Medical Bulletin 11/October/2022

New research indicates that among individuals with breast cancer, those with a rare subtype called inflammatory breast cancer face a higher risk that their cancer will spread, or metastasize, to the brain.

To provide insights into the incidence and risk factors for brain metastases in this patient population, Laura E.G. Warren and her colleagues analyzed data on 372 patients with stage III inflammatory breast cancer and 159 with stage IV inflammatory breast cancer.

Reference:

"Incidence, characteristics, and management of central nervous system metastases in patients with inflammatory breast cancer." Laura E.G. Warren, Samuel M. Niman, Marie C. Remolano, Jean M. Landry, Faina Nakhlis, Jennifer R. Bellon, Ayal A. Aizer, Nancy U. Lin, Sara M. Tolaney, Meredith M. Regan, Beth A. Overmoyer, and Filipa Lynce. CANCER; Published Online: October 10, 2022 (DOI: 10.1002/cncr.34441).

Investigators from the Mahmood Lab at Brigham and Women's Hospital have developed a deep learning algorithm that can teach itself to learn features which can then be used to find similar cases in large pathology image repositories.

Known as SISH (Self-Supervised Image search for Histology), the new tool acts like a search engine for pathology images and has many potential applications, including identifying rare diseases and helping clinicians determine which patients are likely to respond to similar therapies.

Reference:

Chen, C et al. "Fast and scalable search of whole-slide images via self-supervised deep learning". Nature Biomedical Engineering. DOI: 10.1038/s41551-022-00929-8

Having specific combinations of underlying health issues is a significant risk for poorer health outcomes in older adults who've had a fracture, a new study from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research shows.

The study was conducted on more than 300,000 Danish people aged 50 or older who had sustained a fracture. In patients with fractures closer to the centre of the body (for example, in the hip, spine, upper arm or leg), the researchers found a higher mortality rate than expected for the general population of the same age. If those people with fractures also had multiple or complex health conditions, the mortality risk was higher again.

Reference:

Dr Thach Tran at al,Association of multimorbidity and excess mortality after fractures among Danish adults,JAMA Network Open, DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.35856

Eating a Mediterranean diet, rich in fibre, mono-unsaturated fatty acids and polyphenols, has been associated with improved immunotherapy response rates and progression-free survival in advanced melanoma patients, a new study presented at UEG Week 2022 has found.

A Mediterranean diet, containing mono-and polyunsaturated fats from olive oil, nuts and fish, polyphenols and fibre from vegetables, fruit, and wholegrains, was significantly associated with an improved response to immunotherapy drugs called Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICIs).

ICIs, which have been highly successful in treating melanoma, work by blocking immune system checkpoints, which then force the body's own T-cells to attack cancers.

Reference:

Bolte L, et al. Dietary Intake Influences the Response to Cancer Immunotherapy. Presented at UEG Week 2022; 9 October 2022; Vienna, Austria. National Cancer Institute. Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors. Available at: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/immunotherapy/checkpoint-inhibitors (Accessed: September 2022).