Background: Patients are frequently ordered to fast while hospitalized. Though these “nil per os” (NPO) orders are often placed for sound clinical reasons (e.g. small bowel obstruction), they are also frequently placed in preparation for imaging studies or procedures to reduce the theoretical risk of aspiration. There is often a great deal of confusion among [...]

Background: Myelofibrosis is a chronic myeloproliferative neoplasm characterized by progressive bone marrow fibrosis and extramedullary hematopoiesis leading to splenomegaly. Progressive splenomegaly is common in advanced myelofibrosis, and spleen volume is a predictor of survival. The oral selective small-molecule JAK 1/2 inhibitor ruxolitinib is used for symptomatic management of intermediate-2 and high-risk myelofibrosis, and leads to [...]

Background: The tumor microenvironment and its interaction with the tumor are indicative of disease progression but has not been clinically applied due to the lack of objective assessment criteria. Proximity associated effects of the tumor to its microenvironment which can explain the long-term behavior of tumor remains to be developed. In this work, we utilized [...]