Longitudinal dynamic MRI radiomic models for early prediction of prognosis in locally advanced cervical cancer treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy.

Purpose: To investigate the early predictive value of dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based radiomics for progression and prognosis in locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) patients treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT).

Methods And Materials: A total of 111 LACC patients (training set: 88; test set: 23) were retrospectively enrolled. Dynamic MR images were acquired at baseline (MRI), before brachytherapy delivery (MRI) and at each follow-up visit.

Establishing a risk stratification model to identify clinically high-risk N0 breast cancer who could benefit from regional nodal irradiation: a single institute analysis.

Background: The purpose of this real-world study was to investigate the risk factors for developing recurrence among patients with pathological T1-3N0 breast cancer (BC) treated with breast-conserving surgery (BCS) followed by whole breast irradiation alone (WBI) and identify those clinically high-risk BCs who could benefit from regional nodal irradiation (RNI).

Materials And Methods: Female BC patients treated at Shanghai Ruijin hospital from 2009 to 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. The disease-free survival (DFS), breast cancer specific survival (BCSS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and survival differences were compared with the log-rank test.

The clinical practice and dosimetric outcome of the manual adaptive planning during definitive radiotherapy for cervical cancer.

Propose: To evaluate the advantage of the manual adaptive plans comparing to the scheduled plans, and explored clinical factors predicting patients suitable for adaptive strategy.

Methods And Materials: Eighty two patients with weekly online cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) were enrolled. The re-CT simulation was performed after 15 fractions and a manual adaptive plan was developed if a significant deviation of the planning target volume (PTV) was found.

AEP-cleaved DDX3X induces alternative RNA splicing events to mediate cancer cell adaptation in harsh microenvironments.

Oxygen and nutrient deprivation are common features of solid tumors. Although abnormal alternative splicing (AS) has been found to be an important driving force in tumor pathogenesis and progression, the regulatory mechanisms of AS that underly the adaptation of cancer cells to harsh microenvironments remain unclear. Here, we found that hypoxia- and nutrient deprivation-induced asparagine endopeptidase (AEP) specifically cleaved DDX3X in a HIF1A-dependent manner.

Exosomal miRNA-166-5p derived from G-MDSCs promotes proliferation by targeting ITM3E in colorectal cancer.

Background: The immune milieu of colorectal cancer is a complex phenomenon. It is imperative to investigate the crucial immune factors that promote the progression of colorectal cancer. Immune suppressor cells are granulocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells (G-MDSCs).

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with weekly cisplatin and paclitaxel followed by chemoradiation for locally advanced cervical cancer.

Background: Currently, the standard treatment for locally advanced cervical cancer is concurrent chemoradiation (CCRT). Forty percent of patients present with disease recurrence. This study aims to investigate the feasibility, safety and efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) with weekly cisplatin and paclitaxel (TP) followed by CCRT.

Hypofractionated versus conventional intensity-modulated radiation irradiation (HARVEST-adjuvant): study protocol for a randomised non-inferior multicentre phase III trial.

Introduction: Short course regimen has become the major trend in the field of adjuvant radiotherapy for patients with breast cancer. Hypofractionated radiotherapy (HF-RT) regimen of 40-42.5 Gy in 15-16 fractions has been established as a preferred option for whole breast irradiation.

IMNI PRECISION trial protocol: a phase II, open-label, non-inferior randomized controlled trial of tailoring omission of internal mammary node irradiation for early-stage breast cancer.

Background: Since the publication of MA-20 and EORTC-22922 trials, chest wall (CW)/ whole breast (WB) irradiation + comprehensive regional nodal irradiation (RNI) with internal mammary node irradiation (IMNI) has been the standard adjuvant treatment for early-stage breast cancer (BC). However, one size does not fit all BC, and the risk of recurrence significantly varies among this patient population. In addition, whether all BC patients presented with one to three positive lymph nodes (pN1) could benefit from IMNI remains controversial.

A Multistage Analysis of Asphalt Binder Nanocrack Generation and Self-Healing Behavior Based on Molecular Dynamics.

In order to study the characteristics and laws of nanocrack generation and self-healing behavior of asphalt materials under tensile action, the molecular dynamics (MD) method was used to simulate the continuous "tensile failure-self-healing" process, and this study remedies the shortcomings of existing experimental and observational methods. It is found that the MD-reproduced formation process of asphalt binder nanocrack contains four stages: "tensile extension", "nanocrack generation", "crack adding, expanding and penetrating" and "cracking failure". The influence of tensile conditions on the tensile cracking simulation of an asphalt binder model was analyzed, and it was found that low temperature and high loading rate would increase the tensile strength of the asphalt binder model.

A Novel Delivery System of RGD-HSA Loaded GEM/CUR Nanoparticles for the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer Therapy.

Introduction: Pancreatic cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors and is characterized by high malignancy, occult incidence and poor prognosis. Traditional chemotherapy drugs have limited efficacy and strong side effects. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a better treatment of the malignancy.

Research on the Ability of Bio-rejuvenators to Disaggregate Oxidized Asphaltene Nanoclusters in Aged Asphalt.

A real rejuvenator must have the ability to disaggregate oxidized asphaltene nanoclusters. However, few studies pay attention to the topic, and there is a lack of comparison of the disaggregation ability of different rejuvenators. Thus, the disaggregation ability and regeneration mechanism of three bio-rejuvenators (waste cooking oil (WCO), waste wood oil (WWO), and straw liquefied residue oil (SLRO)) on oxidized asphaltene nanoclusters were studied in this paper.

Comparison of outcomes and side effects for neoadjuvant chemotherapy with weekly cisplatin and paclitaxel followed by chemoradiation vs. chemoradiation alone in stage IIB-IVA cervical cancer: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Currently, the standard treatment for locally advanced cervical cancer is concurrent chemoradiation (CCRT). The effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in advanced cervical cancer is controversial. Studies have shown that the addition of a weekly regimen of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) followed by CCRT may be superior to a thrice-weekly regimen of NACT and CCRT.

The Case Selection for Vaginal Cuff Brachytherapy in Cervical Cancer Patients After Radical Hysterectomy and External Beam Radiation Therapy.

Objective: To explore the suitable cases for vaginal cuff brachytherapy (VCB) combined with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) in the postoperative treatment of cervical cancer.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 214 postoperative cervical cancer patients who received radiotherapy from January 2008 to December 2015. Among them, 146 patients received postoperative EBRT, 68 received EBRT plus VCB.

Dynamic evaluation of the prognostic value of F-FDG PET/CT in extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type.

Extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma, nasal-type (ENKTL) is a type of rare and distinct entity of non-Hodgkin lymphoma with poor prognosis. It is important to evaluate the early treatment response accurately to decide further treatment strategy. F-FDG PET/CT plays an important role in response evaluation and prognostic prediction in some kinds of lymphomas.

Weakly supervised deep learning for determining the prognostic value of F-FDG PET/CT in extranodal natural killer/T cell lymphoma, nasal type.

Purpose: To develop a weakly supervised deep learning (WSDL) method that could utilize incomplete/missing survival data to predict the prognosis of extranodal natural killer/T cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKTL) based on pretreatment F-FDG PET/CT results.

Methods: One hundred and sixty-seven patients with ENKTL who underwent pretreatment F-FDG PET/CT were retrospectively collected. Eighty-four patients were followed up for at least 2 years (training set = 64, test set = 20).

Lentiviral vector with a radiation-inducible promoter, carrying the ING4 gene, mediates radiosensitization controlled by radiotherapy in cervical cancer cells.

The presence of hypoxia in solid tumors is considered one of the major factors that contribute to radiation resistance. The aim of the present study was to establish a therapeutic system, which can be controlled by radiation itself, to enhance radiosensitivity. For this purpose, a lentiviral gene therapy vector containing the human inhibitor of growth 4 (ING4) and its upstream promoter, human early growth response factor-1 (EGR1), which possesses the radiation-inducible characteristics to activate the transcription of its downstream genes, was constructed.

Computer Vision for Recognition of Materials and Vessels in Chemistry Lab Settings and the Vector-LabPics Data Set.

This work presents a machine learning approach for the computer vision-based recognition of materials inside vessels in the chemistry lab and other settings. In addition, we release a data set associated with the training of the model for further model development. The task to learn is finding the region, boundaries, and category for each material phase and vessel in an image.

The predictive value of pre-treatment F-FDG PET/CT on treatment outcome in early-stage extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma.

The diagnostic value of pretreatment F-FDG PET/CT in early-stage extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL) is established, but its prognostic value is still unclear. We conducted F-FDG PET/CT-based quantitative and qualitative analysis as well as assessed related clinical parameters in 50 patients with recently diagnosed ENKTL and treated with methotrexate, etoposide, dexamethasone, and pegaspargase (MESA)-based therapy. Patients were followed-up for 38.

Infiltration tendency of internal mammary lymph nodes involvement in patients with breast cancer: anatomical characteristics and implications for target delineation.

Background: Despite increasing clinical data suggest that internal mammary node (IMN) irradiation would improve local-regional control and overall survival in breast cancer, its role remains controversial due to increased risk of cardiac and pulmonary toxicity. The current study aims to determine the high risk areas of IMN metastases by collecting and analyzing the axial imaging of IMN involvement, in order to optimize IMN delineation for breast cancer.

Methods: Breast cancer patients with IMN involvement were retrospectively identified from single-center database.

The use of new delineation tool "MIRADA" at the level of regional lymph nodes, step-by-step development and first results for early-stage breast cancer patients.

Objective:: To describe the practical procedure of implementation and optimization of delineation using "Mirada" software, as well as evaluation of the automatic segmentation for the daily practice of lymph nodes (LN) and organs at risk (OARs) in early stage breast cancer patients.

Methods:: 40 patients' CT scans in treatment position were selected and recontoured according to the European Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology guidelines. The atlas of data set was then created for automatic delineation.

The use of helical tomotherapy in the treatment of early stage breast cancer: indications, tolerance, efficacy-a single center experience.

Purpose: to evaluate our experience in terms of local control, survival, adverse effects in patients treated by adjuvant helical tomotherapy (HT) for breast cancer (BC).

Results: We studied 179 consecutive patients with 194 treated breasts with adjuvant HT. Median follow-up was 38.

Novel therapeutic modalities and drug delivery - erlotinib liposomes modified with galactosylated lipid: in vitro and in vivo investigations.

The aim of this study to develop galactosylated erlotinib liposomes for treatment of lung cancer. The liposomes were prepared by using solvent evaporation method. Various parameters such as particle size, zeta potential, entrapment efficiency, stability and in vitro drug release were determined.

F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography scan after gastric endoscopy in those who present with non-specific symptoms, is it necessary or not?

Background And Aims: Retrospectively analyze the sensitivity of F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography (F-FDG PET-CT) in the diagnosis of gastric malignancy compared with gastric endoscopy in persons with nonspecific symptoms and evaluate the necessity of F-FDG PET-CT scan before surgery.

Materials And Methods: A total of 53 patients with gastric malignancy proven by surgery and pathology were enrolled in the study. All the patients underwent gastric endoscopy and PET-CT scan before surgery.

Long-Term Results of a Highly Performing Conformal Electron Therapy Technique for Chest Wall Irradiation After Mastectomy.

Purpose: To evaluate locoregional control and survival after mastectomy, as well as toxicity, in patients irradiated by a previously described postmastectomy highly conformal electron beam radiation therapy technique (PMERT).

Methods And Materials: We included all women irradiated by postmastectomy electron beam radiation therapy for nonmetastatic breast cancer between 2007 and 2011 in our department. Acute and late toxicities were retrospectively assessed using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 3.