Investigating the Local Effectiveness of Carbon Ion Radiotherapy for Unresectable Female Genital Tract Melanomas: A Preliminary Real-World Study.

: Primary gynecological melanomas are rare malignancies with lower survival rates compared to cutaneous melanomas. Both preclinical and clinical data support the evidence that mucosal melanomas are photon-radioresistant but responsive to carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT). The aim of this study is to assess, in a real-world cohort, the effectiveness and tolerability of radical CIRT in patients with inoperable gynecological mucosal melanoma.

Preoperative chemo-CIRT in Re/BRe pancreatic cancer: Insights from a multicenter prospective phase II clinical study (NCT03822936).

Purpose: There is debate about the optimal management of borderline resectable (bRe) and resectable (Re) pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Both preclinical and clinical evidence showed that carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT) produces superior control on radioresistant histologies compared to conventional photon beam radiotherapy (RT). However, so far there is a lack of data concerning the integration of CIRT in a multimodal approach with chemotherapy and surgery for bRe/Re.

Pilot study to assess the early cardiac safety of carbon ion radiotherapy for intra- and para-cardiac tumours.

Purpose: Modern photon radiotherapy effectively spares cardiac structures more than previous volumetric approaches. Still, it is related to non-negligible cardiac toxicity due to the low-dose bath of surrounding normal tissues. However, the dosimetric advantages of particle radiotherapy make it a promising treatment for para- and intra-cardiac tumours.

Current Status and Future Directions of Proton Therapy for Head and Neck Carcinoma.

The growing interest in proton therapy (PT) in recent decades is justified by the evidence that protons dose distribution allows maximal dose release at the tumor depth followed by sharp distal dose fall-off. But, in the holistic management of head and neck cancer (HNC), limiting the potential of PT to a mere dosimetric advantage appears reductive. Indeed, the precise targeting of PT may help evaluate the effectiveness of de-escalation strategies, especially for patients with human papillomavirus associated-oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) and nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC).

Improved Mass Spectrometry-Based Methods Reveal Abundant Propionylation and Tissue-Specific Histone Propionylation Profiles.

Histone posttranslational modifications (PTMs) have crucial roles in a multitude of cellular processes, and their aberrant levels have been linked with numerous diseases, including cancer. Although histone PTM investigations have focused so far on methylations and acetylations, alternative long-chain acylations emerged as new dimension, as they are linked to cellular metabolic states and affect gene expression through mechanisms distinct from those regulated by acetylation. Mass spectrometry is the most powerful, comprehensive, and unbiased method to study histone PTMs.

Technical note: Radiological clinical equivalence for phantom materials in carbon ion therapy.

Purpose: As carbon ion radiotherapy increases in use, there are limited phantom materials for heterogeneous or anthropomorphic phantom measurements. This work characterized the radiological clinical equivalence of several phantom materials in a therapeutic carbon ion beam.

Methods: Eight materials were tested for radiological material-equivalence in a carbon ion beam.

Virtual 4DCT generated from 4DMRI in gated particle therapy: phantom validation and application to lung cancer patients.

. Respiration negatively affects the outcome of a radiation therapy treatment, with potentially severe effects especially in particle therapy (PT). If compensation strategies are not applied, accuracy cannot be achieved.

Detection and quantification of the histone code in the fungal genus Aspergillus.

In eukaryotes, the combination of different histone post-translational modifications (PTMs) - the histone code - impacts the chromatin organization as compact and transcriptionally silent heterochromatin or accessible and transcriptionally active euchromatin. Although specific histone PTMs have been studied in fungi, an overview of histone PTMs and their relative abundance is still lacking. Here, we used mass spectrometry to detect and quantify histone PTMs in three fungal species belonging to three distinct taxonomic sections of the genus Aspergillus (Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus nidulans (two strains), and Aspergillus fumigatus).

Consensus guide on CT-based prediction of stopping-power ratio using a Hounsfield look-up table for proton therapy.

Background And Purpose: Studies have shown large variations in stopping-power ratio (SPR) prediction from computed tomography (CT) across European proton centres. To standardise this process, a step-by-step guide on specifying a Hounsfield look-up table (HLUT) is presented here.

Materials And Methods: The HLUT specification process is divided into six steps: Phantom setup, CT acquisition, CT number extraction, SPR determination, HLUT specification, and HLUT validation.

Characterization of a flat-panel detector for 2D dosimetry in scanned proton and carbon ion beams.

Purpose: To fully characterize the flat panel detector of the new Sphinx Compact device with scanned proton and carbon ion beams.

Materials And Methods: The Sphinx Compact is designed for daily QA in particle therapy. We tested its repeatability and dose rate dependence as well as its proportionality with an increasing number of particles and potential quenching effect.

Synthetic CT in Carbon Ion Radiotherapy of the Abdominal Site.

The generation of synthetic CT for carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT) applications is challenging, since high accuracy is required in treatment planning and delivery, especially in an anatomical site as complex as the abdomen. Thirty-nine abdominal MRI-CT volume pairs were collected and a three-channel cGAN (accounting for air, bones, soft tissues) was used to generate sCTs. The network was tested on five held-out MRI volumes for two scenarios: (i) a CT-based segmentation of the MRI channels, to assess the quality of sCTs and (ii) an MRI manual segmentation, to simulate an MRI-only treatment scenario.

Investigating pathological epigenetic aberrations by epi-proteomics.

Epigenetics includes a complex set of processes that alter gene activity without modifying the DNA sequence, which ultimately determines how the genetic information common to all the cells of an organism is used to generate different cell types. Dysregulation in the deposition and maintenance of epigenetic features, which include histone posttranslational modifications (PTMs) and histone variants, can result in the inappropriate expression or silencing of genes, often leading to diseased states, including cancer. The investigation of histone PTMs and variants in the context of clinical samples has highlighted their importance as biomarkers for patient stratification and as key players in aberrant epigenetic mechanisms potentially targetable for therapy.

Dosimetric validation of a GPU-based dose engine for a fast in silico patient-specific quality assurance program in light ion beam therapy.

Background: With rapid evolutions of fast and sophisticated calculation techniques and delivery technologies, clinics are almost facing a daily patient-specific (PS) plan adaptation, which would make a conventional experimental quality assurance (QA) workflow unlikely to be routinely feasible. Therefore, in silico approaches are foreseen by means of second-check independent dose calculation systems possibly handling machine log-files.

Purpose: To validate the in-house developed GPU-dose engine, FRoG, for light ion beam therapy (protons and carbon ions) as a second-check independent calculation system and to integrate machine log-file analysis into the patient-specific quality assurance (PSQA) program.

The role of multiple anatomical scenarios in plan optimization for carbon ion radiotherapy of pancreatic cancer.

Purpose /objective: To quantify benefits of robust optimization on multiple 4DCT acquisitions combined with off-line treatment adaptation for neoadjuvant carbon ion therapy (CIRT) of pancreatic cancer.

Material/methods: For 10 previously treated patients, 4DCTs were acquired around -15 (CT), -5 (RE), -1 (RE) and +6 (RE) days from RT start. Treatment plans were newly optimized to a dose prescription of 38.

Lower-Neck Sparing Using Proton Therapy in Patients with Uninvolved Neck Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: Is It Safe?

Undifferentiated carcinoma of the nasopharynx (NPC) is a rare disease, which usually occurs in the Asian population. Due to its anatomic location, it is characterised by rich lymph node drainage and has a high incidence of cervical node metastasis. However, cervical nodal metastasis commonly involves retropharyngeal nodes and level II nodes, followed by level III nodes.

Role of diffusion-weighted MRI in recurrent rectal cancer treated with carbon ion radiotherapy.

To evaluate the association between pretreatment diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) and 12-month radiological response in locally recurrent rectal cancer treated with carbon ion radiotherapy. Histogram analysis was performed on pretreatment DW-MRI for patients re-irradiated with carbon ion radiotherapy for local recurrence of rectal cancer. A total of 17 patients were enrolled in the study.

Determination of ion recombination and polarity effects for the PTW Advanced Markus ionization chamber in synchrotron based scanned proton and carbon ion beams.

The aim of this work was the investigation of the ion recombination and polarity factors (k ad k) for a PTW Advanced Markus ionization chamber exposed to proton and carbon ion beams at the Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica. Measurements with protons were specifically dedicated for ocular treatments, in the low energy range and for small, collimated scanning fields. For both protons and carbon ions, several measurements were performed by delivering a 2D single energy layer of 3x3 cm and homogeneous, biologically-optimized SOBPs.

Proton Radiation Therapy for Nasopharyngeal Cancer Patients: Dosimetric and NTCP Evaluation Supporting Clinical Decision.

(1) Background: we proposed an integrated strategy to support clinical allocation of nasopharyngeal patients between proton and photon radiotherapy. (2) Methods: intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) plans were optimized for 50 consecutive nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients treated with volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), and differences in dose and normal tissue complication probability (ΔNTCPx-p) for 16 models were calculated. Patient eligibility for IMPT was assessed using a model-based selection (MBS) strategy following the results for 7/16 models describing the most clinically relevant endpoints, applying a model-specific ΔNTCPx-p threshold (15% to 5% depending on the severity of the complication) and a composite threshold (35%).

Dosimetric effect of variable rectum and sigmoid colon filling during carbon ion radiotherapy to sacral chordoma.

Purpose: Carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT) is sensitive to anatomical density variations. We examined the dosimetric effect of variable intestinal filling condition during CIRT to ten sacral chordoma patients.

Methods: For each patient, eight virtual computed tomography scans (vCTs) were generated by varying the density distribution within the rectum and the sigmoid in the planning computed tomography (pCT) with a density override approach mimicking a heterogeneous combination of gas and feces.