Protontherapy is hadrontherapy's fastest-growing modality and a pillar in the battle against cancer. Hadrontherapy's superiority lies in its inverted depth-dose profile, hence tumour-confined ...irradiation. Protons, however, lack distinct radiobiological advantages over photons or electrons. Higher LET (Linear Energy Transfer)
C-ions can overcome cancer radioresistance: DNA lesion complexity increases with LET, resulting in efficient cell killing, i.e. higher Relative Biological Effectiveness (RBE). However, economic and radiobiological issues hamper
C-ion clinical amenability. Thus, enhancing proton RBE is desirable. To this end, we exploited the p +
B → 3α reaction to generate high-LET alpha particles with a clinical proton beam. To maximize the reaction rate, we used sodium borocaptate (BSH) with natural boron content. Boron-Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) uses
B-enriched BSH for neutron irradiation-triggered alpha particles. We recorded significantly increased cellular lethality and chromosome aberration complexity. A strategy combining protontherapy's ballistic precision with the higher RBE promised by BNCT and
C-ion therapy is thus demonstrated.
Background
Laparoscopic resection of posterosuperior (PS) segments of the liver is hindered by limited visualization and curvilinear resection planes. The aim of this study was to compare outcomes ...after open and laparoscopic liver resections of PS segments.
Methods
Patients who underwent minor open liver resection (OLR) and laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) between 2006 and 2014 were identified from the institutional databases of seven tertiary referral European hepatobiliary surgical units. Propensity score‐matched analysis was used to match groups for known confounders. Perioperative outcomes including complications were assessed using the Dindo–Clavien classification, and the comprehensive complication index was calculated. Survival was analysed with the Kaplan–Meier method.
Results
Some 170 patients underwent OLR and 148 had LLR. After propensity score‐matched analysis, 86 patients remained in both groups. Overall postoperative complication rates were significantly higher after OLR compared with LLR: 28 versus 14 per cent respectively (P = 0·039). The mean(s.d.) comprehensive complication index was higher in the OLR group, although the difference was not statistically significant (26·7(16·6) versus 18·3(8·0) in the LLR group; P = 0·108). The mean(s.d.) duration of required analgesia and the median (range) duration of postoperative hospital stay were significantly shorter in the LLR group: 3·0(1·1) days versus 1·6(0·8) days in the OLR group (P < 0·001), and 6 (3–44) versus 4 (1–11) days (P < 0·001), respectively. The 3‐year recurrence‐free survival rates for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (37 per cent for OLR versus 30 per cent for LLR; P = 0·534) and those with colorectal liver metastases (36 versus 36 per cent respectively; P = 0·440) were not significantly different between the groups.
Conclusion
LLR of tumours in PS segments is feasible in selected patients. LLR is associated with fewer complications and does not compromise survival compared with OLR.
Laparoscopic equals open
Summary
To assess the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on the occurrence of skin cancer in the population living in the province of Ferrara, Italy, a retrospective cohort of patients with ...squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), basal cell carcinoma (BCC) or malignant melanoma (MM), provided by the local cancer registry, was investigated. The SES was expressed through an ecological‐based deprivation index. During the 8‐year study period (2006–2013, total person‐years 2 859 137), 6051 carcinomas (1535 SCCs, 4365 BCCs) and 459 MMs were diagnosed. Both crude and standardized (on the European population) rates and the standardized incidence ratio showed a direct correlation between BCC and SES. Multivariate analysis confirmed these results for BCC and also for MM, while it showed an excess of SCC incidence in the lowest SES subgroup. This study shows, for the first time, to our knowledge, opposite effects of SES on SCC and BCC occurrence. A role of environmental factors conditioned by SES may be hypothesized.
Here we report the photocatalytic efficiency of CuO and Cu2O nanowires studied by dye degradation in water. The CuO nanowires were synthesized on Cu foils by thermal oxidation. A subsequent thermal ...annealing induced a controllable phase transformation of the nanowires and the underlying film from CuO to Cu2O phase. A structural characterization was made by scanning and transmission electron microscopies, energy dispersive x-ray analysis and x-ray diffraction. The photocatalytic performances were evaluated by the degradation of two dyes in water: methylene blue and methyl orange. In particular, CuO nanowires showed a good photocatalytic activity in degrading methyl orange, compared with Cu2O nanowires. The photocatalytic activity was correlated to the physical-chemical properties of the samples, revealing the detrimental effect of the polycrystalline structure for photocatalytic process.
We propose a highly disordered and randomly oriented array (forest) of SiO
2
nanowires (NWs) coated by a thin film of TiO
2
as a performing photocatalytic material for water treatment applications. ...The SiO
2
NWs with a length of tens of microns were obtained
via
thermal oxidation of Si NWs, grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD), and covered by a nanometric TiO
2
film deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The remarkable photocatalytic performance of the TiO
2
/SiO
2
NWs was demonstrated by the degradation of methylene blue and phenols in water. The enhanced photocatalytic activity in the overlaying TiO
2
film is attributed to the synergetic effect of the morphology and optical properties of the SiO
2
NWs. The fabrication methods based on the well-established Si technology make the proposed materials a promising strategy for water treatment.
Disordered TiO
2
/SiO
2
nanowires possess enhanced photocatalytic activity due to the synergy of morphology and light trapping properties of the NW forest.
Nuclear fragmentation measurements are necessary when using heavy-ion beams in hadrontherapy to predict the effects of the ion nuclear interactions within the human body. Moreover, they are also ...fundamental to validate and improve the Monte Carlo codes for their use in planning tumor treatments. Nowadays, a very limited set of carbon fragmentation cross sections are being measured, and in particular, to our knowledge, no double-differential fragmentation cross sections at intermediate energies are available in the literature. In this work, we have measured the double-differential cross sections and the angular distributions of the secondary fragments produced in the (12)C fragmentation at 62 A MeV on a thin carbon target. The experimental data have been used to benchmark the prediction capability of the Geant4 Monte Carlo code at intermediate energies, where it was never tested before. In particular, we have compared the experimental data with the predictions of two Geant4 nuclear reaction models: the Binary Light Ions Cascade and the Quantum Molecular Dynamic. From the comparison, it has been observed that the Binary Light Ions Cascade approximates the angular distributions of the fragment production cross sections better than the Quantum Molecular Dynamic model. However, the discrepancies observed between the experimental data and the Monte Carlo simulations lead to the conclusion that the prediction capability of both models needs to be improved at intermediate energies.
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