Clinical development of new drug-radiotherapy combinations.

In countries with the best cancer outcomes, approximately 60% of patients receive radiotherapy as part of their treatment, which is one of the most cost-effective cancer treatments. Notably, around 40% of cancer cures include the use of radiotherapy, either as a single modality or combined with other treatments. Radiotherapy can provide enormous benefit to patients with cancer. In the past decade, significant technical advances, such as image-guided radiotherapy, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, stereotactic radiotherapy, and proton therapy enable higher doses of radiotherapy to be delivered to the tumour with significantly lower doses to normal surrounding tissues. However, apart from the combination of traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy with radiotherapy, little progress has been made in identifying and defining optimal targeted therapy and radiotherapy combinations to improve the efficacy of cancer treatment. The National Cancer Research Institute Clinical and Translational Radiotherapy Research Working Group (CTRad) formed a Joint Working Group with representatives from academia, industry, patient groups and regulatory bodies to address this lack of progress and to publish recommendations for future clinical research. Herein, we highlight the Working Group's consensus recommendations to increase the number of novel drugs being successfully registered in combination with radiotherapy to improve clinical outcomes for patients with cancer.National Institute for Health ResearchThis is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2016.7

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Not AvailableThis study was done to test the effect of Azolla as supplemental feed on the milk production and economics under field conditions with 106 farmers in Chitradurga district of Karnataka. Azolla production units of 6 x 4 feet size were established in 11 villages spread across Hiriyur, Challakere and Hosadurga taluks of Karnataka state. The Azolla samples were collected from different villages and their nutrient content was analyzed.700 grams of Azolla was fed to the cows daily and milk yield was continuously recorded for 70 days. The dry matter content of Azolla varied between 4.2 and 5.6% and the crude protein from 19.1 to 22.3%. Azolla supplementation for 60 days improved the mean daily milk production from each cow by half a litre, and the returns by Rs.9.60. The higher milk yield was most probably due to supplementation of protein and essential amino acids through Azolla. This low cost supplementation of Azolla can improve the mean returns from single cow (through additional milk yield) by Rs.240 per month in the villages. The ICBR was calculated to be 1: 3.97, indicating the high economic utility of using Azolla for regular supplemental feeding.ICA