Prospective Validation of an Ex Vivo, Patient-Derived 3D Spheroid Model for Response Predictions in Newly Diagnosed Ovarian Cancer.

Although 70-80% of newly diagnosed ovarian cancer patients respond to first-line therapy, almost all relapse and five-year survival remains below 50%. One strategy to increase five-year survival is prolonging time to relapse by improving first-line therapy response. However, no biomarker today can accurately predict individual response to therapy. In this study, we present analytical and prospective clinical validation of a new test that utilizes primary patient tissue in 3D cell culture to make patient-specific response predictions prior to initiation of treatment in the clinic. Test results were generated within seven days of tissue receipt from newly diagnosed ovarian cancer patients obtained at standard surgical debulking or laparoscopic biopsy. Patients were followed for clinical response to chemotherapy. In a study population of 44, the 32 test-predicted Responders had a clinical response rate of 100% across both adjuvant and neoadjuvant treated populations with an overall prediction accuracy of 89% (39 of 44, p < 0.0001). The test also functioned as a prognostic readout with test-predicted Responders having a significantly increased progression-free survival compared to test-predicted Non-Responders, p = 0.01. This correlative accuracy establishes the test's potential to benefit ovarian cancer patients through accurate prediction of patient-specific response before treatment.

When deception becomes easy: the effects of task switching and goal neglect on the truth proportion effect.

Lying is typically more cognitively demanding than truth telling. Yet, recent cognitive models of lying propose that lying can be just as easy as truth telling, depending on contextual factors. In line with this idea, research has shown that the cognitive cost of deception decreases when people frequently respond deceptively, while it increases when people rarely respond deceptively (i.e., the truth proportion effect). In the present study, we investigated two possible underlying mechanisms of the truth proportion effect. In Experiment 1 (N = 121), we controlled for the impact of switch costs by keeping the number of switches between deceptive and truthful responses constant. We found that people who often responded deceptively made fewer errors when responding deceptively than people who only occasionally responded deceptively, replicating the truth proportion effect. Thus, while the truth proportion effect in earlier studies may be partially driven by the cost of switching between truthful and deceptive responses, we still found evidence for the truth proportion effect while controlling for switch costs. In Experiment 2 (N = 68), we assessed whether the truth proportion effect is influenced by goal neglect. According to this view, the truth proportion effect should be reduced if participants are cued to maintain the task goals, while it should be larger when participants are allowed to neglect the task goals. In line with this hypothesis, we found a smaller truth proportion effect when participants were cued with the task goals compared to when they were not cued. This study shows that the truth proportion effect is influenced by goal neglect, implying that frequent deceptive responding strengthens the goal of responding deceptively. Our findings imply that the accuracy of lie detection tests could be increased by using a majority of truth-items (i.e., induce the truth proportion effect), and that the truth proportion effect should be maximized by (1) increasing the number of truth-lie task switches and (2) inducing goal neglect.

Differential patterns of disordered eating in subjects with ADHD and overweight.

OBJECTIVES: Despite growing evidence for an association between overweight and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), still little is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. METHODS: Within a two (no ADHD, ADHD) × two (normal weight, overweight) factorial design (n = 94) we tested disordered eating behaviour in a laboratory breakfast procedure as well as delay aversion (DA) in male children aged 7-15 years. RESULTS: While children with ADHD tended to eat above the normal level particularly at the beginning of the meal, children with overweight tended to eat above the normal level throughout the whole meal. Furthermore, preference for immediately available food was predicted by parental ratings of inattention and neuropsychological measures of DA in overweight children, and by impulsivity in children with ADHD. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest distinct neuropsychopathological pathways to abnormal eating in ADHD and overweight. Thus, children with overweight might benefit more from specialized treatment programmes that aim at improving attention functions while in children with ADHD the treatment should focus on impulsivity.