Radiation as an Immune Modulator: Where We Are With Modern Total Body Irradiation.

Total body irradiation (TBI) has been an important component of myeloablative and nonmyeloablative conditioning regimens for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for decades. Playing a dual role, both cytotoxic and immuno-suppressive, TBI eliminates residual disease while also impairing the immune system from rejecting the foreign donor cells being transplanted. Unlike chemotherapy, radiotherapy is not hampered by perfusion, diffusion, or the blood-barrier effect and can effectively treat sanctuary sites.

Volumetric modulated arc therapy total body irradiation improves toxicity outcomes compared to 2D total body irradiation.

Introduction: Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) total body irradiation (TBI) allows for greater organ sparing with improved target coverage compared to 2D-TBI. However, there is limited evidence of whether improved organ sparing translates to decreases in toxicities and how its toxicities compare to those of the 2D technique. We aimed to compare differences in toxicities among patients treated with TBI utilizing VMAT and 2D techniques.

Incorporating intensity modulated total body irradiation into a Children's Oncology Group trial: Rationale, techniques, and safeguards.

Historically, total body irradiation (TBI) has been delivered using static, parallel opposed photon beams (2D-TBI). Recently, centers have increasingly used intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) techniques for TBI. Relative to 2D-TBI, IMRT can reduce doses to critical organs (i.

Autodelineation of Treatment Target Volume for Radiation Therapy Using Large Language Model-Aided Multimodal Learning.

Purpose: Artificial intelligence-aided methods have made significant progress in the auto-delineation of normal tissues. However, these approaches struggle with the auto-contouring of radiation therapy target volume. Our goal was to model the delineation of target volume as a clinical decision-making problem, resolved by leveraging large language model-aided multimodal learning approaches.

Commissioning of a novel PET-Linac for biology-guided radiotherapy (BgRT).

Background: Biology-guided radiotherapy (BgRT) is a novel radiotherapy delivery technique that utilizes the tumor itself to guide dynamic delivery of treatment dose to the tumor. The RefleXion X1 system is the first radiotherapy system developed to deliver SCINTIX® BgRT. The X1 is characterized by its split arc design, employing two 90-degree positron emission tomography (PET) arcs to guide therapeutic radiation beams in real time, currently cleared by FDA to treat bone and lung tumors.

Automated contouring, treatment planning, and quality assurance for VMAT craniospinal irradiation (VMAT-CSI).

Purpose: Create a comprehensive automated solution for pediatric and adult VMAT-CSI including contouring, planning, and plan check to reduce planning time and improve plan quality.

Methods: Seventy-seven previously treated CSI patients (age, 2-67 years) were used for creation of an auto-contouring model to segment 25 organs at risk (OARs). The auto-contoured OARs were evaluated using the Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC), 95% Hausdorff Distance (HD95), and a qualitative ranking by one physician and one physicist (scale: 1-acceptable, 2-minor edits, 3-major edits).

A time- and space-saving Monte Carlo simulation method using post-collimation generative adversarial network for dose calculation of an O-ring gantry Linac.

Purpose: This study explores the feasibility of employing Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to model the RefleXion X1 Linac. The aim is to investigate the accuracy of dose simulation and assess the potential computational benefits.

Methods: The X1 Linac is a new radiotherapy machine with a binary multi-leaf collimation (MLC) system, facilitating innovative biology-guided radiotherapy.

Spreading of aqueous surfactant solutions on oil substrates: Superspreaders vs non-superspreaders.

Hypothesis: The question of why aqueous solutions of some surfactants demonstrate a rapid spreading (superspreading) over hydrophobic solid substrates, while solutions of other similar surfactants do not, has no definitive explanation despite numerous previous studies. The suggested hypothesis for this study assumes that once the spreading coefficient of surfactant is positive, there is a concentration range for solutions of any surfactant which demonstrates rapid spreading. As it is impossible to calculate spreading coefficients for solid substrates, we compare the spreading performance of known superspreaders and non-superspreaders on liquid (oil) substrate.

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE APPLICATION OF THE DEVELOPED BIOPOLYMER FIBROUS MATRIX WITH CENOBONE® BIOGEL FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF BONE TISSUE DEFECTS OF THE JAWS.

The aim of the research was to study the framework ability of the fibrous non-woven PCL matrices we've created during the restoration of bone tissue.There were performed some spectroscopic, histological and immunohistochemical, radiological and clinical analyses of the effectiveness of microfibrous non-woven PCL polycaprolactone matrices developed by us, in the work. The obtained results of morphological studies of bone tissue in the experiment of the implantation of a fibrous matrix indicated an increase in reparative osteogenesis in the form of an increase in osteoid areas up to 34.

BIOGUIDE-X: A First-in-Human Study of the Performance of Positron Emission Tomography-Guided Radiation Therapy.

Purpose: Positron emission tomography (PET)-guided radiation therapy is a novel tracked dose delivery modality that uses real-time PET to guide radiation therapy beamlets. The BIOGUIDE-X study was performed with sequential cohorts of participants to (1) identify the fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) dose for PET-guided therapy and (2) confirm that the emulated dose distribution was consistent with a physician-approved radiation therapy plan.

Methods And Materials: This prospective study included participants with at least 1 FDG-avid targetable primary or metastatic tumor (2-5 cm) in the lung or bone.

Patient Selection and Outcomes for Hypofractionated Accelerated Radiation and Concurrent Chemotherapy for Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.

Purpose/objectives: Adoption of hypofractionated accelerated radiation therapy (HART) with concurrent chemotherapy has been limited by toxicity concerns. We aimed to describe outcomes of patients treated with HART and concurrent chemotherapy and to evaluate dosimetry to organs at risk to guide patient selection.

Materials/methods: We evaluated a retrospective cohort of NSCLC patients treated with concurrent chemotherapy with HART (>2.

Automating the Treatment Planning Process for Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy Craniospinal Irradiation.

Purpose: The purpose of this work is to develop a method to automate the treatment planning process of craniospinal irradiation (CSI) using volumetric modulated arc therapy.

Methods And Materials: Two scripts were developed using the Eclipse Scripting Application Programming Interface to perform auto-plan preparation and optimization. Ten patients (age, 5-44 years) previously treated at our institution with low dose volumetric modulated arc therapy CSI (prescription of 12 Gy) before total body irradiation were selected to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed auto-planning process.

Personalized Accelerated ChEmoRadiation (PACER) for Lung Cancer: Protocol for a Bayesian Optimal Phase I/II Trial.

Introduction: Prior attempts to escalate radiation dose for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have not improved survival. Given the high risk for cardiopulmonary toxicity with treatment and heterogenous presentation of locally advanced NSCLC, it is unlikely that a single dose regimen is optimal for all patients. This phase I/II trial aims to evaluate a novel treatment approach where the level of accelerated hypofractionation is determined by the predicted toxicity from dose to organs at risk (OARs).

Effect of Rapid Thermal Annealing on Si-Based Dielectric Films Grown by ICP-CVD.

Silicon nitride, silicon oxide, and silicon oxynitride thin films were deposited on the Si substrate by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition and annealed at 1100 °C for 3 min in an Ar environment. Silicon nitride and silicon oxide films deposited at ratios of the reactant flow rates of SiH/N = 1.875 and SiH/NO = 3, respectively, were Si-rich, while Si excess for the oxynitride film (SiH/N/NO = 3:2:2) was not found.

Improved organ sparing using auto-planned Stanford volumetric modulated arc therapy for total body irradiation technique.

Purpose/objectives: To evaluate dosimetric differences between auto-planned volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) total body irradiation (TBI) technique and two-dimensional radiotherapy using anterior-posterial/posterio-anterial beams (2D AP/PA) TBI technique.

Methods: Ten pediatric patients treated with VMAT-TBI on Varian c-arm linac were included in this study. VMAT-TBI plans were generated using our in-house developed and publicly shared auto-planning scripts.

Adaptive Region-Specific Loss for Improved Medical Image Segmentation.

Defining the loss function is an important part of neural network design and critically determines the success of deep learning modeling. A significant shortcoming of the conventional loss functions is that they weight all regions in the input image volume equally, despite the fact that the system is known to be heterogeneous (i.e.

CLINICOROENTGENOLOGICAL PECULIARITIES OF THE CONGENITAL AND ACQUIRED CRANIOFACIAL ANOMALIES.

The aim of the research was to study the relationship between the X-ray changes in the bones of the skull, the structure of the upper respiratory tract and concomitant general somatic diseases in patients with congenital and acquired craniomaxillofacial anomalies. The study included 52 patients aged 1 to 3 and 3 to 7 years, with congenital and acquired lower micrognathia in 19 (36.53±5.

Analyzing drop coalescence in microfluidic devices with a deep learning generative model.

Predicting drop coalescence based on process parameters is crucial for experimental design in chemical engineering. However, predictive models can suffer from the lack of training data and more importantly, the label imbalance problem. In this study, we propose the use of deep learning generative models to tackle this bottleneck by training the predictive models using generated synthetic data.

MICROSTRUCTURE OF BIOPOLYMER MICRO-FIBROUS SCAFFOLD AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE ABILITY TO RETAIN MEDICINES AND TISSUE REGENERATION.

The aim of the research is to study the microstructure, antibiotic-absorbing and framework capacity of the fibrous non-woven PCL matrices designed by us for the regeneration of tissues and capillaries. Samples of microfibrous non-woven matrices made by our technology out of polycaprolactone PCL (invention patent of Ukraine № 119958) were used in the work. Antibiotic retention in samples of matrix materials was evaluated during the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 14th, 18th and 21st days of the experiment.

Patient-Specific Auto-segmentation on Daily kVCT Images for Adaptive Radiation Therapy.

Purpose: This study explored deep-learning-based patient-specific auto-segmentation using transfer learning on daily RefleXion kilovoltage computed tomography (kVCT) images to facilitate adaptive radiation therapy, based on data from the first group of patients treated with the innovative RefleXion system.

Methods And Materials: For head and neck (HaN) and pelvic cancers, a deep convolutional segmentation network was initially trained on a population data set that contained 67 and 56 patient cases, respectively. Then the pretrained population network was adapted to the specific RefleXion patient by fine-tuning the network weights with a transfer learning method.

Comparative Study of Different Ion-Exchange Membrane Types in Diffusion Dialysis for the Separation of Sulfuric Acid and Nickel Sulfate.

The possibility of using various types of ion-exchange membranes in diffusion dialysis for the separation of sulfuric acid and nickel sulfate has been evaluated. The process of the dialysis separation of a real waste solution from an electroplating facility containing 252.3 g/L of sulfuric acid, 20.

Mitigation of Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy and Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy Treatment Planning Errors on the Novel RefleXion X1 System Using Failure Mode and Effect Analysis Within Six Sigma Framework.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to apply the Six Sigma methodology and failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) to mitigate errors in intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) treatment planning with the first clinical installation of RefleXion X1.

Methods And Materials: The Six Sigma approach consisted of 5 phases: define, measure, analyze, improve, and control The define, measure, and analyze phases consisted of process mapping and an FMEA of IMRT and SBRT treatment planning on the X1. The multidisciplinary team outlined the workflow process and identified and ranked the failure modes associated with the plan check items using the American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group 100 recommendations.

Stratified assessment of an FDA-cleared deep learning algorithm for automated detection and contouring of metastatic brain tumors in stereotactic radiosurgery.

Purpose: Artificial intelligence-based tools can be leveraged to improve detection and segmentation of brain metastases for stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). VBrain by Vysioneer Inc. is a deep learning algorithm with recent FDA clearance to assist in brain tumor contouring.

Review of the role of surfactant dynamics in drop microfluidics.

Surfactants are employed in microfluidic systems not just for drop stabilisation, but also to study local phenomena in industrial processes. On the scale of a single drop, these include foaming, emulsification and stability of foams and emulsions using statistically significant ensembles of bubbles or drops respectively. In addition, surfactants are often a part of a formulation in microfluidic drop reactors.