Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

About: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is a education organization based out in Leuven, Belgium. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Transplantation. The organization has 61109 authors who have published 176584 publications receiving 6210872 citations.

Clinical validity of circulating tumour cells in patients with metastatic breast cancer: a pooled analysis of individual patient data

Abstract: Summary Background We aimed to assess the clinical validity of circulating tumour cell (CTC) quantification for prognostication of patients with metastatic breast cancer by undertaking a pooled analysis of individual patient data. Methods We contacted 51 European centres and asked them to provide reported and unreported anonymised data for individual patients with metastatic breast cancer who participated in studies between January, 2003, and July, 2012. Eligible studies had participants starting a new line of therapy, data for progression-free survival or overall survival, or both, and CTC quantification by the CellSearch method at baseline (before start of new treatment). We used Cox regression models, stratified by study, to establish the association between CTC count and progression-free survival and overall survival. We used the landmark method to assess the prognostic value of CTC and serum marker changes during treatment. We assessed the added value of CTCs or serum markers to prognostic clinicopathological models in a resampling procedure using likelihood ratio (LR) χ 2 statistics. Findings 17 centres provided data for 1944 eligible patients from 20 studies. 911 patients (46·9%) had a CTC count of 5 per 7·5 mL or higher at baseline, which was associated with decreased progression-free survival (hazard ratio [HR] 1·92, 95% CI 1·73–2·14, p Interpretation These data confirm the independent prognostic effect of CTC count on progression-free survival and overall survival. CTC count also improves the prognostication of metastatic breast cancer when added to full clinicopathological predictive models, whereas serum tumour markers do not. Funding Janssen Diagnostics, the Nuovo-Soldati foundation for cancer research.

Quantitative analysis of radiocaesium retention in soils

Abstract: The fallout of radiocaesium after the Chernobyl accident has renewed interest in its environmental behaviour. How it behaves in soils and sediments is important, for example, for the modelling of radiocaesium transport and retention in soils, and transfer from soil to plants and hence into the food chain. The traditional approach is highly empirical and is based on the measurement of solid–liquid distribution coefficients (KD values) and transfer factors. It is generally believed that radiocaesium retention in soils and sediments is due to the presence of a small number of highly selective sites. Neither their abundance nor their Cs-selectivity has been quantitatively determined. Here we report a new methodology which achieves such characterization. Previously studies of radio-caesium in soils have foundered because KD values have been derived under conditions very different from those in situ. We show that in situ KD values can be predicted from readily measurable soil properties, thus enabling information about the mobility of radiocaesium in soils to be reliably and easily obtained. These findings can be generally applied to a wide variety of soils.

Mucosal healing predicts long-term outcome of maintenance therapy with infliximab in Crohn's disease.

Abstract: Background: Infliximab (IFX) treatment induces mucosal healing (MH) in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) but the impact of MH on the long-term outcome of IFX treatment in CD is still debated. Methods: We studied MH during long-term treatment with IFX in 214 CD patients. A total of 183 patients (85.5%) responded to induction therapy and 31 patients (14.5%) were primary nonresponders. They underwent lower gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy within a median of 0.7 months (interquartile range [IQR] 0.1–6.8) prior to first IFX and after a median of 6.7 months (IQR 1.4–24.6) after start of IFX and were further analyzed. The relationship between the outcome of IFX treatment long-term and MH was studied. Results: MH was observed in 67.8% of the 183 initial responders (n = 124), with 83 patients having complete healing (45.4%) and 41 having partial healing (22.4%). Scheduled IFX treatment from the start resulted in MH more frequently (76.9% MH rate) than episodic treatment (61.0% MH rate; P = 0.0222, odds ratio [OR] 2.14, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11–4.12). Concomitant treatment with corticosteroids (CS) had a negative impact on MH (37.9% in patients with CS versus 63.2% in patients without CS; P = 0.021, OR 0.36, 95% CI 0.16–0.80). MH was associated with a significantly lower need for major abdominal surgery (MAS) during long-term follow-up (14.1% of patients with MH needed MAS versus 38.4% of patients without MH; P < 0.0001). Conclusions: MH induced by long-term maintenance IFX treatment is associated with an improved long-term outcome of the disease especially with a lower need for major abdominal surgeries. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2009;)

Lactic acid as a platform chemical in the biobased economy: the role of chemocatalysis

Abstract: Upcoming bio-refineries will be at the heart of the manufacture of future transportation fuels, chemicals and materials. A narrow number of platform molecules are envisioned to bridge nature's abundant polysaccharide feedstock to the production of added-value chemicals and intermediate building blocks. Such platform molecules are well-chosen to lie at the base of a large product assortment, while their formation should be straightforward from the refined biomass, practical and energy efficient, without unnecessary loss of carbon atoms. Lactic acid has been identified as one such high potential platform. Despite its established fermentation route, sustainability issues – like gypsum waste and cost factors due to multi-step purification and separation requirements – will arise as soon as the necessary orders of magnitude larger volumes are needed. Innovative production routes to lactic acid and its esters are therefore under development, converting sugars and glycerol in the presence of chemocatalysts. Moreover, catalysis is one of the fundamental routes to convert lactic acid into a range of useful chemicals in a platform approach. This contribution attempts a critical overview of all advances in the field of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis and recognises a great potential of some of these chemocatalytic approaches to produce and transform lactic acid as well as some other promising α-hydroxy acids.