Highly conformal combined radiotherapy with cisplatin and gemcitabine for treatment of loco-regionally advanced cervical cancer - a retrospective study.

BACKGROUND Cisplatin and gemcitabine combined with conventional radiation therapy in the treatment of cervical cancer patients results in a favorable outcome but with excess toxicity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the toxicity profile of dual chemotherapy and highly conformal external beam radiotherapy with image guided adaptive brachytherapy. METHODS Seventeen patients with cervical carcinoma FIGO stage IB2-IIIB were treated with curative intent between 2011 and 2015. A total dose of 50.4 Gy was prescribed to the elective pelvic nodal volume. Patients with 18FDG-PET/CT positive lymph nodes (n = 15; 83.3%) received an additional boost to a total dose of 62 Gy. Chemotherapy prescription goals were: concomitant during 5 weeks of external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) 40 mg/m2 cisplatin and 125 mg/m2 gemcitabine, followed by adjuvant chemotherapy from week 10 (2 cycles 50 mg/m2 cisplatin and 1000 mg/m2 gemcitabine). EBRT was followed by 3-4 fractions (6 Gy per fraction) of intrauterine image guided adaptive brachytherapy. Toxicities were graded according to the common terminology criteria for adverse events (CTCAE v 4.0). RESULTS One (6%) patient developed acute grade 3 diarrhea. We did not record any other acute or late gastrointestinal or urogenital toxicity higher that grade 3. Most common acute hematological toxicity was anemia grade 2 recorded in 10 (59%) patients. There was only one case of grade 3 neutropenia (6%). The number of patients that received the complete chemotherapy regimen was gradually declining during the course of therapy. From week 2 to 5, gemcitabine was omitted in 4 (24%),7 (41%), 8 (47%), and 12 (71%) patients respectively, similarly, cisplatin was omitted in 2 (12%),3 (18%),1 (6%) and 7 (41%) patients respectively. Adjuvant chemotherapy was omitted in 8 patients (47%). During a median follow-up time of 20 months (5 to 63 months) 6 (35%) patients developed disease relapse with 5 (29%) of them in the form of systemic disease. CONCLUSIONS In contrast to previous findings cisplatin and gemcitabine in combination with highly conformal radiation therapy seems to have an acceptable toxicity profile. Further studies are needed to determine the optimal dosage of the proposed therapy concept

Role of Brachytherapy in the Postoperative Management of Endometrial Cancer: Decision-Making Analysis among Experienced European Radiation Oncologists.

BACKGROUND There are various society-specific guidelines addressing adjuvant brachytherapy (BT) after surgery for endometrial cancer (EC). However, these recommendations are not uniform. Against this background, clinicians need to make decisions despite gaps between best scientific evidence and clinical practice. We explored factors influencing decision-making for adjuvant BT in clinical routine among experienced European radiation oncologists in the field of gynaecological radiotherapy (RT). We also investigated the dose and technique of BT. METHODS Nineteen European experts for gynaecological BT selected by the Groupe Européen de Curiethérapie and the European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology provided their decision criteria and technique for postoperative RT in EC. The decision criteria were captured and converted into decision trees, and consensus and dissent were evaluated based on the objective consensus methodology. RESULTS The decision criteria used by the experts were tumour extension, grading, nodal status, lymphovascular invasion, and cervical stroma/vaginal invasion (yes/no). No expert recommended adjuvant BT for pT1a G1-2 EC without substantial LVSI. Eighty-four percent of experts recommended BT for pT1a G3 EC without substantial LVSI. Up to 74% of experts used adjuvant BT for pT1b LVSI-negative and pT2 G1-2 LVSI-negative disease. For 74-84% of experts, EBRT + BT was the treatment of choice for nodal-positive pT2 disease and for pT3 EC with cervical/vaginal invasion. For all other tumour stages, there was no clear consensus for adjuvant treatment. Four experts already used molecular markers for decision-making. Sixty-five percent of experts recommended fractionation regimens of 3 × 7 Gy or 4 × 5 Gy for BT as monotherapy and 2 × 5 Gy for combination with EBRT. The most commonly used applicator for BT was a vaginal cylinder; 82% recommended image-guided BT. CONCLUSIONS There was a clear trend towards adjuvant BT for stage IA G3, stage IB, and stage II G1-2 LVSI-negative EC. Likewise, there was a non-uniform pattern for BT dose prescription but a clear trend towards 3D image-based BT. Finally, molecular characteristics were already used in daily decision-making by some experts under the pretext that upcoming trials will bring more clarity to this topic

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements