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The Role of [18F]FDG PET/CT in Predicting Toxicity in Patients with NHL Treated with CAR-T: A Systematic Review

CAR-T-cell therapy, also referred to as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, is a novel method in the field of immunotherapy for the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). In patients receiving CAR-T-cell therapy, fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography/Computer Tomography ([18F]FDG PET/CT) plays a critical role in tracking treatment response and evaluating the immunotherapy’s overall efficacy. The aim of this study is to provide a systematic review of the literature on the studies aiming to assess and predict toxicity by means of [18F]FDG PET/CT in patients with NHL receiving CAR-T-cell therapy. PubMed/MEDLINE and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) databases were interrogated by two investigators to seek studies involving the use of [18F]FDG PET/CT in patients with lymphoma undergoing CAR-T-cell therapy.

Intraoperative functional brain mapping for glioma surgery: a comprehensive review of the University of California San Francisco mapping protocol

Intraoperative functional brain mapping is an essential and intricate technique in modern-day glioma surgery. This article is not a review of the literature but of the technical protocol at our institution that has evolved over the recent decades to the current time and is intended to highlight details that enable us to perform maximal safe resection of gliomas.

Prior to surgery, anatomical and functional imaging protocols are obtained to determine the tumor to be resected within its anatomical and functional environment. Preoperative assessments are used to determine which mapping procedures and tasks are most appropriate. Cortical and subcortical motor and language mapping using low and high frequency stimulation paradigms are applied when appropriate during resection. Methods to interpret findings and troubleshoot issues are reviewed herein.

All preoperative imaging including magnetic resonance imaging, magnetoencephalography of functional cortex, and diffusion tensor imaging of subcortical tracts are uploaded into the neuronavigation station and used throughout surgery for guidance. The decision to continue with tumor resection is based on constant feedback from the mapping paradigms as functional pathways are approached in real time. Both awake and asleep anesthesia regimens are utilized depending on the type of testing required to assess and preserve functional areas during tumor resection. Postoperatively, deficits are assessed using MRI along with clinical exam to predict whether they will be temporary or permanent.

Giant skull base collision tumors in NF2-related schwannomatosis: longitudinal outcomes of planned selective resection

Giant skull base collision tumors in neurofibromatosis type 2–related schwannomatosis (NF2-SWN) pose a complex surgical challenge in young patients with lifelong tumor burden. Gross total resection is often impossible without severe neurological morbidity, and data on operative timing and durability are limited. We assessed long-term outcomes of planned, selective resection prioritizing neurological preservation.

We queried a prospective institutional database for NF2-SWN patients undergoing surgery for giant (≥ 4.0 cm) intracranial skull base collision tumors (≥ 2 neoplasms forming one mass) from January 2009 to December 2025. Surgery targeted symptomatic or high-risk components, accepting residual disease. Outcomes included time to reoperation, overall survival, and functional status.

Thirteen patients underwent 31 skull base operations. Mean age at first surgery was 27 years (range 19–42), with mean tumor diameter 5.0 cm (range 4.0–7.7 cm). Most (69%) had prior surgery and/or radiotherapy. Gross total resection was never achieved. Over mean 9.4-year follow-up, Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated reoperation-free survival of 61.5% at 5 years (95% CI, 26.6–83.7%), with a median reoperation-free survival of 6.1 years. The mean interval between reoperations was 4.8 years (median, 3.9 years; IQR, 2.7–5.7; range, 0.8–14.6). Overall survival was 100% at 5 years and 88% at 10 years. At last follow-up, median Karnofsky Performance Status was 70.

Molecular basis of human daylight vision

In a new study, the researchers have succeeded for the first time in determining the three-dimensional structure of human cone opsins in their dark state and showing how their molecular architecture enables their rapid activation by light. This provides important new insights into human vision and its evolution and may offer new starting points for the study of eye diseases that currently lack effective treatment. The study published in the journal Science.

Cone opsins are photoreceptor proteins found in the cone cells, which are densely packed in the fovea centralis. This area of the human retina is responsible for sharp vision. We humans have six to seven million cones in each eye. Their receptor proteins are activated by light, triggering a signalling cascade that ultimately produces electrical signals processed by the brain. Because this process is exceptionally fast, cone opsins enable us to track fast-moving objects with our eyes. However, they operate mainly during the day when the light levels are high. In low light, at dusk and at night, their evolutionarily younger relative, the rod opsin in rod cells, takes over this task.

Human colour vision is mediated by three types of cone opsins, each tuned to a different region of the visible spectrum. L cones are most sensitive to red light, M cones to green light, and S cones to blue light. Although there are only three cone types, we see the world in more than just three colours, as our colour perception arises from the interplay of their overlapping spectral sensitivities.

Comparison between molecular and histological IDH-wild-type glioblastoma and extensive subgroup analysis of IDH-wild-type astrocytic tumors without genomic glioblastoma-defining alterations

This study compares clinical characteristics and survival between molecular (MolGBM) and histological IDH-wild-type (IDH-WT) glioblastoma (HistGBM), and further characterizes histological lower-grade IDH-WT astrocytic tumors without genomic GBM-defining alterations.

Adult patients with histologically lower-grade IDH–WT astrocytoma (WHO grade 2–3) and available tumor tissue were included. Tumors were classified according to the 2021 WHO Classification of CNS tumors. Biopsy-only cases were excluded. IDH1 and TERT promoter (TERTp) mutations were analyzed via Sanger and whole-exome sequencing (WES). TERTp-WT tumors underwent WES and subsequent DNA methylation profiling. Clinical, molecular, and outcome data were collected.

The cohort comprised 47 surgically resected histologically lower-grade IDH-WT astrocytic tumors. Thirty-nine fulfilled WHO 2021 criteria for MolGBM, mainly based on TERTp mutation (n = 36), while eight lacked GBM-defining molecular alterations. Compared with HistGBM (n = 54), MolGBM more frequently presented with seizures and showed a lower Ki-67 index. Median overall survival (OS) was 19.8 months in MolGBM and 14.6 months in HistGBM, without a significant difference in univariable analysis (p = 0.11). Patients aged ≥ 60 years showed longer overall survival in the MolGBM group (17.9 vs. 12.3 months; p = 0.0079). In multivariable Cox regression adjusted for age, extent of resection, and completion of the Stupp regimen, MolGBM was independently associated with more favorable OS (HR 0.40, 95% CI 0.24–0.67, p = 0.0005). The eight tumors lacking GBM-defining alterations showed longer survival and marked diagnostic heterogeneity.

An AI model that thinks like we do offers new ways to peer inside the black box

When a standard large language model (LLM) is confronted with a problem, it tries to solve it by matching it to similar information it has seen before, and then give an answer based on those past patterns. But how it decides which information to use and what value it gives to different pieces of information can be somewhat inscrutable from the outside. An EPFL team has created a new large language model that is structured similarly to a human brain, allowing users more control and moving away from “black box” AI.

The LLM MiCRo (Mixture of Cognitive Reasoners) is architecturally divided into four specialized areas that act like different parts of the human brain, allowing users to have more control over how it approaches a question and to better understand how it comes to its answers. The model, which was presented at the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR 2026), comes from the NLP Lab, part of the School of Computer and Communication Sciences (IC), and the NeuroAI Lab, part of IC and the School of Life Sciences at EPFL. The paper is posted to the arXiv preprint server.

How a brain messenger protein drives progression of Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease is driven by a buildup of a toxic protein called Tau that kills neurons. As toxic Tau spreads to new regions of the brain, symptoms worsen and ultimately become fatal.

Now, researchers have discovered that, in mice, a brain protein called Arc helps spread Tau from sick brain cells to healthy ones.

If therapies could be designed to target the spread, they could be a powerful tool to stop Alzheimer’s disease from getting worse.

Blood vessel cells keep fixed signaling roles for weeks, reshaping view of capillary communication

The cells lining skin capillaries are constantly sending each other messages—tiny pulses of calcium that help regulate blood flow, sense physical forces and keep vessel walls intact. Scientists have known about this signaling for decades. What they didn’t know, until now, is that it follows a remarkably organized pattern, one that persists across days and weeks, governed by a network of cells that have, in a sense, assigned themselves permanent roles.

A new study from Yale School of Medicine (YSM) and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals not only that this network exists, but also what happens when it breaks down—and how it might be restored.

The study was done in the lab of Valentina Greco, Ph.D., Carolyn Walch Slayman Professor of Genetics at YSM and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, in close collaboration with the labs of Julia Mack, Ph.D., and Chen Yuan Kam, Ph.D., both at UCLA.

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