Background The pandemic of Coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses a major public health challenge, and an effective vaccine is the potential mechanism to resolve this specific situation. The present study aimed to evaluate acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination among patients attending the Oncology Clinic of University Clinical Hospital Mostar. Material/Methods This cross-sectional observational study enrolled 364 patients with cancer from the Oncology Clinic of University Clinical Hospital Mostar during February 2021. Data were collected using a questionnaire that captured general information about the participants and their attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination. Results Of the participants, 41.8% answered “Yes” when asked if they would take the vaccine once it becomes available, 37.6% answered “Not sure”, and 20.6% answered “No”. For patients in favor of vaccination, the main reasons reported were fear of getting sick (77.6%), the desire to contribute to herd immunity (57.8%), and trusting the recommendations of health professionals (57.2%). The main reasons for the patients’ vaccination refusal/indecision were doubts about the results from clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines (49.1%), concerns about adverse effects (24.5%), and confusion about the various vaccine options (19.8%). The majority of participants (82.4%) stated that recommendation by their oncologist could influence their decision about vaccination. Of the participants who indicated unwillingness (refusal or indecision) to be vaccinated against COVID-19, 65.3% stated that recommendation by their oncologist could influence their decision about vaccination. Conclusions The findings from the present study showed most patients had refused or were indecisive regarding immunization with COVID-19 vaccine. Increasing physician awareness of this situation may result in higher rates of vaccination.

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The most common type of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), which has a high metastatic potential. Even though the International Metastatic RCC Database Consortium (IMDC) risk model is conventionally utilized for selection and stratification of patients with metastatic RCC (mRCC), there remains an unmet demand for novel prognostic and predictive markers. The goal of this study was to analyze the expression of Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), Cluster of Differentiation 31 (CD31) to determine microvessel density, and Angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1) in primary kidney tumors, as well as their predictive and prognostic value in patients with metastatic ccRCC (mccRCC) who were treated with first-line sunitinib. The study included 35 mccRCC patients who were treated with first-line sunitinib in period between 2009 and 2019. Immunofluorescence was used to examine biomarker expression in tissue specimens of the primary tumor and surrounding normal kidney tissue. Median disease-free survival (DFS) was longer in patients with negative and low tumor VEGF score than in patients with medium tumor VEGF score (p=0.02). Those with low tumor CD31 expression had a longer median DFS than patients with high tumor CD31 expression (p=0.019). There was no correlation between Ang-1 expression and DFS. The expression of biomarkers in normal kidney tissue was significantly lower than in tumor tissue (p<0.001). In conclusion, higher VEGF scores and greater CD31 expression were associated with longer DFS, but neither of these biomarkers correlated with progression-free survival or overall survival.

We present the case of a 36-year-old woman who works as a kindergarten teacher, often she is kneeling on her knees due to the nature of the job. Since a year ago, she noticed that her right knee was swelling. She had an orthopaedic examination when she could no longer bend her knee. Inspection and palpation revealed the swelling of the anterior and anterior-lateral aspect of the knee. MRI imaging revealed a large, sharply defined, lobulated lesion of the infrapatellar fat pad. After the surgical incision, a lobular lesion was found and surgically removed. Histological analysis confirmed a ganglion cyst.