Radiation induced esophageal adenocarcinoma in a woman previously treated for breast cancer and renal cell carcinoma

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Secondary radiation-induced cancers are rare but well-documented as long-term side effects of radiation in large populations of breast cancer survivors. Multiple neoplasms are rare. We report a case of esophageal adenocarcinoma in a patient treated previously for breast cancer and clear cell carcinoma of the kidney CASE PRESENTATION: A 56 year-old non smoking woman, with no alcohol intake and no familial history of cancer; followed in the National Institute of Oncology of Rabat Morocco since 1999 for breast carcinoma, presented on consultation on January 2011 with dysphagia. Breast cancer was treated with modified radical mastectomy, 6 courses of chemotherapy based on CMF regimen and radiotherapy to breast, inner mammary chain and to pelvis as castration. Less than a year later, a renal right mass was discovered incidentally. Enlarged nephrectomy realized and showed renal cell carcinoma. A local and metastatic breast cancer recurrence occurred in 2007. Patient had 2 lines of chemotherapy and 2 lines of hormonotherapy with Letrozole and Tamoxifen assuring a stable disease. On January 2011, the patient presented dysphagia. Oesogastric endoscopy showed middle esophagus stenosing mass. Biopsy revealed adenocarcinoma. No evidence of metastasis was noticed on computed tomography and breast disease was controlled. Palliative brachytherapy to esophagus was delivered. Patient presented dysphagia due to progressive disease 4 months later. Jejunostomy was proposed but the patient refused any treatment. She died on July 2011 CONCLUSION: we present here a multiple neoplasm in a patient with no known family history of cancers. Esophageal carcinoma is most likely induced by radiation. However the presence of a third malignancy suggests the presence of genetic disorders.     

Changes in functional composition and diversity of waterbirds: The roles of water level and submerged macrophytes

1. Water level and submerged macrophytes are critical players for the functioning of shallow lake ecosystems; understanding how waterbird communities respond to changes in both can have important implications for conservation and management. Here, we evaluated the effects of changes in water level and submerged macrophyte status on wintering waterbird community size, functional group abundances, functional diversity (FD), and community assembly by using a dataset compiled over 50 years.
2. We built generalised linear models to evaluate the effects of water level and submerged macrophyte status on the above-listed attributes of the waterbird communities by using mid-winter waterbird censuses, water level measurements, and submerged macrophyte surveys, along with submerged macrophyte macrofossil records from two shallow lakes in Turkey. Using a relevant set of functional traits, we defined functional groups, calculated four FD measures, and simulated null distributions of the FD measures for assessing assembly rules.
3. We found that macrophyte-dominated years had significantly higher abundances of waterbirds in one of the study lakes, and had more diving herbivores and omnivores in both lakes, while diving/scooping fish-eating waterbird abundance was lower in macrophyte-dominated years. Community size in Lake Beyşehir exhibited a negative association with water level; surprisingly, however, none of the functional group abundances and FD indices were significantly related to water level.
4. In our study communities, standardised effect sizes of functional richness and functional dispersion—two indices that are particularly sensitive to community assembly processes—were mostly lower than those of randomly assembled communities, which implies functional clustering. Shifts to a scarce-macrophyte state were associated with increases in these two indices, possibly due to either changes in the relative strength of environmental filtering and limiting similarity in community assembly or sampling of transitional communities. Further studies covering a wider range of the trophic/macrophyte status spectrum are needed to be certain.
5. The results of this study indicate that shifts between abundant and scarce-macrophyte states can have significant effects on wintering waterbird abundances, FD and community assembly. The results also suggest that shallow lakes in macrophyte-dominated states can support more wintering waterbirds, especially diving omnivores, some of which are globally threatened.

     

Contamination and environmental risk assessment of heavy metals in marine sediments from Tahaddart estuary (NW of Morocco)

Abstract

The distribution, contamination status, and ecological risks of heavy metals in Tahaddart estuary were investigated. 24 surface sediment samples and two cores were collected and analyzed for major (Al and Fe), heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn), and grain size composition. The heavy metals assessment was carried out using different environmental indices. The results indicated that the spatial distribution patterns of Al, Fe, and Zn were mainly determined by the distribution of the finer grained fraction (<63?μm) in the sediment. In contrast, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Pb concentrations were controlled by anthropogenic activities (vehicular traffic from Highway Bridge and thermal power plant). The distribution of heavy metals in sediment cores showed an upward enrichment in heavy metals with high concentration found in the uppermost may related to the increasing in human activities. The pollution indexes confirmed that the Tahaddart estuary sediment was considerably to high contaminated by heavy metals near to different anthropogenic inputs. Similarly, the potential ecological risk index and the biological risk index present 21% probability of toxicity posing potential risk to the aquatic organisms. These results provide basic information that can be used to protect and improve the quality of this ecosystem.     

N-acetylcysteine counteracts oxidative stress and protects alveolar epithelial cells from lung contusion-induced apoptosis in rats with blunt chest trauma

The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on peroxidative and apoptotic changes in the contused lungs of rats following blunt chest trauma. The rats were randomly divided into three groups: control, contusion, and contusion + NAC. All the rats, apart from those in the control group, performed moderate lung contusion. A daily intramuscular NAC injection (150 mg/kg) was given immediately following the blunt chest trauma and was continued for two additional days following cessation of the trauma. Samples of lung tissue were taken in order to evaluate the tissue malondialdehyde (MDA) level, histopathology, and epithelial cell apoptosis using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay and active caspase-3 immunostaining. In addition, we immunohistochemically evaluated the expression of surfactant protein D (SP-D) in the lung tissue. The blunt chest trauma-induced lung contusion resulted in severe histopathological injury, as well as an increase in the MDA level and in the number of cells identified on TUNEL assay together with active caspase-3 positive epithelial cells, but a decrease in the number of SP-D positive alveolar type 2 (AT-2) cells. NAC treatment effectively attenuated histopathologic, peroxidative, and apoptotic changes, as well as reducing alterations in SP-D expression in the lung tissue. These findings indicate that the beneficial effects of NAC administrated following blunt chest trauma is related to the regulation of oxidative stress and apoptosis.     

Behavioural response of plant-associated Eurycercus lamellatus (Ö.F. Müller) to different food sources and fish cues

The habitat preference and activity pattern of a large-bodied plant-associated chydorid, Eurycercus lamellatus, were experimentally tested under laboratory conditions using different food sources and fish cues. In the absence of epiphyton, we found significantly higher densities of E. lamellatus on plants when concentrations of phytoplankton were high, while no differences were found for real plants hosting epiphytes. In the absence of predator cues, E. lamellatus preferred plants. Exposure of E. lamellatus to chemical cues released by 0⁺ roach (Rutilis rutilis) previously fed on E. lamellatus or Ceriodaphnia spp. induced a habitat shift from plants to the bottom of the experimental chambers or to the sediment. However, the activity level of the test animals significantly varied between treatments. Test animals were found to be more agitated (as measured by intensity of crawling and jumping activities) in the presence of cues from E. lamellatus-fed roach then when exposed to Ceriodaphnia spp-fed roach. Most likely, the presence of cues from the conspecific E. lamellatus induced the agitated behaviour of E. lamellatus, which may be an attempt to bury within the sediment to avoid predation. Time series experiments in the presence and absence of sediment showed an almost immediate response of E. lamellatus to the addition of fish cues. The animals, however, returned to the plants during the next 7–24 h, most likely reflecting a rapid degradation of the chemical cues. The results suggest a significant influence of chemical cues on the behaviour of plant-associated microcrustaceans in the littoral zones of lakes. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.