of significant differences in personal traits and behaviors depending on abuse motivation: pain management or recreation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S819-S820
Author(s):  
Jonathan Todd ◽  
Jon Puro ◽  
Matthew Jones ◽  
Jee Oakley ◽  
Laura A Vonnahme ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Over 80% of tuberculosis (TB) cases in the United States are attributed to reactivation of latent TB infection (LTBI). Eliminating TB in the United States requires expanding identification and treatment of LTBI. Centralized electronic health records (EHRs) are an unexplored data source to identify persons with LTBI. We explored EHR data to evaluate TB and LTBI screening and diagnoses within OCHIN, Inc., a U.S. practice-based research network with a high proportion of Federally Qualified Health Centers. Methods From the EHRs of patients who had an encounter at an OCHIN member clinic between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2016, we extracted demographic variables, TB risk factors, TB screening tests, International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 9 and 10 codes, and treatment regimens. Based on test results, ICD codes, and treatment regimens, we developed a novel algorithm to classify patient records into LTBI categories: definite, probable or possible. We used multivariable logistic regression, with a referent group of all cohort patients not classified as having LTBI or TB, to identify associations between TB risk factors and LTBI. Results Among 2,190,686 patients, 6.9% (n=151,195) had a TB screening test; among those, 8% tested positive. Non-U.S. –born or non-English–speaking persons comprised 24% of our cohort; 11% were tested for TB infection, and 14% had a positive test. Risk factors in the multivariable model significantly associated with being classified as having LTBI included preferring non-English language (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 4.20, 95% confidence interval [CI] 4.09–4.32); non-Hispanic Asian (aOR 5.17, 95% CI 4.94–5.40), non-Hispanic black (aOR 3.02, 95% CI 2.91–3.13), or Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander (aOR 3.35, 95% CI 2.92–3.84) race; and HIV infection (aOR 3.09, 95% CI 2.84–3.35). Conclusion This study demonstrates the utility of EHR data for understanding TB screening practices and as an important data source that can be used to enhance public health surveillance of LTBI prevalence. Increasing screening among high-risk populations remains an important step toward eliminating TB in the United States. These results underscore the importance of offering TB screening in non-U.S.–born populations. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2344
Author(s):  
Elisabeth A. George ◽  
Navya Baranwal ◽  
Jae H. Kang ◽  
Abrar A. Qureshi ◽  
Aaron M. Drucker ◽  
...  

(1) The incidence of skin cancer is increasing in the United States (US) despite scientific advances in our understanding of skin cancer risk factors and treatments. In vitro and in vivo studies have provided evidence that suggests that certain photosensitizing medications (PSMs) increase skin cancer risk. This review summarizes current epidemiological evidence on the association between common PSMs and skin cancer. (2) A comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify meta-analyses, observational studies and clinical trials that report on skin cancer events in PSM users. The associated risks of keratinocyte carcinoma (squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma) and melanoma are summarized, for each PSM. (3) There are extensive reports on antihypertensives and statins relative to other PSMs, with positive and null findings, respectively. Fewer studies have explored amiodarone, metformin, antimicrobials and vemurafenib. No studies report on the individual skin cancer risks in glyburide, naproxen, piroxicam, chlorpromazine, thioridazine and nalidixic acid users. (4) The research gaps in understanding the relationship between PSMs and skin cancer outlined in this review should be prioritized because the US population is aging. Thus the number of patients prescribed PSMs is likely to continue to rise.


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