Averaging of absorbed doses: How matter matters.

Background: Dosimetry in radionuclide therapy often requires the calculation of average absorbed doses within and between spatial regions, for example, for voxel-based dosimetry methods, for paired organs, or across multiple tumors. Formation of such averages can be made in different ways, starting from different definitions.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to formally specify different averaging strategies for absorbed doses, and to compare their results when applied to absorbed dose distributions that are non-uniform within and between regions.

Resolution of hepatic fibrosis after ZFN-mediated gene editing in the PiZ mouse model of human α1-antitrypsin deficiency.

Background: α1-antitrypsin deficiency is most commonly caused by a mutation in exon-7 of SERPINA1 (SA1-ATZ), resulting in hepatocellular accumulation of a misfolded variant (ATZ). Human SA1-ATZ-transgenic (PiZ) mice exhibit hepatocellular ATZ accumulation and liver fibrosis. We hypothesized that disrupting the SA1-ATZ transgene in PiZ mice by in vivo genome editing would confer a proliferative advantage to the genome-edited hepatocytes, enabling them to repopulate the liver.

Orthovoltage X-Rays Exhibit Increased Efficacy Compared with γ-Rays in Preclinical Irradiation.

Unlabelled: Radionuclide irradiators (137Cs and 60Co) are commonly used in preclinical studies ranging from cancer therapy to stem cell biology. Amidst concerns of radiological terrorism, there are institutional initiatives to replace radionuclide sources with lower energy X-ray sources. As researchers transition, questions remain regarding whether the biological effects of γ-rays may be recapitulated with orthovoltage X-rays because different energies may induce divergent biological effects.

Optimization of follow-up in patients with papillary thyroid cancer who show no evidence of disease 9-12 months after treatment.

Background: Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) has an excellent prognosis, and recurrence is rare in patients with no evidence of disease (NED) after initial treatment. Despite this, several guidelines recommend long and costly follow-up, with limited evidence of improved patient outcomes. This study aims to examine the value of follow-up in patients with NED after treatment for PTC, by determining the rate of recurrence, recurrence-associated morbidity, and death, and whether any recurrence was diagnosed through the follow-up programme.