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Background: Epithelial ovarian cancer is a devastating disease associated with low survival prognosis mainly because of the lack of early detection markers and the asymptomatic nature of the cancer until late stage. Using two complementary proteomics approaches, a differential protein expression profile was carried out between low and highly transformed epithelial ovarian cancer cell lines which realistically mimic the phenotypic changes observed during evolution of a tumour metastasis. This investigation was aimed at a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying differentiation, proliferation and neoplastic progression of ovarian cancer.

Summary Influenza virus‐like particles (VLPs) are noninfectious particles resembling the influenza virus representing a promising vaccine alternative to inactivated influenza virions as antigens. Medicago inc. has developed a plant‐based VLP manufacturing platform allowing the large‐scale production of GMP‐grade influenza VLPs. In this article, we report on the biochemical compositions of these plant‐based influenza candidate vaccines, more particularly the characterization of the N‐glycan profiles of the viral haemagglutinins H1 and H5 proteins as well as the tobacco‐derived lipid content and residual impurities. Mass spectrometry analyses showed that all N‐glycosylation sites of the extracellular domain of the recombinant haemagglutinins carry plant‐specific complex‐type N‐glycans having core α(1,3)‐fucose, core β(1,2)‐xylose epitopes and Lewisa extensions. Previous phases I and II clinical studies have demonstrated that no hypersensibility nor induction of IgG or IgE directed against these glycans was observed. In addition, this article showed that the plant‐made influenza vaccines are highly pure VLPs preparations while detecting no protein contaminants coming either from Agrobacterium or from the enzymes used for the enzyme‐assisted extraction process. In contrast, VLPs contain few host cell proteins and glucosylceramides associated with plant lipid rafts. Identification of such raft markers, together with the type of host cell impurity identified, confirmed that the mechanism of VLP formation in planta is similar to the natural process of influenza virus assembly in mammals.

The centralization of the priming of IV tubing in the pharmacy reduced floor contamination in patient care areas without increasing surface contamination in the pharmacy. Closed-system transfer devices reduced contamination in pharmacy, but handling issues were raised by pharmacy technicians.

While pediatric cancer mortality has decreased, suffering has increased due to difficult treatments. Although suffering can impede recovery, there is no validated scale in French or English to measure suffering in adolescents with cancer. This study presents the first Adolescent Cancer Suffering Scale in French or English, and readily applicable to Canada.