bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Impact of EGFR mutation and types of treatment on the longitudinal recurrence risk in patients with completely resected non-small cell lung cancer: A combined analysis of two phase III studies (JIPANG and IMPACT).
Authors: Akamatsu Hiroaki , Nishikawa Tomomi , Misumi Toshihiro , Aoki Tadashi , Shoda Hiroyasu , Yamashita Motohiro , Sakakura Noriaki , Daga Haruko , Sugawara Shunichi , Okishio Kyoichi , Kenmotsu Hirotsugu , Yamamoto Nobuyuki , Tada Hirohito , Tsuboi Masahiro , Mitsudomi Tetsuya 
Published: July 2024

8023 Background: In completely resected non-small cell lung cancer patients who received adjuvant treatment, the impact of EGFR mutation and types of treatment on the longitudinal recurrence risk has not been elucidated. Methods: The individual data was obtained from two adjuvant phase III trials conducted almost the same period in Japan (JIPANG [CDDP + PEM versus CDDP + VNR] and IMPACT [gefitinib versus CDDP+VNR]). According to EGFR mutation status and types of adjuvant treatment, 626 patients were categorized into three groups (arm A [ EGFR wild-type, chemo: n = 299], arm B [ EGFR mutant, chemo: n = 211], and arm C [ EGFR mutant, gefitinib: n = 116]). Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method, and sites of recurrence were compared. Additionally, the longitudinal recurrence risk was analyzed by estimating hazard function among the arms. The impact of EGFR mutation and the types of adjuvant treatment on the recurrence site (central nervous system vs others) and death was also analyzed using the multi-state model. Results: Median follow-up time was 69.3 months (range, 0.0 to 113.4 months). DFS was not different between the arms (median DFS: 42.2 months in arm A, 30.3 months in arm B, and 35.9 months in arm C, respectively), however, the DFS rate at 8 years was numerically different (arm A: 40.4%, arm B: 33.9%, and arm C: 22.3%, respectively: Table). Median OS was not reached in each arm, and OS rates at 8 years were 61.3%, 67.7%, and 59.8%, respectively. In the longitudinal recurrence risk analysis, arms A and B had a higher hazard function level than arm C for the first two years and the curves crossed thereafter. Risks in arms A and B gradually decreased and reached a plateau at a lower level, whereas arm C sustained a recurrence risk and finally it was higher than arms A and B. Regarding sites of recurrence, arm C showed a slightly higher distant relapse (51.7%) than arm A (47.2%) or arm B (45.5%), of those, CNS was the most frequent site (33.8%). Among EGFR mutant cases, gefitinib likely to have higher risk of CNS relapse (HR 1.46, 95% confidence interval: 0.62-3.45) than chemotherapy. When treated with chemotherapy, EGFR mutation status did not affect any types of recurrence. Conclusions: In patients with completely resected NSCLC, chemotherapy led to cure regardless of EGFRmutation status, whereas gefitinib showed a sustained recurrence risk even after completion. Clinical trial information: UMIN000006252 and UMIN000006737. [Table: see text]
High-dose furmonertinib in patients with EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer and leptomeningeal metastases: A real-world study.
Authors: Chen Haiyang , Wang Lili , Wu Yingxi , Wu Yufeng , Ma Shuxiang , Yang Sen , He Zhen , Mo Yuqing , Zhang Cuicui , Wang Qiming 
Published: July 2024

8587 Background: Leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) is one of the most severe complications of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and always accompanied with poor prognosis. Furmonertinib is a pan-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) with high brain penetration and wide therapeutic window. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of high-dose furmonertinib in patients with EGFR-mutated NSCLC and LM in the real world. Methods: Eligible patients were aged at least 18 years old and had histological or cytological confirmed advanced NSCLC harboring an EGFR mutation. Patients were diagnosed as probable or confirmed LM according to the EANO-ESMO criteria. Patients were treated with furmonertinib 240mg once daily. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), time to treatment discontinuation (TTD) and clinical response rate were secondary endpoints. Clinical response rate assessed with improvement of neurologic symptoms or signs and changes in the performance status. Additional efficacy evaluations included changes in brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) according to the RANO-LM radiologic criteria. Results: Between May 1, 2021, and December 28, 2023, 48 patients were enrolled at Henan Cancer Hospital. All of the enrolled patients had poor performance status, 13 (27.1%) patients had an ECOG score of 2, 35 (72.9%) patients had an ECOG score of 3. And 35 (72.9%) patients had received other 3rd generation EGFR-TKIs. The median follow-up time was 15 months. 31 OS events occurred at the data cut-off. The primary endpoint of median OS was 8.433 months (95%CI, 5.481 to 11.386 months). The secondary endpoint of median TTD was 8.267 months (95%CI, 5.395 to 11.138 months). The clinical response rate was 75%. The LM objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) assessed by investigator according to RANO-LM radiologic criteria were 47.4% and 92.1%, respectively. The adverse event profiles were consistent with previous reports of furmonertinib. 22 (45.8%) patients had adverse events (AEs) possibly related to furmonertinib. 3 (6.3%) patients had grade 3 elevated aminotransaminase or nausea or leucopenia, respectively, leading to dose reduction to 160mg daily. Conclusions: In the real world, high-dose furmonertinib demonstrated significant clinical efficacy and tolerable safety in patients of EGFR-mutated NSCLC with LM, even in patients who had been treated with other 3rd generation EGFR-TKIs previously. Clinical trial information: ChiCTR2300072092.
Comparison of Surgical Modalities for Giant Pituitary Adenoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 1413 Patients
Authors: Tang Oliver Y. , Chen Jia-Shu , Monje Silas , Kumarapuram Siddhant , Eloy Jean Anderson , Liu James K. 
Published: July 2024

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
Giant pituitary adenomas (GPAs) are a challenging clinical entity, composing 5% to 15% of all pituitary adenomas. While the endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal (EET) approach has surpassed the microsurgical transsphenoidal (MT) and transcranial (TC) approaches as the first-line surgical modality in most institutions, a systematic review comparing the 3 approaches has not been undertaken since 2012. Given growing adoption of EET and development of novel operative techniques over the past decade, an updated comparison of GPA surgical modalities is warranted.

METHODS:
We identified all studies related to the surgical management of GPAs in PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science from inception to December 31, 2021. End points assessed included gross total resection (GTR) rates, postoperative visual improvement, mortality, and perioperative complications.

RESULTS:
After screening of 1701 studies, we identified 45 studies on the surgical management of GPAs for meta-analysis. Thirty-one used the EET approach (n = 1413), 11 studies used the MT approach (n = 601), and 10 used the TC approach (n = 416). The cumulative number of patients treated by EET did not exceed that of patients treated by the TC or MT approaches until 2014 and 2015, respectively. Despite patients undergoing EET having the highest average tumor diameter, pooled rates for GTR were significantly higher for EET (42%) than MT (33%, P < .001) and TC (8%, P < .001) and EET similarly exhibited superior rates of visual improvement (85%) than MT (73%, P < .001) and TC (56%, P < .001). Mortality rates were comparable between EET (0.6%) and MT (1.6%), but EET had significantly lower mortality than TC (2.7%, P < .001). Compared with MT, EET had lower rates of hypopituitarism (8.5% vs 14.9%, P = .012) but higher rates of diabetes insipidus (3.1% vs 0.5%, P = .001).

CONCLUSION:
In an updated meta-analysis of 1413 patients with GPA, EET resection conferred significantly higher rates of visual improvement and GTR, when compared with the MT and TC approaches.
Does Valve Design Affect the Tensile Strength of Ventriculoperitoneal Shunts?
Authors: Patel Parth , Arshad Haroon , Jefferys Kirsten , Gernsback Joanna 
Published: July 2024

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
The most common treatment for hydrocephalus is ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunting, which is problematic as shunts are prone to failure. Shunt disconnections account for a minority (8%-15%) of VP shunt failures but could be reduced through better shunt design. A better understanding of the mechanical properties of VP shunts would help explain why shunt disconnections occur. The objective of this study was to determine if the tensile properties of VP shunts differ by design.

METHODS:
Linear tensile testing was conducted on 5 different valve designs (Codman Certas Plus Programmable Valve, Medtronic Delta, Integra Orbis Sigma Valve II, Medtronic PS Medical, Medtronic Strata Adjustable Valve) at both the proximal and distal ends to determine the maximum load which could be applied to different shunt designs. Each valve was progressively subjected to increasing force until the catheter disconnected from the valve, the catheter fractured, or our maximum testing limits were reached.

RESULTS:
Catheters disconnected or fractured during testing with all valves. The maximum load resisted during tensile testing for similar locations in all valve designs were found to be statistically similar to one another. Only the PS Medical and Orbis Sigma II valves showed an increased maximum load at the distal end compared with the proximal end within the same device.

CONCLUSION:
No single valve design was superior at preventing disconnections in VP shunts. Shunt disconnections remain a concerning problem as VP shunts are the gold standard for combating hydrocephalus.
Craniofacial studies in chicken embryos confirm the pathogenicity of human FZD2 variants associated with Robinow syndrome
Authors: Tophkhane Shruti S. , Fu Katherine , Verheyen Esther M. , Richman Joy M. 
Published: July 2024

ABSTRACT
Robinow syndrome is a rare disease caused by variants of seven WNT pathway genes. Craniofacial features include widening of the nasal bridge and jaw hypoplasia. We used the chicken embryo to test whether two missense human FZD2 variants (1301G&gt;T, p.Gly434Val; 425C&gt;T, p.Pro142Lys) were sufficient to change frontonasal mass development. In vivo, the overexpression of retroviruses with wild-type or variant human FZD2 inhibited upper beak ossification. In primary cultures, wild-type and variant human FZD2 significantly inhibited chondrogenesis, with the 425C&gt;T variant significantly decreasing activity of a SOX9 luciferase reporter compared to that for the wild type or 1301G&gt;T. Both variants also increased nuclear shuttling of β-catenin (CTNNB1) and increased the expression of TWIST1, which are inhibitory to chondrogenesis. In canonical WNT luciferase assays using frontonasal mass cells, the variants had dominant-negative effects on wild-type FZD2. In non-canonical assays, the 425C&gt;T variant failed to activate the reporter above control levels and was unresponsive to exogenous WNT5A. This is the first single amino acid change to selectively alter ligand binding in a FZD receptor. Therefore, FZD2 missense variants are pathogenic and could lead to the altered craniofacial morphogenesis seen in Robinow syndrome.
Surveillance for Distant Metastasis in Breast Cancer Patients Who Underwent Contemporary Management: A Report from the Korean Breast Cancer Society Survivor Research Group
Authors: Cheun Jong-Ho , Chung Sooyeon , Han Jai Hong , Lee Young-Won , Jung Ji-Jung , Chun Jung Whan , Lee Eun-Gyeong , Min Jun Won , Kim Zisun , Lee Jihyoun , Jung So-Youn , Kim Yoo Seok , Yu Jong Han , Kim Eun-Kyu , Lee Jong-Won , Hwang Ki-Tae , Kim Ku Sang , Youn Hyun Jo , Moon Hyeong-Gon 
Published: July 2024

Abstract
Background
Current guidelines recommend against the use of routine imaging tests to detect distant metastasis in asymptomatic breast cancer patients. However, recent advancements in effective therapeutics and diagnostic accuracy have raised the need to reassess the clinical efficacy of intensive metastasis surveillance. We report the results of a multicenter retrospective study to investigate the association between intensive imaging studies and survival outcomes.

Patients and Methods
We retrospectively reviewed the data of 4130 patients who underwent surgery from 11 hospitals in Korea between January 2010 and December 2011. Patients were divided into two groups on the basis of the intensity of metastasis imaging studies during their disease-free period. The types and intervals of the imaging studies were based on each physician’s decisions.

Results
High-intensive screening showed a shorter distant metastasis-free survival [p < 0.001, hazard ratio (HR) 1.62; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.29–2.04], especially for patients in whom bone or lung was the first site of metastasis. With a median follow-up period of 110.0 months, the 5-year breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) rate was 96.5%. The high-intensity screening group showed significantly poorer BCSS compared with the low-intensity screening group (p < 0.001, HR 3.13; 95% CI 2.32–4.21). However, both multivariable analysis and propensity score matching analysis showed no significant association between the screening intensity and BCSS.

Conclusions
Frequent imaging studies to detect distant metastasis were associated with earlier detection of distant metastasis, especially for lung and bone metastasis. However, intensive surveillance showed no apparent association with BCSS despite the use of currently available treatments.
A injustificável taxa básica de juros brasileira e a captura do Banco Central pelo mercado financeiro
Authors: Luperi Mauricio Martinelli 
Published: July 2024

Se observamos as discussões sobre a alta taxa de juros SELIC nos dias de hoje, perceberemos que a crítica a manutenção de um patamar tão elevado dessa taxa no Brasil ganha corpo em relação à momentos históricos anteriores. Isso ocorre porque o mundo atual apresenta características específicas, como um alto nível de inflação, que provém de um choque de petróleo e de um pós-período pandêmico. Dentro desse contexto, a inflação brasileira se apresentou menor e em queda em relação a muitas economias avançadas, como, por exemplo, os EUA. E mesmo assim nosso Banco Central brasileiro manteve uma taxa de juros real de aproximadamente 9%. É importante destacar que por trás da manutenção dessa taxa se encontra a opção do país em crescer com poupança externa definida pelo professor Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira e que encontra amparo em grupos de interesse que se unem em torno de um ganho rentista.
Advance Selling to Ease Financial Distress
Authors: Papanastasiou Yiangos , Xiao Shuang , Yang S. Alex 
Published: July 2024

Left unable to provide service during the COVID-19 pandemic, many small businesses have experimented with alternative ways of generating income. One approach that has gained traction is the use of advance selling, whereby the firm asks consumers in its local community to support the business by paying in advance for consumption at a future date. In this paper, we develop a game theoretic model to investigate whether and how advance selling schemes can be successfully implemented by firms facing financial distress. In cases of high distress (i.e., where obtaining bank financing is infeasible given the firm’s financial need), we show that advance selling in its classic implementation can help the firm secure its survival in some scenarios but may suffer from significant inefficiencies associated with strategic consumer behavior and firm moral hazard. We demonstrate that two modifications of the classic scheme currently observed in practice—namely, (i) the introduction of an “all-or-nothing” clause and (ii) selling future discount coupons as opposed to the full service—can expand the set of scenarios in which survival is ensured while also allowing the firm to extract higher profit. In cases of moderate financial distress (i.e., where bank financing is a feasible but inefficient option), we find that simple advance selling schemes typically fail to make an impact. However, we show that a more complex scheme, combining both of the aforementioned modifications simultaneously, can be used in conjunction with bank financing to generate a substantial improvement in firm profit. This paper was accepted by Jeannette Song, operations management. Funding: The work of author S. Xiao was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 71901221].
Dynamic Allocation of Reusable Resources: Logarithmic Regret in Overloaded Networks
Authors: Xie Xinchang , Gurvich Itai , Küçükyavuz Simge 
Published: July 2024

How to dynamically allocate limited capacity to service requests? The problem studied in this paper is common in service applications, such as hotels, car rentals, and consulting services. These applications have limited capacity that must be allocated among incoming service requests. Different requests may require resources for varying durations, and some requests might yield higher rewards than others when fulfilled. The decision maker, who controls this capacity, must decide upon each request’s arrival whether to accept it (thus committing resources for a certain period) or reject it in order to reserve capacity for potentially more valuable future requests. This paper expands our understanding of such resource allocation problems by developing an appealingly simple dynamic allocation algorithm with proven effectiveness. In an appropriate operating regime, the suboptimal gap of this algorithm is at most logarithmic in the maximum achievable reward. In other words, for large-scale systems, the suboptimality translates to a negligible percentage deviation from optimal performance. Paper’s Title: Dynamic Allocation of Reusable Resources: Logarithmic Regret in Overloaded Networks
Exact and Heuristic Methods for the Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem
Authors: Gamst Mette , Lusby Richard Martin , Ropke Stefan 
Published: July 2024

This paper describes an exact branch-and-cut (B&C) algorithm for the split delivery vehicle routing problem. The underlying model is based on a previously proposed two-index vehicle flow formulation that models a relaxation of the problem. We dynamically separate two well-known classes of valid inequalities, namely capacity and connectivity cuts, and use an in-out algorithm to improve the convergence of the cutting phase. We generate no-good cuts from feasible integer solutions to the relaxation using a recently proposed single-commodity flow formulation in the literature. The exact methodology is complemented by a very effective adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) heuristic that provides high-quality upper bounds to initiate the B&C algorithm. Key ingredients in the design of the heuristic include the use of a tailored construction algorithm, which can exploit the situation in which the ratio of the number of customers to the minimum number of vehicles needed is low, and the use of a route-based formulation to improve the solutions found before, during, and after the ALNS procedure. An earlier version of this work was submitted to the DIMACS (Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science) implementation challenge, where it placed third. On sets of well-known benchmark instances for limited and unlimited fleet variants of the problem, we demonstrate that the heuristic provides very competitive solutions, with respective average gaps of 0.19% and 0.18% from best-known values. Furthermore, the exact B&C framework is also highly competitive with state-of-the-art methods, providing solutions with an average optimality gap of 1.82%. History: This paper has been accepted for the Transportation Science Special Section on DIMACS Implementation Challenge: Vehicle Routing Problems. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2022.0353 .
Wellbeing, quality of life and satisfaction of patients with hard-to-heal wounds: a descriptive study
Authors: Natarajan Jansirani , Joseph Mickael Antoine , Alawi Rashid Al , Bulushi Taimoor Al , Alawi Ibrahim Al , Junaibi Suad Moosa Al , Thanka Anitha Nesa , Balushi Laila Darwish Al , Ismaili Issa Sulaiman Al , Shumma Moath , Nabhani Sultan Saif Thani Al 
Published: July 2024

Objective: A hard-to-heal wound is defined as a wound that failed to proceed through the normal phases of wound healing in an orderly and timely manner. The purpose of this article is to describe the impact of hard-to-heal wounds on the wellbeing, quality of life (QoL) and satisfaction with QoL of patients in Oman with hard-to-heal wounds. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study of patients with hard-to-heal wounds attending three tertiary care hospitals using a self-reported questionnaire was conducted. Results: A total of 275 patients took part in the study. Patients reported a low wellbeing score (67.06±19.72), moderate QoL score (52.18±25.07) and moderate satisfaction scores (68.91±23.88). Significant mean differences were reported with age, sex, educational level, monthly income and type of wound all at p<0.05. Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrated that hard-to-heal wounds could influence the wellbeing, QoL and overall satisfaction with QoL of patients. Declaration of interest: Funding was received through an internal grant of the Sultan Qaboos University to conduct the research conducting the research (IG/CON/FACN/20/01). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Hounsfield units in assessing bone mineral density in ankylosing spondylitis patients with cervical fracture-dislocation
Authors: Gao Zhong-Ya , Peng Wei-Lin , Li Yang , Lu Xu-Hua 
Published: July 2024

BACKGROUND
Cervical spine fracture-dislocations in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) are mostly unstable and require surgery. However, osteoporosis, one of the comorbidities for AS, could lead to detrimental prognoses. There are few accurate assessments of bone mineral density in AS patients.
AIM
To analyze Hounsfield units (HUs) for assessing bone mineral density in AS patients with cervical fracture-dislocation.
METHODS
The HUs from C2 to C7 of 51 patients obtained from computed tomography (CT) scans and three-dimensional reconstruction of the cervical spine were independently assessed by two trained spinal surgeons and statistically analyzed. Inter-reader reliability and agreement were assessed by interclass correlation coefficient.
RESULTS
The HUs decreased gradually from C2 to C7. The mean values of the left and right levels were significantly higher than those in the middle. Among the 51 patients, 25 patients (49.02%) may be diagnosed with osteoporosis, and 16 patients (31.37%) may be diagnosed with osteopenia.
CONCLUSION
The HUs obtained by cervical spine CT are feasible for assessing bone mineral density with excellent agreement in AS patients with cervical fracture-dislocation.