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Craniopharyngioma (CP) is a benign neuroepithelial tumor generally treated with maximal safe resection and radiation therapy (RT) in incompletely resected CP or in recurrent tumors to achieve long-term control. We analyzed the clinical outcomes of patients with CPs treated with a multimodality approach. A retrospective clinical audit of histologically proven CPs registered between 2008 and 2019 at a specialized neuro-oncology center in India was performed. Time-to-event outcomes (overall survival [OS] and progression-free survival [PFS]) were analyzed. One hundred and twenty-two patients with CP were analyzed. The median age of the population was 14 years (interquartile range [IQR], 8–26) with a significant male preponderance. Gross total resection was achieved in only 25% of patients. At a median follow-up of 57.1 months (IQR, 27.8–87.8), 5-year estimates of PFS and OS were 52% (95% confidence interval, 46%–63.4%) and 85.8% (95% confidence interval, 78.6%–93%), respectively. Recurrence or progression was observed in 48 of 122 patients (39.3%) at a median time of 84.4 months (IQR, 24.7–174.8). On multivariate analysis, the absence of residual disease (P = 0.004), near-total resection (P = 0.035), and use of up-front adjuvant RT (P < 0.001) significantly improved the 5-year PFS, whereas the absence of extracavernous extension (P = 0.058) and any use of postoperative RT (P = 0.026) significantly improved the 5-year OS. This study represents one of the largest single-institutional series of CPs, showing improved PFS with up-front adjuvant RT in most cases of CP. Deferring adjuvant RT should be considered only in patients with no evidence of residual disease (as shown on dedicated sellar imaging) after primary surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Breast cancer continues to be the most common cancers among women in India. The Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous group of malignancy which is often aggressive and has a worse prognosis. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the hormone receptor and HER2/neu status with platinum based chemotherapy in TNBC. Materials and Methods: The study was analysed retrospectively in a tertiary care centre of West Bengal from Januay 2017 to December 2019. Forty TNBC patients of Locally Advanced Breast Cancer (LABC) cases who received carboplatin along with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (study group) were compared with other group of 64 TNBC patients (control group) who did not receive any chemotherapy making a total of 104 cases of TNBC patients who were selected for the study. All the patients in both the groups had modified radical mastectomy. The study group of 40 TNBC patients who received chemotherapy also showed pathological partial response. Master chart was prepared comprising patient’s age, menopausal status, family history, therapy history, histo-morphological features, hormone receptor and HER2/ neu status after platinum added chemotherapy. Oestrogen Receptor (ER)/Progesterone Receptor (PR) were considered positive, if >1% tumour cell nuclei were immunoreactive and negative, if it was otherwise. HER-2/neu score of 3+ was taken as positive by Immunohistochemistry (IHC) method. Statistical analysis for descriptive purposes, percentages and mean were calculated. Comparison of both the groups was done by Pearson’s Chi-squared and Fisher’s-exact test. Significance level was considered at p-value <0.05. Results: TNBC patients (NACT group) showed hormone receptor positivity of 21 cases (52.50%) after chemotherapy along with carboplatin. HER2/neu positivity was detected in 9 (22.5%) cases. Non-NACT (64) cases were considered as control group for comparison. The effect of NACT in TNBC patients was found to be statistically significant with respect to change in HER2/ neu (p=0.033, p<0.05) and ER status (p<0.05) while change in PR status was found to be statistically insignificant. Conclusion: The study showed significant alteration in hormonal and HER2/neu receptor status in TNBC patients receiving platinum added neoadjuvant chemotherapy. This study found statistical significance and justifies re-evaluation of these Hormone Receptor (HR) and HER2/neu markers in residual tumour after chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his first decade (1955–64) as a filmmaker, Satyajit Ray directed ten feature films, one ‘feature-length anthology’ film (Three Daughters, 1961), and a documentary on the poet Rabindranath Tagore. This prolific phase includes many of his better remembered films, including theApu Trilogy, The Music Room, andThe Lonely Wife. This is also the final decade of the premiership of Jawaharlal Nehru, post-Independence India’s first Prime Minister, whose support for Ray’s films was both personal and institutional. This essay challenges the predominant scholarship on Ray’s early films as the cinema of the Nehruvian establishment, whose lyrical quality avoided the harshness of Indian rural and urban reality. It argues that these films, while being clearly influenced by Nehru’s vision, reveal an increasing uneasiness with the Nehruvian ideology of nation-building led by an industrial economy. This uneasiness spread to other consequences of Nehruvian policy, including the high investments in nuclear technology amidst the increasing unemployment of the late 1950s, followed by the economic depression of the 1960s. Far from being a cinema of the establishment, it is possible to read these films as critiques of the Nehruvian state, and of the social inequities it fostered that threatened to polarize Indian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]