The Most Difficult Lesson From Cancer Just Might Be Its Most Valuable

In this essay, the author reflects on his experience treating patients with cancer.

Comparing Lifestyle Modifications and the Magnitude of Their Associated Benefit on Cancer Mortality

Many cancers are associated with poor diet, lack of physical activity, and excess weight. Improving any of these three lifestyle factors would likely reduce cancer deaths. However, modifications to each of these-better nutrition, enhanced activity and fitness, and loss of extra body fat-have different effect sizes on cancer mortality. This review will highlight the relative benefit that each lifestyle change, enacted prior to a diagnosis of cancer, might impart on cancer-related deaths, as well as attempt to quantify the changes required to derive such a benefit. The review relies primarily on epidemiological data, with meta-analyses serving as the backbone for comparisons across interventions and individual studies within the larger meta-analyses providing the data necessary to form more quantitative conclusions. The reader can then use this information to better understand, recommend, and implement behaviors that might ultimately reduce cancer mortality. Of all the interventions, it seems clear that exercise, specifically improving cardiorespiratory fitness, is the best way to decrease the risk of dying from cancer.

Adverse Events Reported by Patients With Cancer After Administration of a 2-Dose mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine

BACKGROUND

Most safety and efficacy trials of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines excluded patients with cancer, yet these patients are more likely than healthy individuals to contract SARS-CoV-2 and more likely to become seriously ill after infection. Our objective was to record short-term adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine in patients with cancer, to compare the magnitude and duration of these reactions with those of patients without cancer, and to determine whether adverse reactions are related to active cancer therapy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A prospective, single-institution observational study was performed at an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. All study participants received 2 doses of the Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccine separated by approximately 3 weeks. A report of adverse reactions to dose 1 of the vaccine was completed upon return to the clinic for dose 2. Participants completed an identical survey either online or by telephone 2 weeks after the second vaccine dose.

RESULTS

The cohort of 1,753 patients included 67.5% who had a history of cancer and 12.0% who were receiving active cancer treatment. Local pain at the injection site was the most frequently reported symptom for all respondents and did not distinguish patients with cancer from those without cancer after either dose 1 (39.3% vs 43.9%; P=.07) or dose 2 (42.5% vs 40.3%; P=.45). Among patients with cancer, those receiving active treatment were less likely to report pain at the injection site after dose 1 compared with those not receiving active treatment (30.0% vs 41.4%; P=.002). The onset and duration of adverse events was otherwise unrelated to active cancer treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

When patients with cancer were compared with those without cancer, few differences in reported adverse events were noted. Active cancer treatment had little impact on adverse event profiles.

Broadband femtosecond transient infrared spectroscopy using a 256 x 256 element indium antimonide focal-plane detector

Application and characterization of large-format IR focal-plane arrays as detectors for ultrafast, high-resolution IR spectroscopy are discussed. We also present generation of broadband IR probe-reference pulses by use of collinear non-phase-matched geometry and shot-to-shot dual-track normalization to obtain transient spectra from broadly absorbing hydrogen-bonded systems. As much as 400-cm(-1)-wide coverage with 15-cm(-1) FWHM spectral resolution and +/-6.4 x 10(-4)(DOD = 3 x 10(-4)) baseline standard deviation (+/-1sigmas) is demonstrated near 2.9 microm.

Femtosecond Resolution of Soft Mode Dynamics in Structural Phase Transitions

The microscopic pathway along which ions or molecules in a crystal move during a structural phase transition can often be described in terms of a collective vibrational mode of the lattice. In many cases, this mode, called a "soft" phonon mode because of its characteristically low frequency near the phase transition temperature, is difficult to characterize through conventional frequency-domain spectroscopies such as light or neutron scattering. A femtosecond time-domain analog of light-scattering spectroscopy called impulsive stimulated Raman scattering (ISRS) has been used to examine the soft modes of two perovskite ferroelectric crystals. The low-frequency lattice dynamics of KNbO(3) and BaTiO(3) are clarified in a manner that permits critical evaluation of microscopic models for their ferroelectric transitions. The results illustrate the advantages of ISRS over conventional Raman spectroscopy of low-frequency, heavily damped soft modes.

Reimplantation of freeze-treated bone in immediate reconstruction of the mandible

Surgical defects encountered with corrective surgery of the mandibular complex have been repaired most successfully with autogenous composite bone grafts. Their use belies inherent consequences associated with distant donor sites. Presented here are the experiences and results in two patients whose reconstructions consisted of immediate replacement of the resected mandibular segment after its devitalization with cryogenic freezing treatments. Such treated, autologous bone provides an ideal anatomic graft, nondistinct antigenicity, and immediate restoration of form and function. Monitoring of neoosteogenesis was performed with sequential panographic, nuclear, and histologic studies that documented clinical and histologic repair.