Temozolomide for treating malignant melanoma

Melanoma is one of the most malignant forms of skin cancer; with a rapidly increasing prevalence. Early-stage melanoma is curable, but advanced metastatic melanoma is almost always fatal, and patients with such advanced disease have short median survival. Surgery and radiotherapy play a limited role in the treatment of metastatic melanoma. Rather, chemotherapy remains the mainstay of treatment, although other approaches, including biotherapy and gene therapy, have been attempted. The authors hereby, evaluated the use of temozolomide [TMZ] for treating metastatic melanoma compared to dacarbazine [DTIC], the effectiveness of TMZ for treating brain metastases, as well as TMZ resistance and how the efficacy of TMZ in malignant melanoma can be increased. Two chemotherapeutic regimens are commonly used for palliative treatment of malignant melanoma: intravenous administration of DTIC and oral administration of the alkylating agent temozolomide [TMZ]. Compared to DTIC, TMZ is very well tolerated and has an advantage in terms of improving the quality of life of patients with metastatic melanoma. While the prognosis is currently unpromising, chemotherapy plays a palliative role for patients with metastatic melanoma. The toxicity of treatment regimens based on DTIC and TMZ do not differ significantly, although TMZ is costlier. These findings provide a reference for future researchers via a comprehensive analysis of the relevant literature

About the mutual compensation between advantages of Chinese and Western medical subjective indices for measurement and evaluation / 中国中西医结合杂志

Upon the background of new medical model being formed, to make measurement/evaluation with subjective indices (SIM/E) has become a new hot-spot in Western medical researches and much methodological achievements have been made, but difficulties in comprehensive evaluation and result interpretation are still encountered. SIM/E has played important guideline roles in Chinese medicine (CM) clinical practice, and since it is characterized by holism and syndrome differentiation, it showed great advantage in comprehensive evaluation and result interpretation, though further standardization is yet required. To analyze the related tools and scientific regulations of SIM/E in Western medicine, and establish the concept, domain and conceptual framework of a SIM/E system based on the CM syndrome theory should be feasible to realize the mutual compensation between advantages of the two medical sciences, and promote the progress of SIM/E.

Study on the construction of standard D1S549 allelic ladder via molecular cloning and its genetic polymorphism in Chinese three populations / 法医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To resolve the problem of the accuracy and standardization of STR-PCR typing in forensic practice, we have designed a new method to produce standard D1S549 allelic ladder.@*METHODS@#Eight different PCR amplified D1S549 allelic fragments were isolated from the gel, eluted into the distilled water and re-amplified by PCR. The purified allelic fragments were then blunt-end subcloned individually into the pUC plasmid vectors and transfected into competent E. coli DH5 alpha cells.@*RESULTS@#The sequencing results confirmed that the size and the construe of the inserts were correct. The recombinant plasmids DNA with 8 inserts were then used as templates for re-amplification to generate D1S549 standard ladder, with which the genetic polymorphisms of D1S549 locus in Chinese Han population in chengdu, Hui population in Gansu and Wei population in Xinjiang were studied.@*CONCLUSION@#The results showed that the standard ladder made via this method is excellent, and D1S549 locus is robust for genetic research and forensic application.