Citations

Background: Achilles tendon tears are potentially career-ending injuries for professional athletes. For players in the National Football League (NFL), return requires not only surgery and extensive rehabilitation but also the ability to compete in a market with limited positions that annually introduces new recruits. Purpose/Hypothesis: We authors sought to evaluate factors related to return to play (RTP) and changes in performance following a primary Achilles tear. Our hypothesis was that “skilled” position players and those drafted in later rounds would return at a lower rate as compared with “unskilled” position players and higher draft-round players. Study Design: Case-control study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: From a previously established database, 80 NFL players were identified as having primary Achilles tendon tears between the 2009 and 2014 seasons. RTP was defined as playing in a regular season or postseason game following injury. Probability of RTP was modeled as a function of time after injury in Kaplan-Meier analysis with demographic variables assessed via generalized linear models. Twelve players (15%) experienced a subsequent Achilles tendon tear during or after the study period and were included in the overall RTP rate but were excluded from performance analyses owing to the confounding effects of an ipsilateral retear or contralateral tear. Results: The overall RTP rate was 61.3%. Age, number of prior seasons, position type, or draft round status did not significantly affect RTP when evaluated with Kaplan-Meier analysis. In the season before their injury, players who did RTP played in a significantly greater number of regular season games (13.7) compared with players who did not RTP (8.71) ( P = .011). Players who did not RTP exhibited a significant decrease in performance in the season preceding injury (12.7 regular season games played 2 seasons preinjury vs 8.71 regular season games played 1 season prior preinjury;, P = .019). Players who returned did not display a significant change in the number of games played or started in seasons following injury when >1 season after return was evaluated. Conclusion: Rate of RTP following primary Achilles tendon tears may be lower than previously published. However, for those able to return, performance only in the season immediately following injury appears to be affected; players return to preinjury levels if given the opportunity to play >1 season after injury.

Abstract An ultimate goal of precision medicine in lung cancer treatment is to restore patient health with maximized quality of life (QOL). Results from Mayo Clinic studies show that a significant improvement in fatigue, dyspnea, and pain scales could lead to better overall QOL. Although treatments and guidelines for clinical implementation to alleviate these key symptoms are available, few cancer patients receive adequate therapy, mostly because of limitations in current care delivery systems and unclear clinicians’ roles. For optimal care of lung cancer survivors in different subpopulations, three barriers must be overcome: physicians’ lack of knowledge, unwarranted practice variation, and uncertainty regarding care provider roles. Appropriate culturally adapted, tested and validated tools for QOL measures must be developed, rather than directly translating existing tools between different languages and across cultures or diverse subpopulations. Finally, lack of sensitive, adequate, and relevant tools in measuring health-related QOL (HRQOL) has long been an issue for effective data collection, demanding a global consensus on a set of core components that reflect the needs of all critical parties for the best cure and care, supporting patients to achieve optimal HRQOL.

Abstract The oncolytic reovirus (RV) has demonstrated clinical efficacy and minimal toxicity in a variety of cancers, including multiple myeloma (MM). MM is a malignancy of plasma cells that is considered treatable but incurable because of the 90% relapse rate that is primarily from drug resistance. The systemic nature of MM and the antitumor immunosuppression by its tumor microenvironment presents an ongoing therapeutic challenge. In the present study, we demonstrate that RV synergizes with the standard-of-care MM drug bortezomib (BTZ) and, importantly, enhances its therapeutic potential in therapy-resistant human MM cell lines in vitro. Using the syngeneic Vk*MYC BTZ-resistant immunocompetent transplantable MM murine model, we also demonstrate that mice harboring BTZ-insensitive MM tumors respond to the RV/BTZ combination treatment in terms of decreased tumor burden and improved overall survival (P < .00001). We demonstrate that BTZ augments RV replication in tumor-associated endothelial cells and myeloma cells, leading to enhanced viral delivery and thereby stimulating cytokine release, immune activity, apoptosis, and reduction of the MM-associated immune suppression. We conclude that combined RV/BTZ is an attractive therapeutic strategy with no safety signals for the treatment of MM.

HIV-1 infections usually start at a mucosal surface after sexual contact. Creating a barrier of protection at these mucosal sites may be a good strategy for to protect against HIV-1 infections. While HIV-1 enters at mucosa, most vaccines are not delivered here. Most are instead injected into the muscle, a site well distant and functionally different than mucosal tissues. This study tested if delivering HIV vaccines at mucosa or in the muscle makes a difference in the quality, quantity, and location of immune responses against the virus. These data suggest that there are indeed advantages to educating the immune system at mucosal sites with an HIV-1 vaccine.

The quality of clinical trials is an essential part of the evidence base for the treatment of headache disorders. In 1991, the International Headache Society Clinical Trials Standing Committee developed and published the first edition of the Guidelines for controlled trials of drugs in migraine. Scientific and clinical developments in headache medicine led to second and third editions in 2000 and 2012, respectively. The current, fourth edition of the Guidelines retains the structure and much content from previous editions. However, it also incorporates evidence from clinical trials published after the third edition as well as feedback from meetings with regulators, pharmaceutical and device manufacturers, and patient associations. Its final form reflects the collective expertise and judgement of the Committee. These updated recommendations and commentary are intended to meet the Society's continuing objective of providing a contemporary, standardized, and evidence-based approach to the conduct and reporting of randomised controlled trials for the acute treatment of migraine attacks.