Wearable patches for transdermal drug delivery

Transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDs) avoid gastrointestinal degradation and hepatic first-pass metabolism, providing good drug bioavailability and patient compliance. One emerging type of TDDs is the wearable patch worn on the skin surface to deliver medication through the skin. They can generally be grouped into passive and active types, depending on the properties of materials, design principles and integrated devices. This review describes the latest advancement in the development of wearable patches, focusing on the integration of stimulus-responsive materials and electronics. This development is deemed to provide a dosage, temporal, and spatial control of therapeutics delivery.

Perioperative blood loss in different approaches by percutaneous endoscopic discectomy / 西安交通大学学报(医学版)

【Objective】 To compare the perioperative blood loss between interlaminar and transforaminal approaches by percutaneous endoscopic discectomy in order to provide more reference for guiding the proper choice of surgical methods clinically. 【Methods】 We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 160 patients who underwent percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy from June 2019 to November 2020， with 80 patients in interlaminar approach group and 80 in transforaminal approach group. The blood loss was calculated according to Gross formula. 【Results】 The perioperative total blood loss （mL）， hidden blood loss （mL） and hemoglobin loss （g/L） were significantly lower in interlaminar approach group than in transforaminal approach group （119.73±179.26 vs. 158.6±190.65， 109.73±179.53 vs. 148.78±190.19， 3.76±8.12 vs. 4.31±7.62） （P<0.05）. However， there was no significant difference in visible blood loss between the two groups. 【Conclusion】 The perioperative hidden blood loss accounts for a large proportion in percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy. In addition， the interlaminar approach causes less blood loss than the transforaminal approach.

Level of peripheral blood circulating tumor cells in lung cancer patients detected by CI-101 and its clinical significance / 国际肿瘤学杂志

Objective:To explore the correlations between circulating tumor cells (CTCs) level in peripheral venous blood and clinicopathological characteristics and biomarkers of lung cancer patients using CI-101 cell search immunomagnetic bead enrichment technology combined with fluorescent cytochemical staining.Methods:Blood samples were collected from 100 patients with first-diagnosed lung cancer treated in Department of Thoracic Surgery and Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery of Yunnan Cancer Hospital from March 2014 to September 2014, 40 patients with lung benign tumor (all confirmed by pathological biopsy) and 30 healthy volunteers from the physical examination center. CTCs in peripheral blood were enriched by CI-101 cell search immunomagnetic bead, the morphology of CTCs was analyzed by immunocytofluorescence technique, and tumor cells were identified using HE cell staining method. The recovery rate, sensitivity and specificity of CI-101 cell search instrument for CTCs were detected. The difference of positive rate of CTCs in peripheral blood among lung cancer patients, lung benign tumor patients and healthy volunteers was compared. The relationship between the positive rate of CTCs and the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with lung cancer was analyzed. The correlations between CTCs and serum tumor markers were analyzed by coefficient of contingency in patients with lung cancer and lung benign tumor.Results:The recovery rate of CTCs by CI-101 cell search instrument was 72.0%-89.0%, and there was a significant linear correlation between the number of recovered cells and the number of incorporated cells. The correlation coefficient r=0.998 ( P<0.001), the linear regression equation was y=0.781 x+ 11.307, the sensitivity was 85.0%, and the specificity was 71.4%. The positive rate of CTCs in lung cancer patients (85.0%, 85/100) was higher than that in lung benign tumor patients (15.0%, 6/40) and healthy volunteers (46.7%, 14/30) ( χ2=62.798, P<0.001). The positive rate of CTCs in lung cancer patients was correlated with TNM stage ( χ2=19.059, P<0.001), tumor size ( χ2=13.830, P<0.001) and distant metastasis ( χ2=6.005, P=0.014). Coefficient of contingency analysis showed that the positive of CTCs was positively correlated with serum tumor markers CEA ( φ=0.217, P=0.011), CA125 ( φ=0.198, P=0.020), CA199 ( φ=0.169, P=0.049), CA742 ( φ=0.186, P=0.037) and cytokeratin 19 fragment ( φ=0.461, P<0.001) in patients with lung cancer and lung benign tumor. Conclusion:The application of CI-101 cell search instrument combined with immunomagnetic bead method can successfully enrich CTCs in peripheral venous blood of lung cancer patients. The positive rate of CTCs in patients with lung cancer has obvious correlation with tumor size, TNM stage, distant metastasis, serum tumor markers. It can be used as an auxiliary indicator for monitoring the condition of lung cancer patients.

Clinical and histological factors associated with sentinel node identification in breast cancer / 中华外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the predictive factors that are associated with intraoperative identification of the sentinel lymph node (SLN).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Lymphatic mapping using blue dye was performed in 108 patients with stage I and II operable primary breast cancer. Subsequently the patients received operations of breast cancer including axillary dissection. Clinical and histological factors were assessed to determine those that were associated with intraoperative identification of the SLN.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The sentinel node was identified at the time of surgery in 84 patients (77.78%). Of the clinical factors assessed, age(y) < 50 (chi(2) = 7.447, P < 0.01), tumour in the upper quadrant (chi(2) = 6.330, P < 0.05), diagnosis by preoperative biopsy (chi(2) = 5.509, P < 0.05), successful mapping of the lymphatic duct (chi(2) = 13.125, P < 0.01) were significant in identifying the sentinel node at operation. No histological factor was associated with intraoperative identification of the sentinel node.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>There are the possibility of failure of SLN identification at sentinel lymph node biopsy. Our results suggest that the best predictor of intraoperative sentinel node identification is the visualization of the lymphatic duct on mapping by blue dye. Other factors such as age, tumour site as well as diagnostic method are also important in determining the success of the procedure.</p>