This is a report about S.K., a woman who suffered from cancer during the last 8 years of her life, but continued to exercise her free will, and to participate actively in her medical management until she died. This was only possible through an empowering and transparent patient–doctor relationship. Doctors and patients are often faced with the dilemma of undergoing management options which are ...

Background: Blunt injuries to the gallbladder occur rarely, and the incidence of isolated damage to the gallbladder is even smaller. We report a case of delayed presentation of isolated rupture of the gallbladder following blunt trauma to the abdomen. Case presentation: A 65 year old lady presented through the Emergency Department with a 1 week history of blunt trauma to her abdomen. She compla...

I was recently consulted in the hospital about abnormal computed tomography (CT) scan findings showing concern for metastatic disease. I have learned that this doesn’t always mean cancer, but findings must be very suspicious for a radiologist to say those words. Before seeing the patient, I reviewed the chart and looked at the images. I agreed—the scans did not look good; I called the radiologi...

A protease inhibitor unsticks cells AI-1 is unique among protease inhibitors because it binds to the matrix protein vitronectin (VN). PAI-1 binding blocks VN's binding site for the cell surface receptor uPAR and for integrin family members. Czekay et al. (page 781) now show that PAI-1 is also able to detach cells through a less direct approach. Unlike the direct competition method, PAI-1 also d...