Innate immune signaling drives late cardiac toxicity following DNA-damaging cancer therapies.

Late cardiac toxicity is a potentially lethal complication of cancer therapy, yet the pathogenic mechanism remains largely unknown, and few treatment options exist. Here we report DNA-damaging agents such as radiation and anthracycline chemotherapies inducing delayed cardiac inflammation following therapy due to activation of cGAS- and STING-dependent type I interferon signaling. Genetic ablation of cGAS-STING signaling in mice inhibits DNA damage-induced cardiac inflammation, rescues late cardiac functional decline, and prevents death from cardiac events.

Patterns of relapse for children with localized intracranial ependymoma.

We examined patterns of relapse and prognostic factors in children with intracranial ependymoma. Records of 82 children diagnosed with localized intracranial ependymoma were reviewed. 52% first presented to our institution after relapse.

Long-term outcomes of adult medulloblastoma patients treated with radiotherapy.

Medulloblastoma (MB) is rare in adults and treatment guidelines are consequently not well-established. Few modern series have reported long-term follow-up and treatment sequelae. We examined long-term outcomes of adult MB patients at one institution.

Patterns of initial and intracranial failure in metastatic EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer treated with erlotinib.

Objectives: Patients with metastatic EGFR-mutant (mEGFRmt) NSCLC have favorable survival when treated with erlotinib. We hypothesized that treatment failure in most patients is limited to initial sites of disease, in which case incorporating local therapy such as radiation might further delay progression. We therefore analyzed patterns and predictors of failure in a large cohort of such patients.

Combining immunotherapy and radiation therapy for small cell lung cancer and thymic tumors.

Recent work with immunotherapy has shown promising results with treatment of several solid malignancies, and there are several reports of good systemic responses with the combination of immunotherapy and radiation therapy (RT), most notably in advanced melanoma. Given the rapid increase in the use of checkpoint blockade as well as anti-tumor vaccines, we review here the preclinical rationale and ongoing clinical work in combining immunotherapy with RT for small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and thymic tumors. While there are several reports of promising results with the combination of immunotherapy and conventional systemic treatment, we focus here on the ongoing clinical studies that combine immunotherapy with RT, and highlight the emerging data for this multimodality approach as well as key preclinical and clinical issues that remain to be addressed.

Comparing the rates of urinary tract infections among patients receiving adjuvant pelvic intensity modulated radiation therapy, 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy, and brachytherapy for newly diagnosed endometrial cancer.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the rates of urinary tract infection (UTI) among patients with endometrial cancer receiving vaginal brachytherapy alone and brachytherapy plus 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT) or intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).

Methods And Materials: We retrospectively evaluated the rates of UTI among 581 patients diagnosed with endometrial cancer, treated between 2004 and 2012. A total of 37% (216/581) received brachytherapy alone, 28% (161/581) received brachytherapy plus 3DCRT, and 35% (204/581) received brachytherapy plus IMRT.

Evidence supporting contemporary post-operative radiation therapy (PORT) using linear accelerators in N2 lung cancer.

Purpose: Post-operative radiotherapy (PORT) treatment for lung cancer declined since a meta-analysis failed to show benefit in patients with N2 disease. Because several included studies employed outmoded radiation planning and delivery techniques, we sought to determine whether PORT with modern technology benefits patients with N2 disease.

Methods: We conducted searches of the published literature.

Frequency-selective exocytosis by ribbon synapses of hair cells in the bullfrog's amphibian papilla.

The activity of auditory afferent fibers depends strongly on the frequency of stimulation. Although the bullfrog's amphibian papilla lacks the flexible basilar membrane that effects tuning in mammals, its afferents display comparable frequency selectivity. Seeking additional mechanisms of tuning in this organ, we monitored the synaptic output of hair cells by measuring changes in their membrane capacitance during sinusoidal electrical stimulation at various frequencies.

Activity-independent specification of synaptic targets in the posterior lateral line of the larval zebrafish.

The development of functional neural circuits requires that connections between neurons be established in a precise manner. The mechanisms by which complex nervous systems perform this daunting task remain largely unknown. In the posterior lateral line of larval zebrafish, each afferent neuron forms synaptic contacts with hair cells of a common hair-bundle polarity.