Clinical features and outcome of retinoblastoma at the Vietnam National Cancer Hospital.

OBJECTIVES: To characterize the clinical features, treatment, and outcome of children diagnosed with retinoblastoma (RB) at Vietnam National Cancer Hospital. METHODS: The study enrolled all RB patients newly diagnosed at Vietnam National Cancer Hospital from January 2018 to December 2022. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS) and the eye salvage rate. RESULTS: In total, 139 patients were enrolled, 51.8% patients were male. Median age was 18.9 months. Most patients presented with leukocoria (63.3%), followed by strabismus (14.4%), and 43.9% had bilateral disease. Of 200 eyes, 129 (64.5%) were classified as group E. Extraocular extension was noted in 10 of 139 patients (7.2%). About one-third of the patients lived more than 300 kilometers (km) away from these hospitals, and 17.3% of the patients belonged to minority groups, both of which were dominated by group E and extraocular or high-risk eyes at the time of consultation. Primary enucleation was done for 57 eyes (28.5%), and 51 of 61 patients (83.6%) received eye salvage therapy in bilateral RB group. At study closure, 127 children were alive at the last follow-up, 12 cases were confirmed dead. The 5-year OS and progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 90.3% and 85.9%, respectively. In particular, ethnic minority, distance to hospital more than 150 km, and extraocular disease were significantly associated with higher mortality among children with RB treated in Vietnam National Cancer Hospital. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to support for screening RB with early symptoms in grassroots medical facilities and raise awareness among patients' families through health education programs. Besides, caring and supporting treatment for patients from the ethnic minority and who live far from hospitals are also extremely necessary.

A Review of the In Vitro Inhibition of α-Amylase and α-Glucosidase by Chalcone Derivatives.

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disease relating to steady hyperglycemia resulting from the impairment of the endocrine and non-endocrine systems. Many new drugs having varied targets were discovered to treat this disease, especially type 2 diabetes. Among those, α-glucosidase inhibitors showed their effects by preventing the digestion of carbohydrates through their inhibition against α-amylase and α-glucosidase. Recently, chalcones have attracted considerable attention as they have a simple structure, are easily synthesized as well as have a variety of derivatives. Some reports suggested that chalcone and its derivates could inhibit α-amylase and α-glucosidase. This narrative review provides a comprehensive evaluation of the inhibition of chalcone and its derivatives against α-amylase and α-glucosidase that were reviewed and reported in published scientific articles. Twenty-eight articles were reviewed after screening 207 articles found in four databases, including PubMed, Google Scholar, VHL (Virtual Health Library), and GHL (Global Health Library). This review presented the inhibitory effects of varied chalcones, including chalcones with a basic structural framework, azachalcones, bis-chalcones, chalcone oximes, coumarin-chalcones, cyclohexane chalcones, dihydrochalcones, and flavanone-coupled chalcones. Many of these chalcones had significant inhibition against α-amylase as well as α-glucosidase that were comparable to or even stronger than standard inhibitors. This suggested that such compounds could be potential candidates for the discovery of new anti-diabetic remedies in the years to come.

Graves' disease complicated by concurrent thyroid eye disease and pretibial myxedema successfully treated with teprotumumab.

We report a 51-year-old woman with thyroid eye disease and biopsy-proven pretibial myxedema that was subsequently treated with teprotumumab with improvement.