Multicentre validation of CT grey-level co-occurrence matrix features for overall survival in primary oesophageal adenocarcinoma.

Background: Personalising management of primary oesophageal adenocarcinoma requires better risk stratification. Lack of independent validation of proposed imaging biomarkers has hampered clinical translation. We aimed to prospectively validate previously identified prognostic grey-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) CT features for 3-year overall survival.

Diffusion-weighted imaging complements T2-weighted MRI for tumour response assessment in squamous anal carcinoma.

Objectives: A published tumour regression grade (TRG) score for squamous anal carcinoma treated with definitive chemoradiotherapy based on T2-weighted MRI yields a high proportion of indeterminate responses (TRG-3). We investigate whether the addition of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) improves tumour response assessment in the early post treatment period.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective observational study included squamous anal carcinoma patients undergoing MRI before and within 3 months of completing chemoradiotherapy from 2009 to 2020.

Association of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and F-Fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT parameters with neoadjuvant therapy response and survival in esophagogastric cancer.

Introduction: Better predictive markers are needed to deliver individualized care for patients with primary esophagogastric cancer. This exploratory study aimed to assess whether pre-treatment imaging parameters from dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and F-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG) PET/CT are associated with response to neoadjuvant therapy or outcome.

Materials And Methods: Following ethical approval and informed consent, prospective participants underwent dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and F-FDG PET/CT prior to neoadjuvant chemotherapy/chemoradiotherapy ± surgery.

Fc receptor-like 5 and anti-CD20 treatment response in granulomatosis with polyangiitis and microscopic polyangiitis.

BACKGROUNDBaseline expression of FCRL5, a marker of naive and memory B cells, was shown to predict response to rituximab (RTX) in rheumatoid arthritis. This study investigated baseline expression of FCRL5 as a potential biomarker of clinical response to RTX in granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA).METHODSA previously validated quantitative PCR-based (qPCR-based) platform was used to assess FCRL5 expression in patients with GPA/MPA (RAVE trial, NCT00104299).

MRI heterogeneity analysis for prediction of recurrence and disease free survival in anal cancer.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of image heterogeneity analysis of standard care magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with anal squamous cell carcinoma (ASCC) to predict chemoradiotherapy (CRT) outcome. The ability to predict disease recurrence following CRT has the potential to inform personalized radiotherapy approaches currently being explored in novel clinical trials.

Methods: An IRB waiver was obtained for retrospective analysis of standard care MRIs from ASCC patients presenting between 2010 and 2014.

Adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) affects CT radiomics quantification in primary colorectal cancer.

Objectives: To investigate whether adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR), a hybrid iterative CT image reconstruction algorithm, affects radiomics feature quantification in primary colorectal cancer compared to filtered back projection. Additionally, to establish whether radiomics from single-slice analysis undergo greater change than those from multi-slice analysis.

Methods: Following review board approval, contrast-enhanced CT studies from 32 prospective primary colorectal cancer patients were reconstructed with 20% ASIR level increments, from 0 to 100%.

Radiomics in esophageal and gastric cancer.

Esophageal, esophago-gastric, and gastric cancers are major causes of cancer morbidity and cancer death. For patients with potentially resectable disease, multi-modality treatment is recommended as it provides the best chance of survival. However, quality of life may be adversely affected by therapy, and with a wide variation in outcome despite multi-modality therapy, there is a clear need to improve patient stratification.

Challenges and Promises of PET Radiomics.

Purpose: Radiomics describes the extraction of multiple, otherwise invisible, features from medical images that, with bioinformatic approaches, can be used to provide additional information that can predict underlying tumor biology and behavior.

Methods And Materials: Radiomic signatures can be used alone or with other patient-specific data to improve tumor phenotyping, treatment response prediction, and prognosis, noninvasively. The data describing F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography radiomics, often using texture or heterogeneity parameters, are increasing rapidly.

The impact of MRI sequence on tumour staging and gross tumour volume delineation in squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal.

Objectives: To compare maximum tumour diameter (MTD) and gross tumour volume (GTV) measurements between T-weighted (T-w) and diffusion-weighted (DWI) MRI in squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal (SCCA) and assess sequence impact on tumour (T) staging. Second, to evaluate interobserver agreement and reader delineation confidence.

Methods: The staging MRI scans of 45 SCCA patients (25 females) were assessed retrospectively by two independent radiologists (0 and 5 years' experience of anal cancer MRI).

Challenges in imaging assessment following liver stereotactic body radiotherapy: pitfalls to avoid in clinical practice.

Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is increasingly used in the management of unresectable liver metastases and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as it allows delivery of high-dose conformal radiotherapy with limited toxicities. However, it may be difficult to differentiate viable tumour from radiotherapy-related changes after SBRT. The imaging changes observed after SBRT may also differ from those observed following conventionally fractionated radiotherapy.

Atomic Force Microscopy Reveals the Dynamic Morphology of Fenestrations in Live Liver Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells.

Here, we report an atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based imaging method for resolving the fine nanostructures (e.g., fenestrations) in the membranes of live primary murine liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs).

Morphology and force probing of primary murine liver sinusoidal endothelial cells.

Liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) represent unique type of endothelial cells featured by their characteristic morphology, ie, lack of a basement membrane and presence of fenestrations-transmembrane pores acting as a dynamic filter between the vascular space and the liver parenchyma. Delicate structure of LSECs membrane combined with a submicron size of fenestrations hinders their visualization in live cells. In this work, we apply atomic force microscopy contact mode to characterize fenestrations in LSECs.

A plasmablast biomarker for nonresponse to antibody therapy to CD20 in rheumatoid arthritis.

An important goal for personalized health care is the identification of biomarkers that predict the likelihood of treatment responses. Here, we tested the hypothesis that quantitative mRNA assays for B lineage cells in blood could serve as baseline predictors of therapeutic response to B cell depletion therapy in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In samples from the REFLEX trial of rituximab in inadequate responders to antibodies to tumor necrosis factor-α, a 25% subgroup of treated subjects with elevated baseline mRNA levels of IgJ, a marker for antibody-secreting plasmablasts, showed reduced clinical response rates.