Publications by authors named "Joseph Carmicheal"

Introduction: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common form of lung cancer and has a propensity to metastasize to the brain. It is incredibly difficult to distinguish between a primary brain lesions and a solitary metastasis from distant occult disease using current imaging techniques. Further, complications arise from the shifting paradigm in how medicine views NSCLC brain metastasis due to contemporary nonsurgical curative treatments and the recent increase in the number of multiple primary malignancy (MPM) diagnoses associated with NSCLC.

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Background: Radiotherapy plays a fundamental role in the treatment of patients with all stages of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The emergence of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has transformed the standard of care in these patients. The use of ICIs is increasingly utilized in the definitive setting as an adjunct to chemoradiotherapy or surgery and remains a vital component in the treatment of metastatic disease.

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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains highly lethal due to limited therapeutic options and expensive/burdensome drug discovery processes. Utilizing genomic-data-driven Connectivity Mapping (CMAP) to identify a drug closer to real-world PC targeting may improve pancreatic cancer (PC) patient outcomes. Initially, we mapped CMAP data to gene expression from 106 PC patients, identifying nine negatively connected drugs.

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Pineal parenchymal tumor of intermediate differentiation (PPTID) is a rare, primary tumor of the pineal gland. Due to its rarity, there is no consensus on optimal therapeutic strategies or standard characterization of the tumor's behavior. Here, we report 2 new cases of PPTID and an extensive review of the literature involving the use and extent of radiation therapy.

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SERS immunoassay biosensors hold immense potential for clinical diagnostics due to their high sensitivity and growing interest in multi-marker panels. However, their development has been hindered by difficulties in designing compatible extrinsic Raman labels. Prior studies have largely focused on spectroscopic characteristics in selecting Raman reporter molecules (RRMs) for multiplexing since the presence of well-differentiated spectra is essential for simultaneous detection.

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Article Synopsis
  • Radiation therapy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) often fails due to radioresistance, linked to cholesterol biosynthesis (CBS) and specifically, the enzyme farnesyl diphosphate synthase (FDPS).
  • Inhibition of FDPS using zoledronic acid (Zol) enhanced the effectiveness of radiation therapy and activated immune cells in both human and mouse models.
  • Results showed that targeting FDPS increased radiosensitivity, improved survival rates, and altered immune responses, suggesting Zol as a promising radiosensitizer and immunomodulator for PDAC treatment.
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Radiotherapy promotes tumor cell death and senescence through the induction of oxidative damage. Recent work has highlighted the importance of lipid peroxidation for radiotherapy efficacy. Excessive lipid peroxidation can promote ferroptosis, a regulated form of cell death.

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Lung cancer (LC) is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality. However, the molecular mechanisms associated with the development of metastasis are poorly understood. Understanding the biology of LC metastasis is critical to unveil the molecular mechanisms for designing targeted therapies.

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Background: The development of radiation pneumonitis (RP) after Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT) is known to be associated with many different factors, although historical analyses of RP have commonly utilized heterogeneous fractionation schemes and methods of reporting. This study aims to correlate dosimetric values and their association with the development of Symptomatic RP according to recent reporting standards as recommended by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Methods: We performed a single-institution retrospective review for patients who received SBRT to the lung from 2010 to 2017.

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Many members of the mucin family are evolutionarily conserved and are often aberrantly expressed and glycosylated in various benign and malignant pathologies leading to tumor invasion, metastasis, and immune evasion. The large size and extensive glycosylation present challenges to study the mucin structure using traditional methods, including crystallography. We offer the hypothesis that the functional versatility of mucins may be attributed to the presence of intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) that provide dynamism and flexibility and that the IDRs offer potential therapeutic targets.

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Article Synopsis
  • Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a really dangerous cancer, with only 9 out of 100 people surviving for 5 years after diagnosis.
  • Pancreatic cystic lesions (PCLs), which are like fluid-filled lumps in the pancreas, can increase the chance of getting this cancer, so doctors need to figure out which ones are harmful.
  • The current methods that use medical images to tell if these lesions are dangerous aren’t good enough, so scientists are looking for better tools that can spot the bad ones and help manage treatment better.
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Pancreatic cystic lesions (PCLs) are well-known precursors of pancreatic cancer. Their diagnosis can be challenging as their behavior varies from benign to malignant disease. Precise and timely management of malignant pancreatic cysts might prevent transformation to pancreatic cancer.

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Background: Trefoil factors (TFF1, TFF2, and TFF3) are small secretory molecules that recently have gained significant attention in multiple studies as an integral component of pancreatic cancer (PC) subtype-specific gene signature. Here, we comprehensively investigated the diagnostic potential of all the member of trefoil family, i.e.

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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a lethal malignancy with a 5-year survival rate of <8%. Its dismal prognosis stems from inefficient therapeutic modalities owing to the lack of understanding about pancreatic cancer pathogenesis. Considering the molecular complexity and heterogeneity of PDAC, identification of novel molecular contributors involved in PDAC onset and progression using global "omics" analysis will pave the way to improved strategies for disease prevention and therapeutic targeting.

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Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal malignancy. Lack of early diagnostic markers makes timely detection of pancreatic cancer a highly challenging endeavor. Exosomes have emerged as information-rich cancer specific biomarkers.

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