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Objectives: To investigate the rate of prostate cancer-specific mortality (PCSM) and disease characteristics in patients diagnosed with localised prostate cancer at age 80–89 years in comparison with men diagnosed at age 70–79 years. Patients and Methods: This is a retrospective study of data from the South Australian Prostate Cancer Clinical Outcomes Collaborative (SA-PCCOC). Included were men diagnosed between 2005 and 2014, aged ≥70 years with no evidence of metastatic disease at presentation. Propensity score matching and competing risk Fine and Grey regression were used to assess the chance of treatment (curative vs non-curative) and treatment effect on PCSM. Results: Of the 1 951 eligible patients, 1 428 (76%) were aged 70–79 years and 460 (24%) were aged 80–89 years at diagnosis, with a median (interquartile range) age of 74 (72–76) and 83 (81–85) years, respectively. The 80–89 years group had higher Gleason scores and Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) values (all P < 0.001) in comparison with the younger group. The 80–89 years group were less likely to be treated with curative treatment (odds ratio 0.12, 95% confidence interval 0.09–0.16; P < 0.001). The proportion of deaths attributable to prostate cancer was similar in both groups: 73 of 263 deaths (28%) in the 80–89 years group vs 97 of 310 deaths (31%) in the 70–79 years group. The risk of PCSM in individuals treated with curative intent was reduced in both groups. Conclusions: The proportion of prostate cancer deaths was similar in both groups. These findings support carefully selected individualised management of elderly patients diagnosed with localised prostate cancer. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

We consider the utilization of a computational model to guide the optimal acquisition of experimental data to inform the stochastic description of model input parameters. Our formulation is based on the recently developed consistent Bayesian approach for solving stochastic inverse problems, which seeks a posterior probability density that is consistent with the model and the data in the sense that the push-forward of the posterior (through the computational model) matches the observed density on the observations almost everywhere. Given a set of potential observations, our optimal experimental design (OED) seeks the observation, or set of observations, that maximizes the expected information gain from the prior probability density on the model parameters. We discuss the characterization of the space of observed densities and a computationally efficient approach for rescaling observed densities to satisfy the fundamental assumptions of the consistent Bayesian approach. Numerical results are presented to compare our approach with existing OED methodologies using the classical/statistical Bayesian approach and to demonstrate our OED on a set of representative partial differential equations (PDE)-based models.

Background: Erosive oral lichen planus and desquamative gingivitis are uncommon but severe debilitating variants of oral lichen planus. Treatment of these presentations is difficult and challenging. Main observation: A 44-year-old woman was referred to the dermatology clinic with chronic painful lichen planus-related gingivitis and buccal erosions. She has failed multiple treatments including topical clobetasol and tacrolimus, intralesional corticosteroids and several systemic and immunosuppressive agents. Following completion of three months of treatment with oral apremilast at a dose of 30 mg twice daily, significant improvement was noted in her disease activity. Conclusion: Oral apremilast may be a safe and effective treatment for erosive oral lichen planus. ( J Dermatol Case Rep . 2016; 10(3): 56-57)

PSORIASIS IS AN IMMUNE-MEDIATED SKIN DISEASE in which chronic T-cell stimulation by antigen-presenting cells (APC) occurs in the skin. This interplay between the T-cell and APC has been likened to a “T-AP dance” where specific steps must occur in sequence to result in T-cell activation and the disease phenotype; otherwise T-cell anergy would occur. Several novel engineered proteins designed to block specific steps in immune activation (biologic agents) have demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of psoriasis. These agents include fusion proteins, monoclonal antibodies and recombinant cytokines. These medications act at specific steps during the T-AP dance either to inhibit T-cell activation, costimulation and subsequent proliferation of T-cells, lead to immune deviation or induce specific cytokine blockades. The potential increased selectivity for specific pathways in immune activation, clinical efficacy and relative safety of these new agents offers an alternative for the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis.

In 1989, populations of North American gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, in seven contiguous northeastern states were severely reduced by a fungal pathogen. Based on morphology, development, and pathology, this organism appeared to be Entomophaga maimaiga. We have now used allozyme and restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses to confirm this identification. Previously, this mycopathogen had been reported only from gypsy moth populations in Japan. During 1989, E. maimaiga occurred only in areas that had been initially defoliated by gypsy moth >10 years ago. E. maimaiga caused 60-88% mortality in late instar larvae on research sites in central Massachusetts.