Dear Reader,
Infertility affects over 48.5 m on couples worldwide, whereas the incidence of this issue is expected to grow due to the increasing trend of delay marriage. In add on to being a medical issue with psychological consequences, infertility also imposes sociocultural impacts on the affected couples. Therefore, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recognised infertility as a social disease. Currently, there are various assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments developed to improve fertility, such as pharmacologic treatments, timed intercourse, and intrauterine insemination (IUI). Particularly, the popularity of elective oocyte freezing, and in vitro fert sation (IVF) has continuously increased in recent years Nonetheless, the application of ART has triggered extensive ethical and legal controversy. In the Feature Story, the adverse impacts of infertility in different aspects will be outlined and the ethical dilemmas associated with ART will be discussed.
The p53 protein is a tumour suppressor protein responsible for regulating cellular stress The protein can be inactivated directly due to mutations in the TP53 gene or indirectly as a result of alterations in genes whose products interact with p53 in about half of the cancers Approximately 5-15% of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) cases are associated with TP53 mutation, whereas 75% of these cases are diagnosed using the next-generation sequencing (NGS). In the Focus section, Dr. Marco Marchionni of National Health Service, United Kingdom were invited to discuss the diagnostic challenges faced in clinical practice and the recent treatment advances in TP53-mutated AML.
In addition to the thematic topics, the updates in the pharmacologic management of Crohn's disease, treatment-resistant depression, unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, and advanced Hodgkin's lymphoma are featured in the Industry Updates. On the other hand, the issue of polypharmacy in patients with dney diseases and the therapeutic potential of smell therapy against depression will be discussed in the Epoch section.
Hope you enjoy this issue!

Dr. Roy Yuen-chi Lau

PhD, DBA, MPH, MMedSc, MA, BSc,

FRSPH, MIET, MRSC, MSB, CBiol, CSci, MRACI CChem

Editor-in-Chief

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