Current status of pharmacological treatment of colorectal cancer

AIM: To review the clinical trials for the development in drugs for chemotherapeutic treatment of colorectal cancer(CRC).METHODS: A systematic review identified random-ized controlled trials(RCTs) assessing drugs for the treatment of CRC or adenomatous polyps from www.clinicaltrials.gov. Various online medical databases were searched for relevant publications.RESULTS: Combination treatment regimens of stan-dard drugs with newer agents have been shown to improve overall survival, disease-free survival, time to progression and quality of life compared to that with standard drugs alone in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. The FOLFOXIRI regimen has been associated with a significantly higher response rate, progression-free survival and overall survival compared to the FOLFIRI regimen. CONCLUSION: Oxaliplatin plus intravenous bolus fluo-rouracil and leucovorin has been shown to be superiorfor disease-free survival when compared to intravenous bolus fluorouracil and leucovorin. In addition, oxaliplatin regimens were more likely to result in successful surgi-cal resections. First line treatment with cetuximab plus fluorouracil, leucovorin and irinotecan has been found to reduce the risk of metastatic progression in patients with epidermal growth factor receptor-positive colorec-tal cancer with unresectable metastases. The addition of bevacizumab has been shown to significantly in-crease overall and progression-free survival when given in combination with standard therapy.

Health care professional training in biomedical waste management at a tertiary care hospital in India

Dear Editor：Biomedical waste is any waste generated during the diagnosis,treatment or immunization of human beings or animals,in research activities pertaining to or in the production of or testing of biologicals,and all other categories waste generated by healthcare activities.It includes a broad range of materials from used needles and syringes,soiled dressings,body parts,diagnostic samples,blood,chemicals,pharmaceuticals,

A Comprehensive Review of Animal Models for Coronaviruses: SARSCoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV

The recent outbreak of coronavirus disease(COVID-19) caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2) has already affected a large population of the world. SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the same family of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus(SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus(MERSCoV). COVID-19 has a complex pathology involving severe acute respiratory infection, hyper-immune response, and coagulopathy. At present, there is no therapeutic drug or vaccine approved for the disease. There is an urgent need for an ideal animal model that can reflect clinical symptoms and underlying etiopathogenesis similar to COVID-19 patients which can be further used for evaluation of underlying mechanisms, potential vaccines, and therapeutic strategies. The current review provides a paramount insight into the available animal models of SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV for the management of the diseases.