A concern with this trial, however, is the description of the control group as conventional therapy. The description of the activities includes mostly passive, non-goal directed movement; this would not be considered

typical by many therapists. At this stage in upper limb research there are proven interventions that ERK inhibitor research buy can be used as comparison in order to determine a truly superior treatment. In this trial though the amount of time spent in therapy was equivalent, the repetition of the activities were not; if this had been comparable the conclusion of ‘more effective’ could be made. The conclusion is thus difficult to accept. There is mounting evidence that high repetitions of active, goal directed interventions are necessary for improved upper limb function and therefore need to be a key ingredient in conventional rehabilitation. “
“Summary of: Frobell RB, et al (2013) Treatment for acute anterior cruciate ligament tear: five year outcome of randomized trial. BMJ 346: f232. doi: 10.1136/bmj.f232. [Prepared by Nicholas Taylor, CAP

Co-ordinator.] Question: Doesearly selleck inhibitor anterior ligament (ACL) reconstruction plus early rehabilitation improve outcomes 5 years after injury in patients with an ACL ligament tear compared with rehabilitation with the option of delayed surgery? Design: Randomised, controlled trial included blinded outcome assessment. Setting: Two hospitals in Sweden. Participants: Adults aged 18 to 36 years with an ACL tear not more than 4 weeks old to a previously uninjured knee were included. Key exclusion were playing professional sport, being less than moderately active, and having a full thickness meniscal lesion. Randomisation of 121 participants allocated 62 to the early ACL reconstruction group and 59 to a group having the option of delayed ACL reconstruction if needed. Interventions: Both groups received a similar rehabilitation program supervised

by physiotherapists in outpatient clinics with goals for attaining range of motion, muscle function, Sitaxentan and functional performance. In addition, the intervention group had ACL reconstruction surgery within 10 weeks of injury. The comparison group with the option of delayed reconstruction had ACL reconstruction surgery when presenting with symptomatic knee instability. Outcome measures: The primary outcome was the change in the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome score (KOOS) at 5 years. The KOOS comprises an overall score and 5 subscales (pain, symptoms, activities of daily living, sport and recreation, and knee related quality of life) scored from 0 to 100 with higher scores indicating better results. Secondary outcome measures included the short-form health survey (SF-36), the Tegner Activity Scale, and radiographic osteoarthritis. Results: 120 participants completed the study.

CD4+ T-cells secrete IFN-γ www.selleckchem.com/products/iwr-1-endo.html and drive B-cell maturation. Th17 cells play a role in host defense against extracellular pathogens by mediating the

recruitment of neutrophils and macrophages to infected tissues [25] and [26]. The female reproductive tract restricts entry of activated T-cells in the absence of inflammation or infection [27]. Consequently, parenteral vaccines that rely on cellular immunity to prevent STIs have not been successful. Recently, vaccines that elicit tissue-resident memory T-cell responses have been shown to be feasible [28] and [29] and may hold the key to a successful vaccination strategy against herpes simplex viruses and other sexually transmitted pathogens. In the male reproductive tract, keratinized stratified squamous epithelial cells cover the external surface of the penis. The male urethral orifice consists

of a non-keratinized stratified squamous epithelium that transitions in the penile shaft to a pseudostratified columnar epithelium. The urethral epithelium expresses several membrane-associated mucins that act as a first-line of defense [30]. The male reproductive tract is an immune privileged site. For example, tight junctions between Sertoli cells prevent entry of complement and immunoglobulins into the seminiferous tubules. This is referred to as the blood–testis barrier. This relative suppression of adaptive immunity is accompanied by an enhanced innate immune response against local infections. Far less is known about the mucosal immune system of the male

reproductive tract than is I-BET151 manufacturer known about the female tract. Antimicrobial peptides are found in the testes, seminal vesicles, epididymis, and prostate [31]. As with the female reproductive tract, epithelial cells lining the male urethral tract express PRRs and are involved in antigen presentation [32]. Macrophages and dendritic cells are abundant in the prepuce and penile urethra and are found in the epididymis and prostate [33]. They are notably absent in the seminal vesicles. Neutrophils are present in the prepuce and variably present in the urethra, prostate, and epididymis. NK cells have been demonstrated in the prostate, testis, and prepuce. IgG is the main immunoglobulin found in seminal crotamiton plasma and it is serum-derived. IgA, mainly IgA1, is also present and is derived from serum and in situ production. B-cells that produce these antibodies are mainly found in the penile urethra and prostate. CD8+ T-cells and CD4+ T-cells are abundant in the penile urethra and also found in the vas deferens, epididymis, seminiferous tubules, and prepuce. It appears that the penile urethra, with the abundant distribution of immune cells, may be a major site of immune induction [32]. Microbiota” represent an assemblage of microorganisms present in a defined environment. The overwhelming majority of microbial species (>99%) resist cultivation in the laboratory [34] and [35].

The next most active set of molecules were species with large bulky groups. 2i and 2j demonstrated reduced activity but were slightly better than the non-cyclic aliphatic molecules 2a, 2b and 2f. 2d, the most sterically hindered example gave the best result from this set (see Table 1). In the case of the antifungal studies there was no equivalent activity. The compounds were all essentially clinically inert when compared to our control fluconazole. A series of novel N-alkyl-2-(3,5-dimethyl-1,1-dioxido-2H-1,2,6-thiadiazin-4-yl) benzamide derivatives were designed and synthesized, and their structures

were characterized by 1H NMR, high-resolution mass spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The bacterial and fungicidal activities of the new Epacadostat order compounds were evaluated. The results of preliminary bioassays indicate that a number of these molecules exhibit antibacterial activities against Gram-positive see more bacteria that are comparable to commercially available drugs. The modification of the heterocyclic ring of the parent compound offers a promising prospect and more active analogues are expected to be found. All authors have none to declare. “
“Perilla (Perilla frutescens L.), commonly known as “Bhanjira” in India, belonging to Lamiaceae family, is an underutilized crop of Indian Himalayas with potential utility in agriculture. It is cultivated as

a traditional crop in Asia for its medicinal and nutritional value due to the bio-actives, fatty acid constituents and essential oil. In India, the plant is grown in Himalayas but there is no organized cultivation of the herb. 1 In Uttarakhand, villagers

generally used seeds and leaves of the plants for the preparation of ‘food chutney’ and flavoring curry materials. 2 Literature survey has shown different chemotypes in the essential oil of P. frutescens and other Perilla species such as perilla ketone, 3 and 4 perilla ketone-isoegomaketone, 5 perilla ketone-egomaketone, 6 perilladehyde, 6 and 7 limonene-piperitone, 8 β-caryophyllene, 9 and 10 Sitaxentan caryophyllene oxide 4 and rosefuran. 11 Perilla also showed high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. 12, 13, 14 and 15 Keeping in view, that Perilla crop can play an important role in national economy both as raw material, essential oil and fatty oil for pharmaceutical industry and also as a foreign exchange earner through export, we started to study on quality and crop improvement of this plant. 3 and 16 Therefore, this investigation aims to determine the compositional variability in the essential oils of plant organs (whole plant, leaves, spikes and husk) at 3 different sowing times and also to ensure the suitability of this crop in Doon valley climatic conditions of Uttarakhand for commercial cultivation.

Final docking results were highlighted in the 3D models and minimum binding energies were calculated as per formula stated above. The three dimensional structure of B. megaterium tyrosinase with 4D87 was retrieved in .PDB format as in Fig. 1: In total 5 drugs were designed using the Chem Draw ultra 6.0 and further by using Chem3D, they were estimated for the structure minimum energy. The every drug details in IUPAC name and minimum energy in kcal/mol was shown in Fig. 2(A–E). In order to find out the potent binding energy among the drug and protein target, AutoDock 4.2 was set up to calculate the QSAR activity.

All five drugs have shown the minimum binding energy in the range of −6.00 kcal/mol. The details of each docking in the form of binding energy and docking location were highlighted in Fig. 3(A–E). Taken into consideration AZD5363 chemical structure buy U0126 that in silico drug design and QSAR have been implicated extensively in recent time that ascertains probable success for the activity of bioactive agents. We have performed a QSAR analysis to determine tyrosinase inhibitor compounds those could regulate protein activity. The enzyme tyrosinase (EC 1.14.17.1) is widely spread among species of different genera.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 And also linked with melanogenesis disorders and hyper pigmentation therefore

tyrosinase is selected for the discovery of new tyrosinase inhibitors as it could be useful in therapy for pigmentation in Human. Unfortunately, three dimensional structure of human tyrosinase has not been elucidated yet.10 Hence we tried to dock the Liothyronine Sodium five drugs designed for the tyrosinase of B. megaterium which was used

as a model protein in place of human tyrosinase. The QSAR data revealed that the all the drugs could bind with the target molecule with minimum binding energy in the range of −06.00 kcal/mol. It is also note worthy that the all five drugs bound to the same pocket of the target which suggest that the drugs are selecting particular pocket only for their binding as they have same drug backbone having the variable side groups. In this way, set of compounds was subjected to in silico screening and was detected for antityrosinase activity. Hence, via QSAR study the designed drugs could be tested in in vivo/cell line trials to determine their potential in therapy. All authors have none to declare. “
“Diuretics drugs increase the rate of urine flow and adjust the volume and composition of body fluids. Drug-induced diuresis is beneficial for the treatment of many maladies such as congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic renal failure, nephritis, cirrhosis, hypertension and pregnancy-induced toxemia.1 and 2 However, many of the diuretics currently used in clinical practice have been associated with a number of adverse effects, including electrolyte imbalance, metabolic alterations, the onset of diabetes, activation of the renin-angiotensin and neuroendocrine systems, and impairment of sexual function.

Furthermore,

two-dose girls & boys is likely to provide similar or less QALYs-gained and to be more expensive than three-dose girls-only strategy, unless the third dose gives no added value or the price for boys is substantially less than the price for girls. Hence, the key question is: how long does two-dose protection have to be in order for the third dose to be cost-ineffective among girls? Our results suggest this threshold duration of protection for two doses is about 30 years. Hence, if two doses protect for more than 30 years, then the third dose will have to be priced substantially below $85 to be cost-effective. Finally, three-dose girls & boys HPV vaccination is unlikely to be cost-effective compared to three-dose girls-only vaccination, as shown by most modelling studies, unless the cost of the vaccine is substantially reduced [49], [50], [51], [52], [53] and [54]. Our results suggest that a two-dose schedule that provides Venetoclax clinical trial protection for more than 30 years would likely prevent the majority of preventable

vaccine-type S3I-201 order HPV infections and diseases, which entails that the added value of the third dose would be limited. This is because, at 30 years duration of protection, two-dose vaccination would confer protection during a significant proportion of the peak years of sexual activity and HPV infection (18–35 years). Our results also indicate that two-dose girls & boys vaccination is likely dominated by a three-dose girls-only strategy, because adding two doses among boys costs twice as much as adding a third dose among girls. However, because these two strategies result in comparable QALYs-gained, the price for boys would need to be reduced by more than half (60%-90% depending on duration of TCL protection, and assuming cost for girls ≥$30) to make a two-dose girls & boys strategy cost-effective vs. three-dose girls-only. Two key issues must be considered when using these results for decision-making. First, the policy decisions regarding alternative HPV vaccine schedules will depend on the evaluation of risks and uncertainties related to the duration of protection of two and three doses. Policy-makers could decide that

evidence is sufficient for the implementation of two-dose girls-only vaccination based on the following observations: (i) three doses in young women 16–26 years of age has shown sustained efficacy for almost 10 years [39], (ii) two doses in girls aged 9–13 years have shown noninferior immunogenicity compared to three doses in young women aged 16–26 years [14] and (iii) our results indicate that two-dose girls-only vaccination is cost-effective if the vaccine protects for longer than 10 years. On the other hand, the duration of vaccine protection with two doses remains uncertain. Should this duration be less than 20 years, a third dose extending the duration of protection (≥5 years) would likely produce substantial additional benefits.

Thus far, however, its users have tended to be more physically active and socio-economically advantaged residents, which may limit its impacts on overall population health and health equity. We therefore intend to examine in future analyses the extent to which these relatively high

levels of infrastructure use translate into overall increases in walking, cycling and physical activity, and into overall decreases in motorised travel and associated carbon emissions. We also intend to examine which particular changes in the Connect2 routes encourage use. This will involve integrating additional quantitative and qualitative research conducted within the broader iConnect program, and will capitalize on the observed heterogeneity between study sites in intervention characteristics and in levels of use. Through close attention to mechanisms and contexts, we hope to examine not only whether environmental interventions BI 6727 clinical trial like Connect2 ‘work’, but also why they do or do not work, for whom and in what circumstances (Ogilvie et al., 2011). The authors declare that

there are no conflicts of interest. This paper was written on behalf click here of the iConnect consortium (www.iconnect.ac.uk; Christian Brand, Fiona Bull, Ashley Cooper, Andy Day, Nanette Mutrie, David Ogilvie, Jane Powell, John Preston and Harry Rutter). The iConnect consortium is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant reference EP/G00059X/1). DO is also supported by the Medical Research Council (Unit Programme number MC_UP_1001/1) and the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC

Public Health Research Centre of Excellence. Funding from the British Heart Foundation, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, NIHR and Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged. AG contributed to this work while funded by an NIHR post-doctoral fellowship partly hosted by CEDAR. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NIHR, the Department of Health or other study funders, which had no role in the conduct of Oxalosuccinic acid the study or in the writing of this report. We thank the study participants for their cooperation, the study team led by Karen Ghali for managing data collection, and Yena Song for calculating the proximity measures and creating the maps. “
“Low socioeconomic status (SES) is a significant risk factor for chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and precursory conditions such as impaired glucose tolerance and impaired fasting glucose, together known as ‘pre-diabetes’ (Department of Health, 2002). Type 2 diabetes prevalence in the UK is rising, from 2.8% in 1996 to 4.3% in 2005 (González et al., 2009) and 100,000 people are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes every year in the UK (Diabetes UK, 2006).

carvi phenolic

extract was found to increase as a function of concentration. The DNA is susceptible to oxidative damage and the hydroxyl radicals oxidize guanosine and thymine to 8-hydroxyl-2-deoxy guanosine and thymine glycol which damage the DNA leading to mutagenesis.3 The hydroxyl radicals generated by Fenton reaction were used as a positive control which induce DNA strand breaks in calf thymus DNA. The damaged DNA fragments migrated farther as compared to native calf thymus DNA. The C. carvi phenolic extract at 5, 10, 20 and 30 μg offered dose dependent protection against DNA damage induced by hydroxyl radicals in calf thymus DNA ( Fig. 4). The phenolic compounds and the essential JAK inhibitor oils of spices are reported to possess antimicrobial activity.28 and 29 The antimicrobial effect of C. carvi extract was tested against four bacteria causing food borne diseases and food spoilage. As shown in Table 1, the bacterial species namely, E. coli, B. cereus, S. aureus and S. typhimurium were found to be sensitive and showed significant inhibition of the growth in presence of C. carvi extract. The data showed that the inhibition of B. cereus and S. aureus was superior as compared to E. coli and S. typhimurium. Thus, Gram-positive bacteria were found to be highly sensitive to C. carvi phenolic extract than Gram-negative

bacteria. There is an increasing interest in natural antioxidants to prevent the deleterious effect of free radicals in biological systems and also in preventing the deterioration of foods due to oxidation of lipids and microbial spoilage. In this study, we isolated the bioactive compounds from C. carvi and the data presented here indicates Selleckchem NSC 683864 that the powder has comparatively less water and 50% ethanol soluble phenolic compounds. The extraction efficiency of phenolic compounds increased about four fold in the solvent system containing 70% methanol and 70% acetone as compared to 50% ethanol. In comparison with the literature, the C. carvi phenolic extract has less total phenolic content than Cuminum medroxyprogesterone nigrum, another spice, which has 53.60 mg/g of defatted powder.

30 The phenolic extract of C. carvi was found to be highly effective in scavenging DPPH radical with an IC50 value of 2.7 μg/ml, whereas BHA and BHT showed 50% scavenging activity at 4.19 μg/ml and 8.35 μg/ml, respectively. Further, C. carvi was found to be more effective DPPH scavenger as compared to C. nigrum which scavenged 50% DPPH at a concentration of 14 μg/ml. 30 This suggests that, C. carvi is a highly effective free radical scavenger or hydrogen donor and contributes significantly to the antioxidant activity. The C. carvi is highly potent in scavenging superoxide anion radical with an IC50 value 35 μg as compared to C. nigrum, which has an IC50 value of 125 μg/ml. 30 The C. carvi phenolic extract has potent antioxidants which can neutralize the free radicals and prevent the formation of reactive oxygen species.

Finally, the INSTINCT trial required the recruitment of a local stroke #Talazoparib research buy randurls[1|1|,|CHEM1|]# champion at each site to serve as the local principal investigator and to act as a liaison between the INSTINCT trial clinical coordinating center and the health care providers at each site. Figure 1 Overview of INSTINCT trial. Process of barrier assessments and interventions at INSTINCT hospitals. Study Setting Twenty-four hospitals were randomly selected from the population of Michigan

acute care hospitals and matched into 12 pairs based on emergency department volume and number of stroke patients (See Figure ​Figure1).1). Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Hospitals that were established academic comprehensive stroke centers were excluded. Primary stroke centers were not excluded, but were relatively uncommon in the hospital sample at the time of randomization. Each pair contained an intervention site and a control site, randomly assigned. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Intervention group hospitals were 25% urban with a total aggregate annual emergency department volume of 397,193 in 2007. Rationale for qualitative inquiry An

overall goal of the qualitative inquiry was to design a process which would complement existing quality improvement Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical programs, such as Get With the Guidelines (GWTG)- Stroke[12]. While GWTG-Stroke provides important tools for measuring progress, it is limited in its specific ability to encourage clinicians to comply with guidelines Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical recommending intravenous tPA to eligible stroke patients. This is of particular importance in the United States, where emergency physicians (EPs) are typically the frontline of acute stroke care. In most U.S. practice settings, immediate access to a neurologist or stroke specialist does not exist[13]. Many decisions regarding stroke treatment, up to and Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical including thrombolytic use, are made by EPs. Even in settings with access to acute stroke teams, the emergency care providers (physicians and nurses) need to recognize that the patient is having a stroke and alert the stroke team. In both instances, clinician beliefs about

the relative efficacy of stroke thrombolysis, physician expertise, past experience, and concern about adverse effects influence the efficiency and overall tone of the decision-making process. Thus, the initial relationship at the bedside between clinician and decision maker (patient or family member) considering thrombolysis for stroke is both complex and ill-defined[14]. In a large proportion of community hospitals in the United Idoxuridine States this role is most commonly filled by EPs. Overview of data collection process The qualitative data collection and analysis methods have been described in detail previously and are summarized below[15]. During design, data collection, and analysis, we adhered to the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) when possible as outlined in Table ​Table11[16]. The qualitative inquiry occurred in two phases.

, Hyderabad. The commercially available formulations of famotidine were purchased from the local market. The HPLC grade water was prepared by double glass distillation and filtration through 0.45 mm filters. Acetonitrile of HPLC grade was obtained from E. Merck. (India) Ltd., Mumbai. Potassium dihydrogen phosphate, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen peroxide and sodium hydroxide of analytical grade are purchased from Qualigens Fine Chemicals Ltd., Mumbai. About 7.0 g of potassium dihydrogen phosphate was weighed accurately, transferred into a 1000 mL beaker and

dissolved in 500 mL of HPLC grade water, diluted to total volume and the pH of the resulting solution was adjusted to 7.0 by adding dilute sodium hydroxide solution. The mobile phase was prepared GS-7340 mw by adding of 600 mL acetonitrile to 400 mL of 0.7%potassium dihydrogen phosphate buffer of pH 7.0; the solutions were mixed well, degassed for 30 min. and filtered through 0.45 μm membrane filter. Stock solution (100 μg/mL) of the famotidine was prepared by dissolving accurately weighed 10 mg of famotidine standard or an amount powder equivalent to 10 mg

of famotidine standard in 70 mL of mobile phase in a 100 mL volumetric flask, sonicated and made up to the mark. Further working standard (10 μg/mL) was prepared by transferring 1.0 mL of the stock solution into 10 mL volumetric flask and diluted up to the mark with mobile phase, sonicated and filter through 0.45 μm filter. A series dilute solutions ranging from 5.0 to 20.0 μg/mL not were prepared by taking different aliquots (0.5–2.0 mL) of the stock solution and diluted Antidiabetic Compound Library in similar Modulators manner. The chromatographic separation was carried out under the isocratic conditions. The

mobile phase was allowed to flow through the column at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min for 10 min to equilibrate the column at ambient temperature. Chromatographic separation was achieved by injecting a volume of 6 μl of standard into Symmetry C18 (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.7 μm, Make: BEH) column, the mobile phase of composition potassium dihydrogen phosphate buffer of pH = 7.0 and acetonitrile in the ratio 40:60 v/v was allowed to flow through the column at a flow rate of 0.2 per minute for a period of 6.0 min. Detection of the component was carried out at a wavelength of 297 nm. The retention time of the component was found to be 0.595 s and the system suitable parameters like number of theoretical plates and tailing factor were found to be 8896 and 1.48 respectively. To evaluate system suitability parameters, a volume of 6 μl of famotidine working standard solution was injected into the analytical column, mobile phase was allowed to flow at a rate 0.2 mL/min for 3.0 min and the chromatograms were recorded at 297 nm using PDA detector. Typical chromatograms for standard and test were shown in (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3) respectively. System suitability parameters such as retention time, tailing factor and USP theoretical plate count of the developed method were found to be 0.595 min, 1.

The chemotherapy regimen comprised of cisplatin 80 mg/m2 intravenously every 3 weeks for six cycles and a fluoropyrimidine (either capecitabine 1,000 mg/m2 orally twice daily for 14 days or 5-fluorouracil 800 mg/m2/day continuous intravenous infusion

for 5 days every 3 weeks for six cycles). The trial was sealed after the second interim analysis when 167 deaths had occurred on the trastuzumab arm and 184 deaths on the control arm. In the final analysis, the median survival was 13.8 months in patients allocated to trastuzumab plus chemotherapy compared with 11.1 months in chemotherapy group alone (P=0.0046). Overall tumour response, complete or partial, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical was significantly increased (47% vs. 35%) in trastuzumab plus chemotherapy arm versus chemotherapy alone. The hazard ratio (HR) was 0.74 (95% CI: 0.60-0.91; P=0.0036, two sided) in favour of the trastuzumab arm. Exploratory Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical survival analyses in subgroups defined by IHC testing indicated that trastuzumab was most effective in prolonging survival in the IHC 3+ tumours and less effective in IHC 2+ tumours. However, the final exploratory

survival analyses included only the HER2/neu FISH positive patients. In October 2010, the FDA granted approval for trastuzumab in combination with cisplatin Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and a fluoropyrimidine (capecitabine or 5-fluorouracil) for the treatment of patients with HER2-overexpressing metastatic selleck gastric or GEJ adenocarcinoma who have not received previous treatment for metastatic disease (13). Several ongoing trials Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical have the goal of evaluating trastuzumab in oesophagogastric and/or gastric cancer in the first line in combination with chemotherapy or as a salvage agent in recurrent cancer.

In conclusion, it was seen that HER2+ prevalence in both BE and EC was relatively high with approximately a forth of patients indicating HER2+. HER2+ in EC has been shown to decrease survival. HER2+ targeted therapy for eligible Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical patients should be considered and carried out in a clinical trial. Further studies looking at HER2+ effect on survival should also be carried out with all relevant diagnostic methods and classification systems used. Acknowledgements Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer (cancer of esophagus, stomach, intestines, liver, isothipendyl or pancreas) is a major health problem. Approximately 3.25 million people are diagnosed with the disease each year worldwide (1), with Brazil accounting for nearly 2% of these cases (1). The majority of GI tumors are epithelial in origin, and most patients present with advanced (regional or distant) disease (~60% patients for colorectal and esophageal cancer) with poor prognoses and low survival rates (2). Despite advances in surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, treatment for most patients is palliative. Indeed, the life expectancy for patients with advanced gastric cancer (with or without chemotherapy) is only 6 to 9 months (3).