Intraoperative Electron-Beam Radiation Therapy for Pediatric Ewing Sarcomas and Rhabdomyosarcomas: Long-Term Outcomes.

Purpose: To assess long-term outcomes and toxicity of intraoperative electron-beam radiation therapy (IOERT) in the management of pediatric patients with Ewing sarcomas (EWS) and rhabdomyosarcomas (RMS).

Methods And Materials: Seventy-one sarcoma (EWS n=37, 52%; RMS n=34, 48%) patients underwent IOERT for primary (n=46, 65%) or locally recurrent sarcomas (n=25, 35%) from May 1983 to November 2012. Local control (LC), overall survival (OS), and disease-free survival were estimated using Kaplan-Meier methods.

Intraoperative electron-beam radiation therapy with or without external-beam radiotherapy in the management of paraaortic lymph-node oligometastases from gynecological malignancies.

Purpose: To analyze long-term outcomes and prognostic factors in patients with paraaortic lymph-node oligometastases (LNO) from gynecological malignancies treated in a multimodal protocol.

Methods: Patients with a histological diagnosis of LNO gynecological cancer [uterine cervix (n = 14, 40 %), endometrial (n = 18, 51 %), ovarian (n = 3, 9 %)] who underwent surgery with radical intent and intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT), median dose 12.5 Gy) were considered eligible for participation in this study.

Adjuvant Chemoradiation in Pancreatic Cancer: A Pooled Analysis in Elderly (≥75 years) Patients.

Aim: To determine the impact of postoperative chemoradiation (POCR) on overall survival (OS) after resection of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAC) in elderly (≥75 years) patients.

Materials And Methods: A multi-center retrospective review of 1248 patients who underwent complete resection with macroscopically negative margins (R0-1) for invasive PAC was performed. Exclusion criteria included age <75 years, metastatic or unresectable disease at surgery, macroscopic residual disease (R2), treatment with intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) and postoperative death.

Single-Institution Multidisciplinary Management of Locoregional Oligo-Recurrent Pelvic Malignancies: Long-Term Outcome Analysis.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyze long-term outcomes and prognostic factors associated with survival in patients with locoregional oligo-recurrent (LROR) pelvic malignancies treated in a multimodal protocol.

Methods: Patients with an histologic diagnosis of LROR pelvic cancer (rectal 50 %, gynecological 50 %) with absence of distant metastases, undergoing surgery with radical intent and intraoperative radiotherapy (median dose 12.5 Gy) were considered eligible for participation in this study.

Communication: Nucleation of water on ice nanograins: Size, charge, and quantum effects.

The sticking cross sections of water molecules on cold size-selected water clusters have been simulated using classical and quantum (path-integral) molecular dynamics trajectories under realistic conditions. The integrated cross sections for charged clusters show significant size effects with comparable trends as in experiments, as well as essentially no sign effect. Vibrational delocalization, although it contributes to enlarging the geometric cross sections, leads to a counter-intuitive decrease in the dynamical cross section obtained from the trajectories.

EMMPRIN/CD147 is a novel coreceptor of VEGFR-2 mediating its activation by VEGF.

EMMPRIN/CD147 is mainly known for its protease inducing function but a role in promoting tumor angiogenesis has also been demonstrated. This study provides evidence that EMMPRIN is a new coreceptor for the VEGFR-2 tyrosine kinase receptor in both endothelial and tumor cells, as it directly interacts with it and regulates its activation by its VEGF ligand, signalling and functional consequences both in vitro and in vivo. Computational docking analyses and mutagenesis studies identified a molecular binding site in the extracellular domain of EMMPRIN located close to the cell membrane and containing the amino acids 195/199.

Exome sequencing of hepatocellular carcinomas identifies new mutational signatures and potential therapeutic targets.

Genomic analyses promise to improve tumor characterization to optimize personalized treatment for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Exome sequencing analysis of 243 liver tumors identified mutational signatures associated with specific risk factors, mainly combined alcohol and tobacco consumption and exposure to aflatoxin B1. We identified 161 putative driver genes associated with 11 recurrently altered pathways.

Information resources used by patients with inflammatory bowel disease: Satisfaction, expectations and information gaps.

Background And Purpose: Information received by IBD patients about their disease is of particular importance. The objective of the study was to determine the information resources these patients used, together with their perceived information gaps and expected preferences.

Patients And Methods: A prospective, observational, cross-sectional study conducted on IBD patients attending 13 Spanish hospitals during 2008.

Nanohydration of uracil: emergence of three-dimensional structures and proton-induced charge transfer.

Stepwise hydration of uracil has been theoretically revisited using different methods ranging from classical force fields to quantum chemical approaches. Hydration initially begins within the uracil plane but proceeds at four molecules into three-dimensional configurations or even water clusters next to the nucleobase. The relative stability between the various structures is significantly affected by zero-point energy and finite temperature (entropy) effects and also gives rise to markedly different responses to an excitation by an impinging high-energy proton.

Thermodynamics of nanoalloys.

This article reviews recent advances in our understanding of how temperature affects the structure and the phase of multimetallic nanoparticles. Focusing on bimetallic systems, we discuss the interplay of size, shape and chemical order on the stable configurations at thermal equilibrium. Besides some considerations about experimental evidence for thermally-induced transformations, most insight is generally gained from theory and computation.

High-dose radiotherapy with short-term or long-term androgen deprivation in localised prostate cancer (DART01/05 GICOR): a randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial.

Background: The optimum duration of androgen deprivation combined with high-dose radiotherapy in prostate cancer remains undefined. We aimed to determine whether long-term androgen deprivation was superior to short-term androgen deprivation when combined with high-dose radiotherapy.

Methods: In this open-label, multicentre, phase 3 randomised controlled trial, patients were recruited from ten university hospitals throughout Spain.

Atomistic modeling of IR action spectra under circularly polarized electromagnetic fields: toward action VCD spectra.

The nonlinear response and dissociation propensity of an isolated chiral molecule, camphor, to a circularly polarized infrared laser pulse was simulated by molecular dynamics as a function of the excitation wavelength. The results indicate similarities with linear absorption spectra, but also differences that are ascribable to dynamical anharmonic effects. Comparing the responses between left- and right-circularly polarized pulses in terms of dissociation probabilities, or equivalently between R- and S-camphor to a similarly polarized pulse, we find significant differences for the fingerprint C = O amide mode, with a sensitivity that could be sufficient to possibly enable vibrational circular dichroism as an action technique for probing molecular chirality and absolute conformations in the gas phase.

Amblyseius swirskii: what made this predatory mite such a successful biocontrol agent?

The predatory mite Amblyseius swirskii quickly became one of the most successful biocontrol agents in protected cultivation after its introduction into the market in 2005 and is now released in more than 50 countries. There are several key factors contributing to this success: (1) it can control several major pests including the western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis, the whiteflies Bemisia tabaci and Trialeurodes vaporariorum and the broad mite, Polyphagotarsonemus latus, simultaneously in vegetables and ornamental crops; (2) it can develop and reproduce feeding on non-prey food sources such as pollen, which allows populations of the predator to build up on plants before the pests are present and to persist in the crop during periods when prey is scarce or absent; and (3) it can be easily reared on factitious prey, which allows economic mass production. However, despite the fact that A.

Coating Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Cations with Helium Clusters: Snowballs and Slush.

The classical and quantum structures of cationic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules (benzene, pyrene, coronene, and circumcoronene) coated by helium atoms have been theoretically investigated using a variety of computational methods. Classical shell filling, as determined from global optimization, is generally found to proceed by epitaxial additions on the graphitic surfaces before peripheral closure. From the quantum mechanical perspective provided by path-integral molecular dynamics simulations, vibrational delocalization is found to generally decrease the size of this first solvation shell, but also to give rise to a variety of situations in which the helium atoms are more or less localized depending on their environment, with strong finite size effects depending both on the hydrocarbon cation and the number of coating helium atoms.

Failure mode and effect analysis oriented to risk-reduction interventions in intraoperative electron radiation therapy: the specific impact of patient transportation, automation, and treatment planning availability.

Background And Purpose: Industrial companies use failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) to improve quality. Our objective was to describe an FMEA and subsequent interventions for an automated intraoperative electron radiotherapy (IOERT) procedure with computed tomography simulation, pre-planning, and a fixed conventional linear accelerator.

Material And Methods: A process map, an FMEA, and a fault tree analysis are reported.

Salvage wide resection with intraoperative electron beam therapy or HDR brachytherapy in the management of isolated local recurrences of soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities and the superficial trunk.

Purpose: To assess the toxicity and efficacy of salvage wide resection (SWR) with intraoperative electron beam radiation therapy (IOERT) or perioperative high-dose-rate brachytherapy (PHDRB) in previously unirradiated patients (PUP) vs. previously irradiated patients (PIP) with isolated local recurrence of soft tissue sarcomas (STS) of the extremities and the superficial trunk.

Methods And Materials: PUP received SWR and IOERT/PHDRB with external beam radiation therapy.

Adjuvant chemotherapy in rectal cancer: defining subgroups who may benefit after neoadjuvant chemoradiation and resection: a pooled analysis of 3,313 patients.

Recent literature suggests that the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy (aCT) for rectal cancer patients might depend on the response to neoadjuvant chemoradiation (CRT). Aim was to evaluate whether the effect of aCT in rectal cancer is modified by response to CRT and to identify which patients benefit from aCT after CRT, by means of a pooled analysis of individual patient data from 13 datasets. Patients were categorized into three groups: pCR (ypT0N0), ypT1-2 tumour and ypT3-4 tumour.

Intraoperative radiotherapy for gastrointestinal malignancies: contemporary outcomes with multimodality therapy.

The integration of intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) into the multimodal treatment of gastrointestinal cancer is feasible and leads to high rates of local control. In-field tumoral control using IORT-containing strategies can be achieved in over 90 % of most cases, regardless of the site or status of the tumor (primary or recurrent). Electron beam IORT, or intraoperative electron radiation therapy, is the dominant technology used in institutions reporting data in publications the 21st century.

Theoretical investigation of the relative stability of Na⁺He(n) (n = 2-24) clusters: many-body versus delocalization effects.

The solvation of the Na(+) ion in helium clusters has been studied theoretically using optimization methods. A many-body empirical potential was developed to account for Na(+)-He and polarization interactions, and the most stable structures of Na(+)He(n) clusters were determined using the basin-hopping method. Vibrational delocalization was accounted for using zero-point energy corrections at the harmonic or anharmonic levels, the latter being evaluated from quantum Monte Carlo simulations for spinless particles.

Feasibility assessment of the interactive use of a Monte Carlo algorithm in treatment planning for intraoperative electron radiation therapy.

This work analysed the feasibility of using a fast, customized Monte Carlo (MC) method to perform accurate computation of dose distributions during pre- and intraplanning of intraoperative electron radiation therapy (IOERT) procedures. The MC method that was implemented, which has been integrated into a specific innovative simulation and planning tool, is able to simulate the fate of thousands of particles per second, and it was the aim of this work to determine the level of interactivity that could be achieved. The planning workflow enabled calibration of the imaging and treatment equipment, as well as manipulation of the surgical frame and insertion of the protection shields around the organs at risk and other beam modifiers.

A novel tumor suppressor function of Kindlin-3 in solid cancer.

Kindlin-3 (FERMT-3) is known to be central in hemostasis and thrombosis control and its deficiency disrupts platelet aggregation and causes Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency disease. Here we report that Kindlin-3 has a tumor suppressive role in solid cancer. Our present genetic and functional data show that Kindlin-3 is downregulated in several solid tumors by a mechanism involving gene hypermethylation and deletions.

Many-body effects on the structures and stability of Ba²⁺Xe(n) (n = 1-39, 54) clusters.

The structures and relative stabilities of mixed Ba(2+)Xe(n) (n = 1-39, 54) clusters have been theoretically studied using basin-hopping global optimization. Analytical potential energy surfaces were constructed from ab initio or experimental data, assuming either purely additive interactions or including many-body polarization effects and the mutual contribution of self-consistent induced dipoles. For both models the stable structures are characterized by the barium cation being coated by a shell of xenon atoms, as expected from simple energetic arguments.

Role of genetic polymorphisms in NFKB-mediated inflammatory pathways in response to primary chemoradiation therapy for rectal cancer.

Purpose: To investigate whether polymorphisms of genes related to inflammation are associated with pathologic response (primary endpoint) in patients with rectal cancer treated with primary chemoradiation therapy (PCRT).

Methods And Materials: Genomic DNA of 159 patients with locally advanced rectal cancer treated with PCRT was genotyped for polymorphisms rs28362491 (NFKB1), rs1213266/rs5789 (PTGS1), rs5275 (PTGS2), and rs16944/rs1143627 (IL1B) using TaqMan single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping assays. The association between each genotype and pathologic response (poor response vs complete or partial response) was analyzed using logistic regression models.

Role of radiotherapy in the chemotherapy-containing multidisciplinary management of patients with resected pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Background: To analyze prognostic factors associated with long-term outcomes in patients with resected pancreatic cancer treated with chemotherapy (CT) and surgery with or without external beam radiotherapy (EBRT).

Patients And Methods: From January 1995 to December 2012, 95 patients with adenocarcinoma of the pancreas and locoregional disease [clinical stage IB-IIA (n = 45; 47%), IIB-IIIC (n = 50; 53%)] were treated with curative resection [R0 (n = 52; 55%), R1 (n = 43, 45%)] and CT with (n = 60; 63%) or without (n = 35; 37%) EBRT (45-50.4 Gy).