Background
We aimed to identify the optimal indications of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and transoral robotic surgery (TORS) in patients with locoregionally advanced (T3‐4 or N2‐3) head and neck ...cancer (HNC).
Methods
A total of 50 patients were included in the study.
Results
T1 was identified in seven cases, T2 in 19, T3 in 22, and T4 in 2. N0 was identified in nine cases, N1 in 18, N2 in 22, and N3 in 1. There were 25 patients (50%) with complete remission of the primary lesion and 25 patients (50%) with partial remission. On pathologic examination of surgical specimens after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and TORS, 2 patients (4%) had a positive surgical margin, and 48 patients (96%) had a negative margin. Pathologic metastatic lymph nodes (LNs) were not observed in 39 cases (78%), and one metastatic LN was observed in 11 cases (22%). The 3‐year recurrence‐free survival (RFS) of all patients was 85.4%. On multivariate analysis, lymphovascular invasion showed a significant correlation with RFS.
Conclusions
In patients with locoregionally advanced HNC, NACT and TORS achieved favorable oncologic and functional outcomes.
A method of achieving triple resonance in a frequency-degenerate but polarization-non-degenerate optical parametric oscillator (OPO) with external mirrors is illustrated. The OPO is brought to the ...triple-resonance condition by tuning the non-linear crystal temperature and tilting the cavity axis. The interplay among temperature and tilting mismatch and gain is analyzed together with the allowed ranges of variation of these parameters. The method has been successfully applied to an OPO based on a periodically poled KTP crystal. Calibration of the system is reported together with parametric gain and squeezing measurements below threshold as a test of reliability and efficiency.
Ring lasers are inertial sensors for angular velocity based on the Sagnac effect. In recent years they have reached a very high sensitivity and accuracy; the best performing one, the ring Laser G in ...Wettzell (Germany), a square ring with 16 m perimeter, has reached a sensitivity of 12prad/s very close to the shot noise limit inferred from ring-down time measurements. On this basis it is expected that an array of six square ring lasers of 36 m perimeter, can perform a 1% accuracy test for the measurement of the Lense-Thirring frame dragging after 2 years of integration time. Essential for this measurement is the comparison between the Earth angular velocity and orientation in space measured with the ring array and compared to the measurement series maintained by the International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service (IERS), which measures Earth Rotation and pole position with respect to remote quasars. It has been shown that the accuracy of G in Wettzell is limited by the low frequency motion of the near surface laboratory, which is of the order of several prad/s, roughly 100 times larger than the Lense-Thirring contribution. For this reason the entire experiment should be placed in a quite underground laboratory, where these perturbations are reduced. The feasibility to properly place such a device inside the GranSasso INFN National Laboratory has been investigated.
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