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Artificial Intelligence Predicts Survival In Epithelial Ovarian Cancer
Radiomic Prognostic Vector IDs patients with median overall survival of less than two years
FRIDAY, Feb. 15, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Artificial intelligence software can predict prognosis in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) above established prognostic methods, according to a study published online Feb. 15 in Nature Communications.
Haonan Lu, from the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre at Imperial College London, and colleagues extracted 657 quantitative mathematical descriptors from the preoperative computed tomography images of 364 EOC patients at their initial presentation. A noninvasive summary statistic of the primary ovarian tumor was derived using machine learning, based on four descriptors, and named Radiomic Prognostic Vector (RPV).
The researchers found that RPV was able to reliably identify the 5 percent of patients with median overall survival of less than two years, significantly improving established prognostic methods. RPV was validated in two independent multicenter cohorts. Stromal phenotype and DNA damage response pathways were activated in RPV-stratified tumors as elucidated by genetic, transcriptomic, and proteomic analysis from two independent datasets.
“The long-term survival rates for patients with advanced ovarian cancer are poor despite the advancements made in cancer treatments. There is an urgent need to find new ways to treat the disease,” a coauthor said in a statement. “Our technology is able to give clinicians more detailed and accurate information on the how patients are likely to respond to different treatments, which could enable them to make better and more targeted treatment decisions.”
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Alcoholism And Alcohol Abuse
Alcohol abuse and dependence, now both included under the diagnosis of an alcohol use disorder, is a disease characterized by the sufferer having a pattern of drinking excessively despite the negative effects of alcohol on the individual's work, medical, legal, educational, and/or social life. It may involve a destructive pattern of alcohol use that includes a number of symptoms, including tolerance to or withdrawal from the substance, using more alcohol and/or for a longer time than planned, and trouble reducing its use.
Alcohol abuse, on the less severe end of the alcohol use disorder spectrum, affects about 10% of women and 20% of men in the United States, most beginning by their mid-teens.Signs of alcohol intoxication include the smell of alcohol on the breath or skin, glazed or bloodshot eyes, the person being unusually passive or argumentative, and/or a deterioration in the person's judgment, appearance, or hygiene.Almost 2,000 people under 21 years of age die each year in car crashes in which underage drinking is involved. Alcohol is involved in nearly half of all violent deaths involving teens.Alcohol, especially when consumed in excess, can affect teens, women, men, and the elderly quite differently.Risk factors for developing a drinking problem include low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, or another mood problem, as well as having parents with alcoholism.Alcohol use disorder has no one single cause and does not directly pass from one generation to another genetically. Rather, it is the result of a complex group of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors.There is no one test that definitively indicates that someone has an alcohol-use disorder. Therefore, health care professionals diagnose these disorders by gathering comprehensive medical, family, and mental health information.There are five stages of alcoholism, which was formerly called the more severe end of the alcohol use disorder spectrum.There are numerous individual treatments for alcoholism, including medical stabilization (detox), individual and group counseling, support groups, residential treatment, medications, drug testing, and/or relapse-prevention programs.Some signs of problem drinking include drinking alone, to escape problems, or for the sole purpose of getting drunk; hiding alcohol in odd places; getting irritated and/or craving alcohol when you are unable to obtain alcohol to drink; and having problems because of your drinking.While some people with more severe alcohol use disorder (formerly alcoholism or alcohol dependence) can cut back or stop drinking without help, most are only able to do so temporarily unless they get treatment.There is no amount of alcohol intake that has been proven safe during pregnancy.The long-term effects of alcohol abuse and alcoholism can be devastating and even life-threatening, negatively affecting virtually every organ system.Codependence is the tendency to interact with another person in an excessively passive or caretaking manner that negatively affects the quality of the codependent individual's life.Adequate supervision and clear communication by parents about the negative effects of alcohol and about parental expectations regarding alcohol and other drug use can significantly decrease alcohol use in teens.With treatment, about 70% of people with alcoholism are able to decrease the number of days they consume alcohol and improve their overall health status within six months.What are the effects of alcohol?
Chemically, alcohol tends to decrease the chemical activity of substances that affect the nervous system, to inhibit behavior (gamma-aminobutyric acid, also called GABA signaling), and increase the activity of pleasure-seeking processes (glutamate). That can result in people being less inhibited in their words and actions and more likely to engage in immediately pleasurable activities even if they are unsafe. Even light drinkers can experience shrinking of parts of the brain. Intoxication with alcohol can be characterized by
slurred speech,clumsiness,sleepiness,headaches,distorted senses,lapses in memory,nausea,vomiting, andloss of consciousness.Potentially positive effects of alcohol consumed in moderation include
decreased risk of developing gallstones,diabetes,heart attack, andcertain causes of stroke.What is alcohol abuse?
Alcohol abuse, now included in the diagnosis of alcohol use disorder, is a disease. While many have described this disorder as dipsomania, the latter term more accurately describes the intense craving that can be a symptom of alcohol use disorder. A maladaptive pattern of drinking alcohol that results in negative work, medical, legal, educational, and/or social effects on a person's life characterizes the disorder. The individual who abuses this substance tends to continue to use it despite such consequences. Effects of alcohol use disorder on families can include increased domestic abuse/
domestic violence. The effects that parental alcoholism can have on children can be significantly detrimental in other ways as well. For example, the sons and daughters of alcoholics seem to be at higher risk for experiencing feelings that are more negative,
stress, and alienation as well as
aggression. There are a multitude of negative psychological effects of alcohol use disorder, including
depression and antisocial behaviors.