Monazite LaPO:Eu nanorods as strongly polarized nano-emitters.

Orientation analyses of macromolecules or artificial particles are vital for both fundamental research and practical bio-applications. An accurate approach is monitoring the polarization spectroscopy of lanthanide-doped nanocrystalline materials. However, nanomaterials are often far from ideal for the colloidal and polarization luminescence properties.

Radiation-induced circulating miRNA expression in blood of head and neck cancer patients.

In recent years, scientists have found evidence confirming the aberrant expression of miRNAs in cancer patients compared to healthy individuals. The growing interest in the identification of non-invasive and specific diagnostic and prognostic molecular markers has identified microRNAs as potential candidates in cancer diagnosis, prognosis and treatment response. In the present study, we have analyzed the expression profile of circulating miR-21, -191 and -421 in peripheral blood of head and neck cancer patients (HNC) to investigate a possible modulation of mRNA levels by radiation and to identify the role of mRNA as biomarkers of cancer prognosis.

Morphological Analysis of Amoeboid-Mesenchymal Transition Plasticity After Low and High LET Radiation on Migrating and Invading Pancreatic Cancer Cells.

Background/aim: Cell migration and invasion are fundamental components of tumor cell metastasis that represent the biggest threat to the survival and quality of life of cancer patients. There is clear evidence that ionizing radiation can differently modulate migration and invasiveness of cancer cells depending on the cell lines, the doses and the radiation types investigated. This suggests that motile cells are able to adopt different migration strategies according to their molecular characteristics and external signals.

Nutritional counseling with or without systematic use of oral nutritional supplements in head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy.

Background: To evaluate the benefit of oral nutritional supplements (ONS) in addition to nutritional counseling in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients undergoing radiotherapy (RT).

Methods: In a single-center, randomized, pragmatic, parallel-group controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02055833; February 2014-August 2016), 159 newly diagnosed HNC patients suitable for to RT regardless of previous surgery and induction chemotherapy were randomly assigned to nutritional counseling in combination with ONS (N = 78) or without ONS (N = 81) from the start of RT and continuing for up to 3 months after its end.

Uptake of F-FET and F-FCH in Human Glioblastoma T98G Cell Line after Irradiation with Photons or Carbon Ions.

The differential diagnosis between recurrence of gliomas or brain metastases and this phenomenon is important in order to choose the best therapy and predict the prognosis but is still a big problem for physicians. The new emerging MRI, CT, and PET diagnostic modalities still lack sufficient accuracy. Radiolabeled choline and amino acids have been reported to show great tumor specificity.

Pulsed Electromagnetic Field with Temozolomide Can Elicit an Epigenetic Pro-apoptotic Effect on Glioblastoma T98G Cells.

Treatment with pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) is emerging as an interesting therapeutic option for patients with cancer. The literature has demonstrated that low-frequency/low-energy electromagnetic fields do not cause predictable effects on DNA; however, they can epigenetically act on gene expression. The aim of the present work was to study a possible epigenetic effect of a PEMF, mediated by miRNAs, on a human glioblastoma cell line (T98G).

The Prognosis of Patients with Liver Metastases from Colorectal Cancer still Depends on Anatomical Presentation more than on Treatments.

Background: The best management of liver metastases from colorectal cancer is still debated and little is known about the true impact of treatments on survival.

Materials And Methods: The study involved 122 patients (77 males), aged 64.0 ± 11.

Late oral mucosa alterations after radiotherapy for head and neck cancer assessed by exfoliative cytology.

Aim: Late oral mucosa changes after radiotherapy for head and neck cancer have been poorly studied. This study aimed to determine long-term effects of radiotherapy on oral mucosa using exfoliative oral cytology.

Patients And Methods: Fifty patients with cancer were enrolled, five of whom in order to validate microscopic analysis.

HLA-haploidentical T cell-depleted allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in children with Fanconi anemia.

We report the outcome of 12 consecutive pediatric patients with Fanconi anemia (FA) who had neither an HLA-identical sibling nor an HLA-matched unrelated donor and who were given T cell-depleted, CD34(+) positively selected cells from a haploidentical related donor after a reduced-intensity, fludarabine-based conditioning regimen. Engraftment was achieved in 9 of 12 patients (75%), and the cumulative incidence of graft rejection was 17% (95% confidence interval [CI], 5% to 59%). Cumulative incidences of grades II to IV acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease were 17% (95% CI, 5% to 59%) and 35% (95% CI, 14% to 89%), respectively.

Predictive factors for oropharyngeal mycosis during radiochemotherapy for head and neck carcinoma and consequences on treatment duration. Results of mycosis in radiotherapy (MIR): a prospective longitudinal study.

Background And Purpose: Oropharyngeal mycosis (OPM) is a complication of radiotherapy (RT) treatments for head and neck (H&N) cancer, worsening mucositis and dysphagia, causing treatment interruptions and increasing overall treatment time. Prophylaxis with antifungals is expensive. Better patient selection through the analysis of prognostic factors should improve treatment efficacy and reduce costs.

New frontiers for astrocytic tumours.

Glioblastoma multiforme, the most common type of primary brain tumour, remains an unsolved clinical problem. A great deal of work has been done in an effort to understand the biology and genetics of glioblastoma multiforme, but clinically effective treatments remain elusive. It is well known that malignant gliomas develop resistance to chemo- and radiotherapy.

Cell death forms and HSP70 expression in U87 cells after ionizing radiation and/or chemotherapy.

Background: Several types of cell death can induce the activation of the immune system by releasing factors of damage.

Aim: To identify different cell death modalities using U87 glioblastoma cell line after radio-chemotherapy treatments by analyzing the expression of HSP70 after γ-ray irradiation and temozolomide treatment.

Materials And Methods: U87 cell line was irradiated with 2, 4, 8, 10 and 20 Gy, treated with 200 μM of temozolomide, or subjected to combined treatments of these.

Tumors of the gastroesophageal junction have intermediate prognosis compared to tumors of the esophagus and stomach, but share the same clinical determinants.

The issue of whether carcinoma of the gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) should be considered a distal esophageal, a proximal gastric or an independent tumor, at least with regards to clinical evaluation and management remains controversial. This study included 613 retrospective consecutive patients with carcinoma of the upper digestive tract, 64 of the esophagus, 58 of the GEJ and 491 of the stomach. The prognostic impact of the main clinical and histological parameters was analyzed in relation to relative survival as an estimate of the excess mortality.

Prolonged survival in advanced thymoma: Effectiveness of sequential multiple lines of chemotherapy in an inoperable case.

A standard therapeutic approach for advanced malignant thymoma has yet to be defined given the rarity of this condition. We present a patient with advanced thymoma, evaluated as inoperable at diagnosis due to multiple serosal metastases. The strong constitution and determination of the patient allowed treatment with six distinct and subsequent chemotherapy regimens, all administered on an outpatient basis.

Concurrent intra-arterial carboplatin administration and radiation therapy for the treatment of advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: short term results.

Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the survival, efficacy and safety of a modified RADPLAT-like protocol using carboplatin instead of cisplatin.

Methods: Fifty-six patients with primary head and neck squamous cell carcinoma received 4 cycles of intra-arterial carboplatin (350 mg/m2 per cycle every 2 weeks), with concurrent three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy.

Results: Two major and 4 minor complications were observed.

Complete long-term response to radiotherapy of gastric early-stage marginal zone lymphoma resistant to both anti-Helicobacter pylori antibiotics and chemotherapy.

Background: The optimal approach to patients with gastric lymphoma of extranodal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) that resist to anti-Helicobacter pylori (HP) eradication therapy is still to be defined.

Patients And Methods: From January 1997 to December 2004, we observed 24 patients affected with newly diagnosed early-stage and HP-positive gastric lymphoma of the MALT type. Five of them resisted to oral anti-HP antibiotic regimens and to subsequent one (two patients) or two (three patients) chemotherapy regimens.

Usability of institutional cancer web sites: an Italian case study.

In order to evaluate if and to what extent Italian speaking cancer patients can benefit from information available on cancer web sites, an "in vitro" usability (ISO definition) study has been carried out. It investigated the usability of the web sites of the most representative Italian Institutions in the oncological field for the adult patients needing to find information about head and neck cancer. Specific evaluation criteria from the literature were used.

Curative and organ-preserving treatment with intra-arterial carboplatin induction followed by surgery and/or radiotherapy for advanced head and neck cancer: single-center five-year results.

Background: This study evaluated the feasibility, toxicity, response rate and survival of neoadjuvant superselective intra-arterial infusion of high dose carboplatin in advanced head and neck cancer.

Methods: Forty-six patients with primary head and neck squamous cell carcinoma received 3 cycles of intra-arterial carboplatin (300 to 350 mg/m2 per cycle every 2 weeks), followed by radiotherapy or surgery plus radiotherapy.

Results: No complications or severe toxicity occurred.

The multiple faces of the e-patient, if not disabled.

The term e-health entered common speech a few years ago , while the term "e-patient" has recently appeared on the healthcare scenario. The aim of the present paper is to describe the nature of the so called "e-patient" from different points of view, through a review, not systematic, of the literature. A profile, though not totally exhaustive, of the current e-patient has been drawn, in an attempt to report uncertainties and worries that should not be underestimated.

MOPPEBVCAD chemotherapy with limited and conditioned radiotherapy in advanced Hodgkin's lymphoma: 10-year results, late toxicity, and second tumors.

Purpose: MOPPEBVCAD (mechlorethamine, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone, epidoxirubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, lomustine, doxorubicin, and vindesine) chemotherapy with limited radiotherapy was devised in 1987 to reduce late toxicity and second tumor incidence while trying to improve effectiveness through increases of dose intensity and dose density. Late results, toxicity, and second tumor incidence were reviewed in all the patients treated.

Experimental Design: The drugs of three previous alternating regimens [CAD (lomustine, melphalan, and vindesine), MOPP (mechlorethamine, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone), and ABV (doxorubicin, bleomycin, and vinblastine)] were intensified and hybridized, the cumulative dose of mechlorethamine was lowered, and irradiation was delivered to no more than two sites either bulky or partially responding to chemotherapy.

Long-term follow-up in children treated for retroperitoneal malignant tumours.

Thirty-two long-term survivors after treatment with surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy for neuroblastoma (NRB) and Wilms' tumour (WT) were re-evaluated after a period of more than 10 years (mean 16 yr 1 mo, range 27 yr 2 mo/10 yr 5 mo). In addition to routine clinical and laboratory studies, all patients underwent auxometry, echocardiography, spinal X-ray, abdominal US and kidney radionuclide scans. Neither obvious physical signs nor cutaneous toxicity were noted at inspection.

[The relationships between the general practitioner and the oncological radiotherapist. A preliminary study by telephone interviews].

Purpose: We addressed the issue of the relationship between the general practitioner (GP) and the radiotherapist to improve the quality of care of cancer patients.

Material And Methods: The study consisted in evaluating medical requests and phone interviews, with a questionnaire with yes/no and multiple choice answers to the following 5 questions: 1) Do you think a cancer diagnosis is always a hopeless death sentence? 2) Is it professionally rewarding to cure a cancer patient? 3) Are you satisfied with your relationship, as a general practitioner, with oncologic reference centers? 4) Is it more wearing for a general practitioner to manage a cancer than a noncancer patient? 5) Would you answer a questionnaire about the relationship between the general practitioner, the cancer patient and the oncologist? We evaluated 1590 medical requests and made 401 phone interviews; 255 colleagues (70%) answered the questionnaire.

Results: Medical requests were correctly and completely formulated by GPs in 45% of cases.

Minimal requirements in prostate cancer irradiation: a consensus document by the AIRO Lombardia Cooperative Group.

Purpose: With the aim of establishing clinical and technical criteria to homogenize radiotherapy practice, a working group of AIRO-Lombardia (Associazione Italiana di Radioterapia Oncologica--Gruppo regionale della Lombardia) has tried to define minimal requirements for radical and postoperative irradiation in prostate cancer. The document has been structured in such a way as to be also of interest to the urological and medical oncology communities.

Methods: The working group, composed of representatives of most of the regional radiotherapy departments in the Lombardy region, had monthly meetings during 1996 and 1997.

The role of radiotherapy in the treatment of carcinoma of the prostate: a survey of clinical practices in Lombardy, Italy, by the AIRO-Lombardia Cooperative Group. Italian Association for Radiation Oncology.

Aims And Background: We report the results of a survey performed in 1994 by the AIRO-Lombardia Cooperative Group, on the clinical patterns of radiation treatment for prostatic carcinoma in Lombardy, Italy, involving all radiotherapy centers serving an overall local population of about 8,800,000 people.

Methods: A questionnaire was sent to all 13 radiotherapy centers throughout Lombardy, asking for demographic and treatment details concerning the local population of patients with a localized (T1-4, N0-1, M0) carcinoma of the prostate treated with radiotherapy; 12 centers responded, making the basis for the present report.

Results: Analysis of collected data showed that in Lombardy: a) approximately 400 patients per year are irradiated for a localized carcinoma of the prostate, accounting for less than 30% of the total expected number of patients with this disease presentation; b) a complete staging (with PSA, transrectal ultrasonography, abdomino-pelvic CT or MRI scan and total-body bone scan) is performed in over 95% of patients before initiating radiotherapy; c) significant differences exist between radiotherapy centers as regards treatment planning and delivery.