During the second long shutdown (LS2) of the LHC the ALICE detector will be improved with the installation of an upgraded Inner Tracking System (ITS) and a new Muon Forward Tracker (MFT). These ...detectors will crucially contribute to the precise characterization of the high-temperature, strongly-interacting medium created in ultra-relativistic Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.5 TeV. In the central barrel, the upgraded ITS will consist of seven cylindrical layers of silicon pixel detectors, starting at a radial distance of 22.4 mm from the beam axis. At forward rapidity, the MFT will be composed of five silicon pixel planes added in the acceptance of the existing Muon Spectrometer (-4 < ƞ < -2.5), upstream to the hadron absorber. Detailed results on the expected performances for heavy-flavour (HF) measurements down to low transverse momentum, with the upgraded ITS and MFT, will be given for central Pb-Pb collisions for various benchmark analyses, assuming an integrated luminosity of 10 nb-1, as foreseen for the ALICE upgrade programme.
The Pixel Chamber project purpose is the production of the first solid state active target capable of performing continuous, high-resolution (O(μm)) 3D tracking. The aim is to create a bubble ...chamber-like high-granularity stack of hundreds of very thin monolithic active pixel sensors (MAPS) glued together. In this paper, the R&D to develop the first prototypes with ALPIDE sensors, designed for the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC, will be presented. Tracking and vertexing algorithms were developed to reconstruct tracks and vertices inside Pixel Chamber. They were tested on Monte Carlo simulations which show that it is possible to obtain a high efficiency for the reconstruction of hadronic tracks, and for the primary and secondary vertices inside the detector. The tracking algorithm has been tested on test beam data to reconstruct long tracks produced in a single ALPIDE sensor parallel to a beam. Results show that it is possible to obtain very good performances in long track reconstruction on a single ALPIDE. Among the possible applications, Pixel Chamber used as an active target, has the potential to allow precision measurements of charm and beauty production. Even more interesting are possible medical and astrophysical applications. The usage of the Pixel Chamber as scatterer detector in Compton Cameras would reduce by orders of magnitude the numbers of gammas required for performing a precise source imaging, both for in vivo monitoring during hadron therapy and for astrophysics measurements.
The ALICE detector at the LHC is specifically designed to investigate the properties of the hot and dense medium, consisting of deconfined quarks and gluons (QGP), created in high energy heavy-ion ...collisions. Heavy-flavour particles are well-suited probes to investigate the properties of such a medium, since they are mainly produced in the initial phase and they subsequently experience the full evolution of the collision. In the ALICE experiment, the Inner Tracking System (ITS) plays an important role for heavy-flavour measurements. Interesting results have been obtained by analyzing pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb data collected so far. The upgrade of the ITS, combined with the expected increase of LHC luminosity in Pb-Pb collisions, will allow the current performance for heavy flavour measurements to be significantly improved in particular in the low momentum region, and new measurements will become accessible (e.g. the Lambda sub(c) baryon in Pb-Pb collisions). The perspectives for heavy-flavour measurements expected after the second long shut-down (LS2) of LHC will be discussed.
We propose a new fixed-target experiment for the study of electromagnetic and hard probes of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) in heavy-ion collisions at the CERN SPS. The experiment aims at performing ...measurements of the dimuon spectrum from threshold up to the charmonium region, and of hadronic decays of charm and strange hadrons. It is based on a muon spectrometer, which includes a toroidal magnet and six planes of tracking detectors, coupled to a vertex spectrometer, equipped with Si MAPS immersed in a dipole field. High luminosity is an essential requirement for the experiment, with the goal of taking data with 10\(^6\) incident ions/s, at collision energies ranging from \(\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 6.3\) GeV (\(E_{\rm lab}= 20\) A GeV) to top SPS energy (\(\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 17.3\) GeV, \(E_{\rm lab}= 158\) A GeV). This document presents the physics motivation, the foreseen experimental set-up including integration and radioprotection studies, the current detector choices together with the status of the corresponding R&D, and the outcome of physics performance studies. A preliminary cost evaluation is also carried out.
Skin cancer triage and management during COVID‐19 pandemic Tagliaferri, L.; Di Stefani, A.; Schinzari, G. ...
JEADV. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology/Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology,
June 2020, 2020-Jun, 2020-06-00, 20200601, Letnik:
34, Številka:
6
Journal Article
The National Palliative Care and Interventional Radiotherapy Study Groups of the Italian Association of Radiotherapy and Clinical Oncology (AIRO) carried out a survey whose aim was to obtain a ..."snapshot" of the real-world practice of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) treatments in Italy.
The survey was conducted on SurveyMonkey's online interface and was sent via e-mail to our society Radiation Oncologists.
Fifty-eight Italian radiation oncologists (ROs), representing 54 centers, answered the survey. Thirteen percent of the ROs declared they treat fewer than 10 NMSC lesions annually, 36% treat between 11 and 20, and 51% treat more than 20 lesions annually. Interventional radiotherapy (IRT) was offered by 25% of the ROs, and every case was reportedly discussed by a multidisciplinary team (71%). Electrons (74%), volumetric modulated arc therapy (V-MAT) (57%), three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) (43%), and IRT (26%) were the main treatment options. With external beam radiotherapy (EBRT), 46 and 53 different RT schedules were treated for curative and palliative intent, respectively; whereas for IRT, there were 21 and 7 for curative and palliative intent, respectively. The most popular EBRT curative options were 50–70.95/22–35 fractions (fx) and 50–70 Gy/16-20fx and for EBRT palliative settings, 30Gy/10fx, and 20–35Gy/5fx. For IRT, the most popular curative options were 32–50Gy/8-10fx and 30–54Gy/3-5fx, whereas 30Gy/6fz was the palliative option. Less than 10 re-RT cases were reported in one year in 42.5%, 11–20 cases in 42.5%, and >20 cases annually in 15%. Electrons (61%), VMAT (49%), and BRT (25%) were the most widely used approaches: 20–40Gy in 10fx and 20–25Gy in 5fx were the recommended fractionations.
The survey shows a variegated reality. A national registry with more detailed data could help in undercover its causes.
•The Italian Association of Radiotherapy and Clinical Oncology (AIRO) proposed a survey to verify the national radiotherapy practices for nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC).•The preferred treatment techniques were: electrons (74%) and volumetric modulated arc therapy (V-MAT) (57%).•Interventional radiotherapy (IRT) can only be offered as a therapeutic option in only 25% of Italian RT centers.•Differing RT schedules but mainly adhering to international recommendations.•Data show that the single center experience was likely to play a prevalent role.
The aim of this paper was to conduct a survey about the evolution of the information provided by Italian radiotherapy departments with a special focus on patients' perspective.
A two-steps analysis ...was conducted in 2013 and 2020. Starting from analysis of data for the existing websites of Italian radiotherapy departments, main potential areas of interest for patients were discussed within a dedicated multidisciplinary team composed of radiation oncologists, a web designer, a blogger, a psyco-oncologist, a volunteer and a representative of patients' association.
Six patient-oriented features to evaluate the websites of Italian radiotherapy departments were identified and several other features not specifically patient-oriented were also reported in our survey.
A major effort is still needed to develop websites intended to be used by patients which should be both user-friendly and easily accessible. Social media are rapidly gaining a growing importance.
A pivotal role could be played by patients' organization who should be empowered by connecting all the stakeholders involved in this field.
Natural killer (NK) cells are immune innate effectors playing a pivotal role in the immunosurveillance of multiple myeloma (MM) since they are able to directly recognize and kill MM cells. In this ...regard, among activating receptors expressed by NK cells, NKG2D represents an important receptor for the recognition of MM cells, being its ligands expressed by tumor cells, and being able to trigger NK cell cytotoxicity. The MHC class I-related molecule A (MICA) is one of the NKG2D ligands; it is encoded by highly polymorphic genes and exists as membrane-bound and soluble isoforms. Soluble MICA (sMICA) is overexpressed in the serum of MM patients, and its levels correlate with tumor progression. Interestingly, a methionine (Met) to valine (Val) substitution at position 129 of the α2 heavy chain domain classifies the MICA alleles into strong (
) and weak (
) binders to NKG2D receptor. We addressed whether the genetic polymorphisms in the MICA-129 alleles could affect MICA release during MM progression. The frequencies of
, and
MICA-129 genotypes in a cohort of 137 MM patients were 36, 43, and 22%, respectively. Interestingly, patients characterized by a
genotype exhibited the highest levels of sMICA in the sera. In addition, analysis of the frequencies of MICA-129 genotypes among different MM disease states revealed that
patients had a significant higher frequency of relapse. Interestingly, NKG2D was downmodulated in NK cells derived from
MM patients. Results obtained by structural modeling analysis suggested that the Met to Val dimorphism could affect the capacity of MICA to form an optimal template for NKG2D recognition. In conclusion, our findings indicate that the
variant is associated with significantly higher levels of sMICA and the progression of MM, strongly suggesting that the usage of soluble MICA as prognostic marker has to be definitely combined with the patient MICA genotype.
Uveal melanoma represents the most common intraocular neoplasia among adults. Brachytherapy (interventional radiotherapy; IRT) has a great advantage, when compared with enucleation, both in terms of ...organ and function sparing. The Collaborative Ocular Melanoma Study introduced into clinical practice a standardised procedure that allowed the equivalence of IRT with enucleation in terms of overall survival to be demonstrated. IRT is carried out by placing a plaque in direct contact with the sclera under the uveal melanoma. Several radioactive sources may be used, including 106-ruthenium, 125-iodine, 103-palladium and 90-strontium. It is a multidisciplinary procedure requiring the collaboration of interventional radiation oncologists and ophthalmologists in the operating theatre and medical physicists for an accurate treatment time calculation. It also relies on ultrasound imaging to identify the lesion and verifiy the correct plaque placement. An emerging tool of paramount importance could be the use of artificial intelligence and predictive models to identify those patients at higher risk of developing late side-effects and therefore who may deserve preventive and supportive therapies.
The objective of this study is to find a contrast-enhanced CT-radiomic signature to predict clinical incomplete response in patients affected by hepatocellular carcinoma who underwent locoregional ...treatments.
190 patients affected by hepatocellular carcinoma treated using focal therapies (radiofrequency or microwave ablation) from September 2018 to October 2020 were retrospectively enrolled. Treatment response was evaluated on a per-target-nodule basis on the 6-months follow-up contrast-enhanced CT or MR imaging using the mRECIST criteria. Radiomics analysis was performed using an in-house developed open-source R library. Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test was applied for univariate analysis; features with a p-value lower than 0.05 were selected. Pearson correlation was applied to discard highly correlated features (cut-off=0.9). The remaining features were included in a logistic regression model and receiver operating characteristic curves; sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value were also computed. The model was validated performing 2000 bootstrap resampling.
56 treated lesions from 42 patients were selected. Treatment responses were: complete response for 26 lesions (46.4%), 18 partial responses (32.1%), 10 stable diseases (17.9%), 2 progression diseases (3.6%). Area-Under-Curve value was 0.667 (95% CI: 0.527-0.806); accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were respectively 0.66, 0.85, 0.50, 0.59 and 0.79.
This contrast-enhanced CT-based model can be helpful to early identify poor responder's hepatocellular carcinoma patients and personalize treatments.
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