Objective: To investigate whether 4-month preoperative lanreotide treatment would improve the surgical cure rate of newly diagnosed acromegalic patients with macroadenomas. Design: A prospective, randomised study. Methods: After a baseline evaluation, patients were randomly assigned to 4-month preoperative treatment with lanreotide (starting with 30 mg/2 weeks i.m. and increasing to 30 mg/week i.m. at week 8 if mean GH O2.5 mg/l on GH day curves; pretreatment group, Group 1) or to transsphenoidal surgery (direct surgery group, Group 2). Cure was evaluated 4 months postoperatively primarily by fasting IGF1 less than or equal to age-adjusted upper limit of normal. Results: A pool of 108 patients was randomly divided into two groups. Five patients in each group were lost to follow-up during the study period, so 49 patients in each group were analysed. At baseline, no difference was observed between the two groups. Cure was established in 24 of 49 (49.0%, 95% confidence interval (CI), 35.0-63.0%) pretreated patients (Group 1) versus 9 of 49 (18.4%, 95% CI, 7.6-29.

The standard treatment for aplastic anemia (AA) in young patients is a matched sibling hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Transfusion of a chronic AA patient with allogeneic bone marrow–derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BMMSCs) is currently being developed as a cell-based therapy, and the safety and efficacy of such transfusions are being continuously improved. Nevertheless, the mechanisms by which BMMSCs exert their therapeutic effects remain to be elucidated. In this study, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) obtained from bone marrow donors were concentrated and intravenously injected into 15 chronic AA patients who had been refractory to prior immunosuppressive therapy. We showed that BMMSCs modulate the levels of Th1, Th2, Th17 and Treg cells, as well as their related cytokines in chronic AA patients. Furthermore, the percentages of Th1 and Th17 cells among the H-MSCs decreased significantly, while the percentage Treg cells increased. The Notch/RBP-J/FOXP3/RORγt pathway was involved in modulating the Treg/Th17 balance after MSCs were transfused in vitro. Additionally, the role played by transfused MSCs in regulating the Treg/Th17 balance via the Notch/RBP-J/FOXP3/RORγt pathway was further confirmed in an AA mouse model. In summary, in humans with chronic AA, BMMSCs regulate the Treg/Th17 balance by affecting the Notch/RBP-J/FOXP3/RORγt pathway.

The best quantitative method for the diagnosis of anemia was the difference in CT attenuation between the left ventricle and interventricular septum.

rhLTα-Da combined with the PF regimen failed to improve PFS and ORR in patients with mESCC, except in a small subset that had low serum TNFR II concentrations. Cancer 2017;123:3986-94. © 2017 American Cancer Society.

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