Treatment planning for spinal radiosurgery : A competitive multiplatform benchmark challenge.

Purpose: To investigate the quality of treatment plans of spinal radiosurgery derived from different planning and delivery systems. The comparisons include robotic delivery and intensity modulated arc therapy (IMAT) approaches. Multiple centers with equal systems were used to reduce a bias based on individual's planning abilities.

Effect of Rorrico, extracted from group of Chinese medicines, on influenza A and H1N1 infections.

Objective: To investigate the therapeutic and preventive effects of Rorrico on influenza, especially influenza A viral infection, including swine flu (H1N1) in humans.

Methods: Eighty-nine subjects were recruited in Hong Kong and Macau, and divided into treatment group (TG) and prevention group (PG) based on their influenza A and swine flu symptoms. All subjects were prescribed Rorrico or placebo, and monitored by a Chinese medicine practitioner.

Assessing the risk of inadvertent radiation exposure of pregnant patients during radiation therapy planning and treatment in British Columbia.

Purpose: To explore health care professionals' perceptions of, and experience with, the risk of inadvertent radiation exposure to pregnant patients in radiation therapy (RT) departments.

Methods And Materials: The survey was distributed to 342 health care professionals working in RT departments in British Columbia (BC), including radiation therapists, medical physicists, radiation oncologists, and radiation oncology residents.

Results: There were 119 responses, 65% of who were radiation therapists.

A panel study to evaluate quality of life assessments in patients suffering from allergic rhinitis after treatment with a Chinese herbal nasal drop.

Allergic rhinitis impairs quality of life (QOL). To assess the changes in QOL of patients with perennial allergic rhinitis (PAR) after treatment with Allergic Rhinitis Nose Drops (ARND), 35 patients were divided into 2 groups in a randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled study, with a cross-over arrangement over 7 weeks, applying ARND or placebo. Group A (n = 20) started with ARND first for 2 weeks followed by a 3-week washout before placebo for the last 2 weeks, while Group B (n = 15) started with placebo first and finished with ARND after washout.

A comparison of volumetric modulated arc therapy and conventional intensity-modulated radiotherapy for frontal and temporal high-grade gliomas.

Purpose: Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), the predecessor to Varian's RapidArc, is a novel extension of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) wherein the dose is delivered in a single gantry rotation while the multileaf collimator leaves are in motion. Leaf positions and the weights of field samples along the arc are directly optimized, and a variable dose rate is used. This planning study compared seven-field coplanar IMRT (cIMRT) with VMAT for high-grade gliomas that had planning target volumes (PTVs) overlapping organs at risk (OARs).

Design and synthesis of (ant)-agonists that alter appetite and adiposity.

Over the past decade, hypothalamic circuits have been described that impact energy homeostasis in rodents and humans. Our drug development efforts for the treatment of obesity and the metabolic syndrome have largely focused on selected genetic and/or pharmacologically validated pathways. The translation of these pathways into therapeutics for the treatment of obesity will find its first clinical successes over the coming decade.