University of Texas System

About: University of Texas System is a education organization based out in Austin, Texas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Cancer & Population. The organization has 13901 authors who have published 10925 publications receiving 319328 citations. The organization is also known as: UT System.

Sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma. A treatable entity

Abstract: Of 920 patients with histologically confirmed renal cell carcinoma (RCC) seen at University of Texas M. D. Anderson Hospital over a 10-year period, 44 (4.8%) had the sarcomatoid variant. The authors show that, although sarcomatoid RCC has as common denominators with classic RCC in certain epidemiologic parameters such as age and sex, its biologic behavior is different. It is more malignant, has a higher metastatic rate, ultimate recurrence in localized disease which translates to a shorter survival time. Metastasis at presentation, advanced age (older than 59 years) and female sex were a associate with a worse prognosis. This entity is characterized by a high incidence of bone metastasis at presentation (48%) and by a tendency toward pathologic bone fractures. All of the untreated patients died very soon after diagnosis (median, 3.8 months), whereas all of the patients treated with the various systemic modalities initiated only in the presence of metastatic disease survived significantly longer (median, 13.0 months). Of the eight patients who were treated with doxorubicin HCI chemotherapy regimens two (on CYVADIC) showed complete responses and are the only survivors (50, 65 months). Four patients treated with interferon had the longest median survival (41.0 months). These results suggest that CYVADIC chemotherapy should be combined with interferon in this entity. Since surgery is not curative in early stages of sarcomatoid RCC, adjuvant therapy with those agents should be considered.

Injectivity Decline in Water-Injection Wells: An Offshore Gulf of Mexico Case Study

Abstract: Injectivity decline in water injection wells can have a large impact on the economic feasibility of offshore water disposal operations. A case study is presented for an offshore Gulf of Mexico water injection project. Data are presented for five typical offshore wells for which a rapid decline in injectivity was observed due to water injection. The wells were successfully acidized every few months over a period of two years. An analysis of the data indicates that in injection wells that are not fractured, such declines in injectivity may be expected even for relatively clean injection water. A comparison of the different completion types indicates that both open hole and perforated completions would have yielded similar results. Cleaner water would have improved the situation but at a substantial cost. Fracturing the injection wells appears to be the only plausible way of substantially increasing the half life of such injectors. In cases where reservoir conditions dictate that the wells not be fractured, the economics of periodic stimulation versus the cost of installing surface facilities for cleaning up the water should be evaluated using models for injectivity decline. What if simulations conducted to study the impact of different process parameters such as injected particle size and concentration, injection rate and reservoir properties were found to be a useful tool in specifying water quality requirements.

Effect of short term calorie restriction on pro-inflammatory NF-kB and AP-1 in aged rat kidney

Abstract: Objective: To compare the effect of short-term calorie restriction (CR) on aging with that of already known long-term CR, the anti-inflammatory efficacy of 10-day CR was explored in aged rat kidney.