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In metastatic or locally advanced head and neck tumors that present in frail patients or after chemotherapy progression, radiotherapy is normally used as a palliative treatment, with a high rate of symptom palliation and improvement in quality of life. However, there is controversy about what the optimal regimen is. Moreover, despite the poor prognosis of metastatic head and neck cancer, different retrospective studies have shown that a minority of patients with oligometastatic disease experience prolonged disease-free survival after adding curative radiotherapy treatment to the metastatic disease and/or primary tumor. Different retrospective studies have identified clinical prognostic factors that may be used to select candidate patients with metastatic head and neck cancer for a radical approach with radiotherapy. The purpose of this manuscript is to review the role of radiotherapy in metastatic and locally advanced head and neck tumors.

BackgroundLung cancer is one of the most frequent malignancies in humans and is a major cause of death. A number of therapies aimed at reinforcing antitumor immune response, including antiprogrammed cell death protein 1 (anti-PD-1) antibodies, are successfully used to treat several neoplasias as non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, host immune mechanisms that participate in response to anti-PD-1 therapy are not completely understood.MethodsWe used a syngeneic immunocompetent mouse model of NSCLC to analyze host immune response to anti-PD-1 treatment in secondary lymphoid organs, peripheral blood and tumors, by flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). In addition, we also studied specific characteristics of selected immune subpopulations in ex vivo functional assays.ResultsWe show that anti-PD-1 therapy induces a population of circulating T follicular helper cells (cTfh) with enhanced B activation capacity, which participates in tumor response to treatment. Anti-PD-1 increases the number of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS), which correlates with impaired tumor growth. Of note, TLS support cTfh-associated local antibody production, which participates in host immune response against tumor.ConclusionThese findings unveil a novel mechanism of action for anti-PD-1 therapy and provide new targets for optimization of current therapies against lung cancer.

Bioplastics based on glycerol and different proteins (wheat gluten, albumen, rice and albumen/gluten blends) have been manufactured to determine the effect that processing and further thermal treatments exert on different thermo-mechanical properties of the bioplastics obtained. Oscillatory shear, modulated differential scanning calorimetry, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, thermo-gravimetric analysis and water absorption tests were carried out to study the effect of processing on the physical characteristics of the bioplastics. The protein-based bioplastics studied in this work present a high capacity for thermosetting modification because of protein denaturation that may favour the development of a wide variety of materials. The use of albumen or rice protein allows the reduction in both protein concentration and thermosetting temperature, leading to linear viscoelastic moduli values similar to those of synthetic polymers such as LDPE and HDPE. The hygroscopic characteristics of protein-glycerol bioplastics may lead to a decrease in the values of the linear viscoelasticity functions. However, hygroscopic properties depend on the protein nature and may be used for industrial applications where water absorption is required.

Purpose Molecular subtyping based on gene expression profiling (i.e., PAM50 assay) aids in determining the prognosis and treatment of breast cancer (BC), particularly in hormone receptor (HR)-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative tumors, where luminal A and B subtypes have different prognoses and treatments. Several surrogate classifications have been proposed for distinguishing between the luminal A and B subtypes. This study determines the accuracy of local immunohistochemistry (IHC) techniques for classifying HR-positive/HER2-negative (HR+/HER2−) tumors according to intrinsic subtypes using the nCOUNTER PAM50 assay as reference and the HR status definition according the ASCO/CAP recommendations. Methods Molecular subtypes resulting from nCOUNTER PAM50 performed in our laboratory between 2014 and 2020 were correlated with three different proxy surrogates proposed in the literature based on ER, PR, HER2, and Ki67 expression with different cut-off values. Concordance was measured using the level of agreement and kappa statistics. Results From 1049 samples with the nCOUNTER test, 679 and 350 were luminal A and B subtypes, respectively. Only a poor-to-fair correlation was observed between the three proxy surrogates and real genomic subtypes as determined by nCOUNTER PAM50. Moreover, 5–11% and 18–36% of the nCOUNTER PAM50 luminal B and A tumors were classified as luminal A and B, respectively, by these surrogates. Conclusion The concordance between luminal subtypes determined by three different IHC-based classifiers and the nCOUNTER PAM50 assay was suboptimal. Thus, a significant proportion of luminal A and B tumors as determined by the surrogate classifiers could be undertreated or over-treated.

The International Consensus Classification of Myeloid Neoplasms and Acute Leukemias (ICC) and the 5th edition of the WHO classification (WHO 2022) have refined the diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Both classifications segregate MDS subtypes based on molecular or cytogenetic findings but rely on the subjective assessment of blast cell percentage and dysplasia in hematopoietic cell lineages. This study aimed to evaluate interobserver concordance among 13 cytomorphologists from eight hospitals in assessing blast percentages and dysplastic features in 44 MDS patients. The study found fair interobserver agreement for the PB blast percentage and moderate agreement for the BM blast percentage, with the best concordance in cases with <5% BM blasts and >10% BM blasts. Monocyte count agreement was fair, and dysplasia assessment showed moderate concordance for megakaryocytic lineage but lower concordance for erythroid and granulocytic lineages. Overall, interobserver concordance for MDS subtypes was moderate across all classifications, with slightly better results for WHO 2022. These findings highlight the ongoing need for morphological evaluation in MDS diagnosis despite advances in genetic and molecular techniques. The study supports the blast percentage ranges established by the ICC but suggests refining BM blast cutoffs. Given the moderate interobserver concordance, a unified classification approach for MDS is recommended.

The poly-(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors olaparib and talazoparib, have recently been approved for use in patients with metastatic breast cancer (BC) and germline BRCA 1 or 2 mutations due to improved progression-free survival compared to chemotherapy. An increasing number of clinical trials are evaluating the role of PARP inhibitors (PARPi) in BC, alone and in combination with other therapies (including immunotherapy), as well as in earlier stages of the disease. This review describes the unique mechanism of action of these drugs and puts into clinical context the results of pivotal clinical trials. We also discuss the future development of PARPi in BC, their potential combination with other strategies, including chemotherapy and immune-checkpoint inhibitors, and the impact of these treatments in current genetic counselling.

Introduction and objective: Emerging adulthood is a complex stage in which young people pursue higher education and at the same time build their personality and establish habits and lifestyles. The aim of this research is to find out the existing differences in self-concept, basic psychological needs and emotional regulation, according to the practice of physical activity in Andalusian university students. Methodology: A sample of 1204 students studying for a degree in Primary Education and a degree in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences was used. The main instruments used were the Emotional Regulation Scale, the Basic Psychological Needs questionnaire and the AF-5 Self-Concept Scale, using IBM SPSS® 25.0 software for data analysis. Results: The results indicated that the general self-concept and in all its dimensions, except academic self-concept, showed significant differences in those students who practised more physical exercise. In the analysis of the univariate linear model, taking physical self-concept as the dependent variable, significance was observed in terms of the reasons for practising physical activity, showing how men mainly consider physical exercise as a means of improving their attractiveness and health. In terms of academic self-concept, it was observed that non-scholarship students who practice more sport have a higher academic self-concept. Conclusions: it is evident that following an active lifestyle improves self-perception, as well as emotional management and motivational development in higher education contexts.

We describe the status and frequency of germline DNA genetic findings in an unselected prospective cohort of triple negative breast cancer patients participating in a platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy trial. Study population includes 124 consecutive patients with stage II-III TNBC from a trial exploring the antitumor activity of neoadjuvant carboplatin/docetaxel chemotherapy enrolled between 2012 and March 2015, to determine the frequency of germline DNA genetic mutations. 17.1 % of the patients with germline DNA tested had deleterious mutations in any of the analyzed genes (12.38 % in BRCA1, 1.9 % in BRCA2 and BARD1 and 0.95 % in RAD51D). Attending the intrinsic subtype, all the BRCA1/2 carriers tested had basal-like subtype. Among wild-type (WT) patients, 70.11 % had basal subtype, 16.09 % HER2 enriched, 1.15 % Luminal B, and 4.60 % Normal-like. Mean age at diagnosis was significantly lower in mutation-carriers compared with no carriers (43.72 vs 53.10, p  = 0.004). 3 BRCA1/2 carriers were detected between 51 and 60 years, and only one deleterious mutation (BARD1) over 60 years. A positive familiar history of breast and ovarian cancer was more frequent in patients with deleterious mutations (39.39 vs 17.94 %, p  = 0.043). Our study confirms the prevalence of BRCA1/2 mutations in TNBC patients. TNBC should therefore be considered by itself as a criterion for BRCA1/2 genetic testing. Determination of other breast cancer predisposition genes implicated in homologous recombination should also be discussed in this population. However, no definitive conclusions can be reached due to the low prevalence and the uncertain clinical impact of most of the genes included.

Proper nutrition during pregnancy is pivotal to maintain good health for the child and the mother. This study evaluates the reproducibility and validity of a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) designed to assess nutrient intake during pregnancy in the GENEIDA (Genetics, Early life Environmental Exposures and Infant Development in Andalusia) prospective birth cohort study. In addition, the nutrient intake was estimated and then compared with European guidelines and other studies. Diet information was collected from 690 pregnant women using a FFQ administered at two periods of pregnancy (used for the reproducibility study) and 24-h dietary recall (for the validity study). Statistical approaches included Spearman’s correlation coefficient and percentage agreement, classifying women into the same or adjacent quintiles to assess reproducibility, and limits of agreement (LoA) to evaluate validity. In the study of reproducibility, significant correlations for nutrients adjusted for total energy had an average of 0.417. Moreover, the percentage of subjects classified in the same quintile for nutrient intakes were above 66%. In the validation study, the significant correlation for nutrients adjusted for total energy had an average of 0.272. Nevertheless, the percentage of results in the LoA was above 94%. Our results were similar to other studies suggesting that the FFQ used is a valid tool of collect dietary intakes for South-East Spanish pregnant women.

Introducción y objetivo: La adultez emergente se constituye como una etapa de complejidad, en la que los jóvenes cursan estudios superiores a la vez constituyen su personalidad y asientan hábitos y estilos de vida. La presente investigación tiene por objetivo conocer las diferencias existentes en autoconcepto, necesidades psicológicas básicas y la regulación emocional, según la práctica de actividad física en universitarios andaluces. Metodología: Se emplea una muestra de 1204 estudiantes que cursan el Grado de Educación Primaria y el Grado de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y el Deporte. Como principales instrumentos se han utilizado la Escala de Regulación Emocional, el cuestionario de Necesidades Psicológicas Básicas y la Escala de Autoconcepto AF-5, empleando el software IBM SPSS® 25.0 para el análisis de los datos. Resultados: Los resultados indicaron que el autoconcepto general y en todas sus dimensiones, excepto la académica, presenta diferencias significativas en aquellos estudiantes que practican más ejercicio físico. En el análisis del modelo lineal univariado, tomando como variable dependiente el autoconcepto físico, se observó significatividad en cuanto a los motivos de práctica de actividad física, evidenciando cómo los hombres consideran el ejercicio físico como medio de mejora del atractivo y la salud principalmente. En cuanto al autoconcepto académico, se observó que los estudiantes no becados que practican más deporte poseen un autoconcepto académico superior. Conclusiones: Se evidencia que seguir un estilo de vida activo mejora la autopercepción, así como la gestión emocional y el desarrollo motivacional en contextos de educación superior.