Effect of radiotherapy exposure on fruquintinib plus sintilimab treatment in refractory microsatellite stable metastatic colorectal cancer: a prospective observation study.

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in combination with antiangiogenic drugs have shown promising outcomes in the third-line and subsequent treatments of patients with microsatellite stable metastatic colorectal cancer (MSS-mCRC). Radiotherapy (RT) may enhance the antitumor effect of immunotherapy. However, the effect of RT exposure on patients receiving ICIs and targeted therapy remains unclear.

Correction: Relieving immunosuppression during long-term anti-angiogenesis therapy using photodynamic therapy and oxygen delivery.

Correction for 'Relieving immunosuppression during long-term anti-angiogenesis therapy using photodynamic therapy and oxygen delivery' by Qianyuan He , , 2020, , 14788-14800, https://doi.org/10.1039/D0NR02750B.

Long-term outcome in cervical lymph node-positive nasopharyngeal carcinoma following IMRT with one-step cervical nodal CTV delineation by geometric-anatomic expansion from nodal GTV: A double-center experience.

Background: To report long-term results of cervical node-positive (CLN+) nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients treated with IMRT with one-step nodal clinical target volume (CTVn) delineation by geometric-anatomic expansion from the nodal gross target volume (GTVn).

Materials: CLN+ NPC treated with the same one-step-CTVn delineation in two Chinese academic centers were pooled for this study. GTVn was prescribed to 70 Gy equivalent, CTVn1 was omitted, CTVn2 was prescribed to 45-55 Gy equivalent and defined as GTVn + 3 mm geometric expansion (5 mm if radiological extranodal extension-positive, rENE+) + elective nodal regions defined by anatomic boundary of cervical nodal levels.

Gut bacteria facilitate pollinivory of the ladybird beetle .

The ladybird beetle plays an important role as a predator of various arthropods within Asia's rice ecosystems. While pollen could serve as an alternative diet for this beetle, facilitating mass-rearing, its pollinivory might inadvertently result in attacks on crop pollen. This study aims to explore the role of gut bacteria on pollinivory of .

Technical note: Optimizing spot-scanning proton arc therapy with a novel spot sparsity approach.

Background: One of the main challenges of utilizing spot-scanning proton arc therapy (SPArc) in routine clinics is treatment delivery efficiency. Spot reduction, which relies on spot sparsity optimization (SSO), is crucial for achieving high delivery efficiency in SPArc.

Purpose: This study aims to develop a novel SSO approach based on the alternating directions method of multipliers (ADMM) for SPArc to achieve high treatment delivery efficiency and maintain optimal dosimetric plan quality.

Novel intercellular spread mode of respiratory syncytial virus contributes to neutralization escape.

Developing widely used respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines remains a significant challenge, despite the recent authorization of two pre-F vaccines for elderly adults. Previous reports have suggested that even when vaccine-induced immunity generates high titers of potent neutralizing antibodies targeting the pre-F protein, it may not fully inhibit breakthrough of RSV infections. This incomplete inhibition of RSV breakthrough infections can lead to an increased risk of enhanced respiratory disease (ERD) in vaccinated individuals.

A self-assembled, genetically engineered, irradiated tumor cell debris vaccine.

Vaccine-based therapeutics for cancers face several challenges including lack of immunogenicity and tumor escape pathways for single antigen targets. It has been reported that radiotherapy has an in situ vaccine effect that provides tumor antigens following irradiation, helping to activate antigen-presenting cells (APCs). Herein, a new vaccine approach is developed by combining genetically engineered irradiated tumor cell debris (RTD) and hyaluronic acid (HA), termed HA@RTD.

Targeting the Cascade Amplification of Macrophage Colony-stimulating Factor to Alleviate the Immunosuppressive Effects Following Radiotherapy.

Radiotherapy (RT) serves as the primary treatment for solid tumors. Its potential to incite an immune response against tumors both locally and distally profoundly impacts clinical outcomes. However, RT may also promote the accumulation of immunosuppressive cytokines and immunosuppressive cells, greatly impeding the activation of antitumor immune responses and substantially limiting the effectiveness of RT.

Sequence-specific nanoparticle barcode strategy for multiplex human enterovirus typing.

Human enteroviruses (HEV) can cause a range of diseases from mild to potentially life-threatening. Identification and genotyping of HEV are crucial for disease management. Existing typing methods, however, have inherent limitations.

Biological-equivalent-dose-based integrated optimization framework for fast-energy-switching Bragg peak FLASH-RT using single-beam-per-fraction.

Backgrounds: When comparing the delivery of all beams per fraction (ABPF) to single beam per fraction (SBPF), it is observed that SBPF not only helps meet the FLASH dose threshold but also mitigates the uncertainty with beam switching in the FLASH effect. However, SBPF might lead to a higher biological equivalent dose in 2 Gy (EQD2) for normal tissues.

Purpose: This study aims to develop an EQD2-based integrated optimization framework (EQD2-IOF), encompassing robust dose, delivery efficiency, and beam orientation optimization (BOO) for Bragg peak FLASH plans using the SBPF treatment schedule.

Proton spot dose estimation based on positron activity distributions with neural network.

Background: Positron emission tomography (PET) has been investigated for its ability to reconstruct proton-induced positron activity distributions in proton therapy. This technique holds potential for range verification in clinical practice. Recently, deep learning-based dose estimation from positron activity distributions shows promise for in vivo proton dose monitoring and guided proton therapy.

A novel fast robust optimization algorithm for intensity-modulated proton therapy with minimum monitor unit constraint.

Background: Intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) optimizes spot intensities and position, providing better conformability. However, the successful application of IMPT is dependent upon addressing the challenges posed by range and setup uncertainties. In order to address the uncertainties in IMPT, robust optimization is essential.

Final analysis of a phase II trial of neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy for locoregionally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Objectives: Neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy has shown promising results for resectable, locoregionally advanced (LA) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (L/A HNSCC). We published the first phase II trial of neoadjuvant camrelizumab combined with chemotherapy in resectable, L/A HNSCC, demonstrating it was safe and feasible with favorable pathological complete response (pCR). Here, we report the final analysis results for neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy in L/A HNSCC (minimum 2.

Evaluation of an automated clinical decision system with deep learning dose prediction and NTCP model for prostate cancer proton therapy.

To evaluate the feasibility of using a deep learning dose prediction approach to identify patients who could benefit most from proton therapy based on the normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) model.Two 3D UNets were established to predict photon and proton doses. A dataset of 95 patients with localized prostate cancer was randomly partitioned into 55, 10, and 30 for training, validation, and testing, respectively.

Irradiated tumour cell-derived microparticles upregulate MHC-I expression in cancer cells via DNA double-strand break repair pathway.

Radiotherapy (RT) is used for over 50 % of cancer patients and can promote adaptive immunity against tumour antigens. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we discovered that RT induces the release of irradiated tumour cell-derived microparticles (RT-MPs), which significantly upregulate MHC-I expression on the membranes of non-irradiated cells, enhancing the recognition and killing of these cells by T cells.

In vivo EPID-based daily treatment error identification for volumetric-modulated arc therapy in head and neck cancers with a hierarchical convolutional neural network: a feasibility study.

We proposed a deep learning approach to classify various error types in daily VMAT treatment of head and neck cancer patients based on EPID dosimetry, which could provide additional information to support clinical decisions for adaptive planning. 146 arcs from 42 head and neck patients were analyzed. Anatomical changes and setup errors were simulated in 17,820 EPID images of 99 arcs obtained from 30 patients using in-house software for model training, validation, and testing.

Microglia and macrophage metabolism: a regulator of cerebral gliomas.

Reciprocal interactions between the tumor microenvironment (TME) and cancer cells play important roles in tumorigenesis and progression of glioma. Glioma-associated macrophages (GAMs), either of peripheral origin or representing brain-intrinsic microglia, are the majority population of infiltrating immune cells in glioma. GAMs, usually classified into M1 and M2 phenotypes, have remarkable plasticity and regulate tumor progression through different metabolic pathways.

Induction of therapeutic immunity and cancer eradication through biofunctionalized liposome-like nanovesicles derived from irradiated-cancer cells.

Immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment of cancer. However, its efficacy remains to be optimized. There are at least two major challenges in effectively eradicating cancer cells by immunotherapy.

Metabolism, digestion, and horizontal transfer: potential roles and interaction of symbiotic bacteria in the ladybird beetle and their prey .

In this study, we first time sequenced and analyzed the 16S rRNA gene data of predator ladybird beetles and globally distributed invasive pest at different stages, and combined data with bacterial genome sequences in to explored the taxonomic distribution, alpha and beta diversity, differentially abundant bacteria, co-occurrence network, and putative functions of their microbial community. Our finding revealed that Walczuchella, which exhibited a higher abundance in , possessed several genes in essential amino acid biosynthesis and seemed to perform roles in providing nutrients to the host, similar to other obligate symbionts in scale insects. , , and , more abundant in , were predicted to have genes related to hydrocarbon, fatty acids, and chitin degradation, which may assist their hosts in digesting the wax shell covering the scale insects.