Immunotherapy and Cannabis: A Harmful Drug Interaction or Reefer Madness?

A retrospective (N = 140) and a prospective (N = 102) observational Israeli study by Bar-Sela and colleagues about cannabis potentially adversely impacting the response to immunotherapy have together been cited 202 times, including by clinical practice guidelines. There have also been concerns on PubPeer outlining irregularities and unverifiable information in their statistics and numerous errors in calculating percentages. This reanalysis attempted to verify the data analysis while including non-parametric statistics. The corrected prospective report contained 22 p-values, but only one (4.5%) could be verified despite the authors being transparent about the N and statistics employed. Cannabis users were significantly (p < 0.0025) younger than non-users, but this was not reported in the retrospective report. There were also errors in percentage calculations (e.g., 13/34 reported as 22.0% instead of 38.2%). Overall, these observational investigations, and especially the prospective, appear to contain gross inaccuracies which could impact the statistical decisions (i.e., significant findings reported as non-significant or vice-versa). Although it is mechanistically plausible that cannabis could have immunosuppressive effects which inhibit the response to immunotherapy, these two reports should be viewed cautiously. Larger prospective studies of this purported drug interaction that account for potential confounds (e.g., greater nicotine smoking among cannabis users) may be warranted.

Prolapsing inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor of the urinary bladder: A case report and a review of literature

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) of the urinary bladder is a rare soft tissue benign tumor usually presents with hematuria, dysuria or obstructive urinary symptoms. No distant metastasis has been reported except in a single case. There is no clear consensus on the management plan yet. However, complete surgical resection is the mainstay management. We reported a case of a female patient presented with a painless prolapsing urethral mass that bleeds of touch with no signs of local invasion or distant metastasis, complete resection and pathological evaluation of the specimen revealed an IMT. The postoperative period was uneventful for 1 year.

Surgical management of a locally invasive renal cell carcinoma in an ectopic pelvic kidney

The coincidence of renal cell carcinoma in an ectopic kidney is a unique phenomenon. We report a case of 55 years old male patient who presented with backache and accidentally discovered ectopic kidney with an upper polar mass. Preoperative assessment was done with pelviabdominal sonography and triphasic renal CT. Our patient underwent radical nephrectomy through a midline incision with unexpected vasculature encountered intraoperatively. According to our knowledge, only eight cases of pelvic kidney tumors have been reported in the literature and this case is unique with its complex vascular structure.

Propolis induced antibacterial activity and other technical properties of cotton textiles

Propolis is a gum gathered by honey bees from various plants; the honey bees use propolis to seal holes in their honey combs, smooth out the internal wall and protect the entrance against intruders. It is composed of 50% resin (flavonoids and related phenolic acid), 30% wax, 10% essential oils, 5% pollen and 5% various organic components. As a natural mixture, propolis is widely used in medicine, cosmetics and food. So far no attempts have been yet made to make use of propolis in the realm of textile finishing. Current work presents the first systemic study targeted to build up a scientific basis for production of cotton textiles having antibacterial activity and other useful properties by making use of propolis as eco-friendly finish within the scope of green strategy. Propolis extract solution (70/30 ethanol/water) of 10% concentration was prepared as the stock. Different amounts of the latter were used along with a crosslinking agent and catalyst for treatment of cotton fabrics as per pad-dry-cure technique. Antibacterial activity of the so treated fabrics was obtained through monitoring the efficiency of the interaction of propolis with cotton cellulose. This interaction was expressed as inhibition zone diameter after the treated fabrics were exposed to (G+ve) and (G-ve) bacteria. Other properties include crease recovery, tensile strength and elongation at break. Factors affecting these properties such as type, nature and concentration of the crosslinking agent, concentration of propolis, and conditions of curing were investigated. In addition characterization of the propolis containing modified cotton fabrics including demonstration of the antibacterial activity, SEM, FTIR, durability to washing, UV protection and water repellency were performed. Based on results obtained, it is concluded that application of propolis along with glyoxal and Al2(SO4)3catalyst using pad-dry (3min/80°C), cure (5/140°C) bring about cotton textile with superior antibacterial activity, water repellent and ease of care characteristics as well as UV protection. Tentative mechanism of the reaction of propolis with cotton in the presence of glyoxal was also reported.