Knight McGraw (insectchief1)

BACKGROUND Enzalutamide and apalutamide are potent next-generation androgen receptor (AR) antagonists used in metastatic and non-metastatic prostate cancer. Metabolic, hormonal and immunologic effects of deep AR suppression are unknown. We hypothesized that enzalutamide and apalutamide suppress 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-2 (11β-HSD2), which normally converts cortisol to cortisone, leading to elevated cortisol concentrations, increased ratio of active to inactive glucocorticoids and possibly suboptimal response to immunotherapy. On-treatment glucocorticoid changes might serve as an indicator of active glucocorticoid exposure and resultant adverse consequences. PATIENTS AND METHODS Human kidney tissues were stained for AR and 11β-HSD2 expression. Patients in three trials [neoadjuvant apalutamide plus leuprolide, enzalutamide ± PROSTVAC (recombinant poxvirus prostate-specific antigen vaccine) for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and enzalutamide ± PROSTVAC for non-metastatic castratio associated with clinical outcomes. INTRODUCTION The etiology of lung cancer is multifactorial. Exposure to tobacco smoke and the role played by the carcinogenic compounds that it contains would explain the common association between lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a disease which is very much linked to tobacco use. In both diseases, sustained inflammation is caused by increased oxidative stress (for example, lipid peroxidation). This generates low molecular weight substances called volatile organic compounds (VOC) that are excreted during breathing. VOC metabolomics provides an indirect measure of oxidative stress. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to establish the relative influence of COPD on the VOC profile in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), by first studying the possible variation of VOC associated with lung cancer histology. PATIENTS AND METHODS Exhaled air was tested in 107 NSCLC patients, who were divided into 2groups NSCLC with COPD and non-COPD with NSCLC. The exhaled air sample was obtained with the BIOVOC® sampler, and transferred to desorption tubes for later analysis by thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The VOC analysis showed lineal aldehydes and carboxylic acids. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS No statistically significant differences were found in VOC associated with histology. NSCLC and COPD patients present a 1.7-fold (1.1-2.7) probability of detection of propionic acid (95% CI 1.22- 6.2) than patients without COPD or NSCLC (P = 0.013). L.U.BACKGROUND Faces convey valuable daily life social signals. As in most psychiatric conditions, non-verbal social cognition or its components including face processing may be aberrant in schizophrenia (SZ). Social participation of individuals with SZ is vital for their quality of life, and remediation of social abilities in this population is of high relevance both for society and clinical care. METHOD Tuning to faces in non-face images such as shadows, grilled toasts, or ink blots is called face pareidolia. Humans possess high sensitivity to facial signals even fetuses and infants are well tuned to coarse face cues. Here we assessed face tuning in individuals with SZ and person-by-person matched controls by using a new experimental tool, a set of food-plate images bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style. The key benefit of these images is that single components do not trigger face processing. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The outcome indicates that individuals with SZ exhibit aberrant face tuning in face-like non-face images (χ2(1) = 17.44, p = 0.0001) that can hamper adaptive interaction with peers and social participation hindering, in turn, clinical remediation. Face response rate in SZ patients was related to the scores on the event arrangement task tapping social cognition (Pearson product-moment correlation, r = 0.602, p = 0.01) and on picture completion task assessing visual perceptual organiz