The impact of surgical delay on resectability of colorectal cancer: An international prospective cohort study

AIM: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to explore the impact of surgical delays on cancer resectability. This study aimed to compare resectability for colorectal cancer patients undergoing delayed versus non-delayed surgery. METHODS: This was an international prospective cohort study of consecutive colorectal cancer patients with a decision for curative surgery (January-April 2020). Surgical delay was defined as an operation taking place more than 4 weeks after treatment decision, in a patient who did not receive neoadjuvant therapy. A subgroup analysis explored the effects of delay in elective patients only. The impact of longer delays was explored in a sensitivity analysis. The primary outcome was complete resection, defined as curative resection with an R0 margin. RESULTS: Overall, 5453 patients from 304 hospitals in 47 countries were included, of whom 6.6% (358/5453) did not receive their planned operation. Of the 4304 operated patients without neoadjuvant therapy, 40.5% (1744/4304) were delayed beyond 4 weeks. Delayed patients were more likely to be older, men, more comorbid, have higher body mass index and have rectal cancer and early stage disease. Delayed patients had higher unadjusted rates of complete resection (93.7% vs. 91.9%, P = 0.032) and lower rates of emergency surgery (4.5% vs. 22.5%, P < 0.001). After adjustment, delay was not associated with a lower rate of complete resection (OR 1.18, 95% CI 0.90-1.55, P = 0.224), which was consistent in elective patients only (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.69-1.27, P = 0.672). Longer delays were not associated with poorer outcomes. CONCLUSION: One in 15 colorectal cancer patients did not receive their planned operation during the first wave of COVID-19. Surgical delay did not appear to compromise resectability, raising the hypothesis that any reduction in long-term survival attributable to delays is likely to be due to micro-metastatic disease

Operation and performance of the ATLAS Tile Calorimeter in Run 1

The Tile Calorimeter is the hadron calorimeter covering the central region of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Approximately 10,000 photomultipliers collect light from scintillating tiles acting as the active material sandwiched between slabs of steel absorber. This paper gives an overview of the calorimeter’s performance during the years 2008–2012 using cosmic-ray muon events and proton–proton collision data at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8TeV with a total integrated luminosity of nearly 30 fb−1. The signal reconstruction methods, calibration systems as well as the detector operation status are presented. The energy and time calibration methods performed excellently, resulting in good stability of the calorimeter response under varying conditions during the LHC Run 1. Finally, the Tile Calorimeter response to isolated muons and hadrons as well as to jets from proton–proton collisions is presented. The results demonstrate excellent performance in accord with specifications mentioned in the Technical Design Report

Combination of searches for heavy spin-1 resonances using 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A combination of searches for new heavy spin-1 resonances decaying into different pairings of W, Z, or Higgs bosons, as well as directly into leptons or quarks, is presented. The data sample used corresponds to 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at = 13 TeV collected during 2015–2018 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Analyses selecting quark pairs (qq, bb, , and tb) or third-generation leptons (τν and ττ) are included in this kind of combination for the first time. A simplified model predicting a spin-1 heavy vector-boson triplet is used. Cross-section limits are set at the 95% confidence level and are compared with predictions for the benchmark model. These limits are also expressed in terms of constraints on couplings of the heavy vector-boson triplet to quarks, leptons, and the Higgs boson. The complementarity of the various analyses increases the sensitivity to new physics, and the resulting constraints are stronger than those from any individual analysis considered. The data exclude a heavy vector-boson triplet with mass below 5.8 TeV in a weakly coupled scenario, below 4.4 TeV in a strongly coupled scenario, and up to 1.5 TeV in the case of production via vector-boson fusion

Measurement and interpretation of same-sign W boson pair production in association with two jets in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents the measurement of fducial and diferential cross sections for both the inclusive and electroweak production of a same-sign W-boson pair in association with two jets (W±W±jj) using 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis is performed by selecting two same-charge leptons, electron or muon, and at least two jets with large invariant mass and a large rapidity diference. The measured fducial cross sections for electroweak and inclusive W±W±jj production are 2.92 ± 0.22 (stat.) ± 0.19 (syst.)fb and 3.38±0.22 (stat.)±0.19 (syst.)fb, respectively, in agreement with Standard Model predictions. The measurements are used to constrain anomalous quartic gauge couplings by extracting 95% confdence level intervals on dimension-8 operators. A search for doubly charged Higgs bosons H±± that are produced in vector-boson fusion processes and decay into a same-sign W boson pair is performed. The largest deviation from the Standard Model occurs for an H±± mass near 450 GeV, with a global signifcance of 2.5 standard deviations

Combination and summary of ATLAS dark matter searches interpreted in a 2HDM with a pseudo-scalar mediator using 139 fb−1 of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" altimg="si157.svg"><mml:mrow><mml:msqrt><mml:mrow><mml:mi>s</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msqrt><mml:mo linebreak="goodbreak" linebreakstyle="after">=</mml:mo><mml:mn>13</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:math> TeV pp collision data

Results from a wide range of searches targeting different experimental signatures with and without missing transverse momentum ( ) are used to constrain a Two–Higgs-Doublet Model (2HDM) with an additional pseudo-scalar mediating the interaction between ordinary and dark matter (2HDM + a). The analyses use up to 139 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during 2015–2018. The results from three of the most sensitive searches are combined statistically. These searches target signatures with large and a leptonically decaying Z boson; large and a Higgs boson decaying to bottom quarks; and production of charged Higgs bosons in final states with top and bottom quarks, respectively. Constraints are derived for several common and new benchmark scenarios in the 2HDM + a

Search for dark photons in rare Z boson decays with the ATLAS detector

A search for events with a dark photon produced in association with a dark Higgs boson via rare decays of the standard model Z boson is presented, using 139     fb − 1 of √ s = 13     TeV proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The dark boson decays into a pair of dark photons, and at least two of the three dark photons must each decay into a pair of electrons or muons, resulting in at least two same-flavor opposite-charge lepton pairs in the final state. The data are found to be consistent with the background prediction, and upper limits are set on the dark photon’s coupling to the dark Higgs boson times the kinetic mixing between the standard model photon and the dark photon, α D ϵ 2 , in the dark photon mass range of [5, 40] GeV except for the Υ mass window [8.8, 11.1] GeV. This search explores new parameter space not previously excluded by other experiments

Combined measurement of the Higgs boson mass from the H → γγ and H → ZZ∗ → 4ℓ decay channels with the ATLAS detector using √s = 7, 8, and 13 TeV pp collision data

A measurement of the mass of the Higgs boson combining the H → Z Z ∗ → 4 ℓ and H → γ γ decay channels is presented. The result is based on 140     fb − 1 of proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS detector during LHC run 2 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV combined with the run 1 ATLAS mass measurement, performed at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, yielding a Higgs boson mass of 125.11 ± 0.09 ( stat ) ± 0.06 ( syst ) = 125.11 ± 0.11     GeV . This corresponds to a 0.09% precision achieved on this fundamental parameter of the Standard Model of particle physics

Phenotypic evaluation and in silico ADMET properties of novel arylimidamides in acute mouse models of Trypanosoma cruzi infection

Cristiane Fran&ccedil;a da Silva,1 Denise da Gama Ja&eacute;n Batista,1 Julianna Siciliano de Ara&uacute;jo,1 Ed&eacute;zio Ferreira Cunha-Junior,2 Chad E Stephens,3 Moloy Banerjee,4 Abdelbasset A Farahat,4,5 Senol Akay,4 Mary K Fisher,3 David W Boykin,4 Maria de Nazar&eacute; Correia Soeiro1 1Laboratory of Cellular Biology, 2Laboratory of Biochemistry of Trypanosomatids, Funda&ccedil;&atilde;o Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;&nbsp;3Department of Chemistry and&nbsp;Physics, Augusta University, Augusta, 4Department of Chemistry, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA; 5Department of Pharmaceutical Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt Abstract: Arylimidamides (AIAs), previously termed as reversed amidines, present a broad spectrum of activity against intracellular microorganisms. In the present study, three novel AIAs were evaluated in a mouse model of Trypanosoma cruzi infection, which is the causative agent of Chagas disease. The bis-AIAs DB1957, DB1959 and DB1890 were chosen based on a previous screening of their scaffolds that revealed a very promising trypanocidal effect at nanomolar range against both the bloodstream trypomastigotes (BTs) and the intracellular forms of the parasite. This study focused on both mesylate salts DB1957 and DB1959 besides the hydrochloride salt DB1890. Our current data validate the high activity of these bis-AIA scaffolds that exhibited EC50 (drug concentration that reduces 50% of the number of the treated parasites) values ranging from 14 to 78&nbsp;nM and 190 to 1,090&nbsp;nM against bloodstream and intracellular forms, respectively, also presenting reasonable selectivity indexes and no mutagenicity profile predicted by in silico absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET). Acute toxicity studies using murine models revealed that these AIAs presented only mild toxic effects such as reversible abdominal contractions and ruffled fur. Efficacy assays performed with Swiss mice infected with the Y strain revealed that the administration of DB1957 for 5&nbsp;consecutive days, with the first dose given at parasitemia onset, reduced the number of BTs at the peak, ranging between 21 and 31% of decrease. DB1957 was able to provide 100% of animal survival, while untreated animals showed 70% of mortality rates. DB1959 and DB1890B did not reduce circulating parasitism but yielded &gt;80% of survival rates. Keywords: Chagas disease, arylimidamides, experimental chemotherapy, in vivo assay