Efficacy and safety of denosumab versus zoledronic acid in delaying skeletal-related events in patients with gastrointestinal cancer, pancreas-biliary system cancer, and other rare cancers

Background: Bone is a metastatic site for various types of cancer. Cancer patients in whom bone metastases progress often have skeletal-related events (SREs). Denosumab and zoledronic acid are both bone-modifying agents that prevent the occurrence of SREs. Denosumab has been shown to be superior to zoledronic acid in delaying SREs in various types of cancer, such as breast cancer, lung cancer, and multiple myeloma. However, it is still uncertain whether denosumab is superior to zoledronic acid in delaying the time to SREs in other types of cancers, including gastrointestinal cancer, pancreas-biliary system cancer, and other rare cancers. Patients and methods: This retrospective study was conducted based on medical records from 2009 to 2015. Eligible patients who had been diagnosed with bone metastases from gastrointestinal cancer, pancreas-biliary system cancer, and rare cancers were included. Patients were assigned to a denosumab group, zoledronic acid group, or group without bone-modifying agent treatment (no-treatment group). Results: The study included 168 patients. The times to SREs in the denosumab, zoledronic acid, and no-treatment groups were 186 days [95% confidence interval (CI), 96–323 days], 79 days (95% CI, 45–118 days), and 31 days (95% CI, 13–76 days), respectively. Although, a few patients had grade 3 or 4 adverse events in the denosumab and zoledronic acid groups, the bone-modifying agent treatment was not terminated. Conclusion: From the perspective of the efficacy and safety of denosumab for delaying the time to SREs, denosumab should be used to prevent SREs in patients with bone metastases from gastrointestinal cancer, pancreas-biliary system cancer, and other rare cancers

The SuperKEKB Has Broken the World Record of the Luminosity

The SuperKEKB broke the world record of the luminosity in June 2020 in the Phase 3 operation. The luminosity has been increasing since then and the present highest luminosity is 4.65 x 10³⁴ cm⁻²s⁻¹ with β_{y}^{*} of 1 mm. The increase of the luminosity was brought with an application of crab waist, by increasing beam currents and by other improvements in the specific luminosity. In this paper, we describe what we have achieved and what we are struggling with. Finally, we mention a future plan briefly

Achievements of KEKB

The machine commissioning of KEKB started in December 1998 and its operation was terminated at the end of June 2010 to upgrade KEKB to SuperKEKB. In this paper, we summarize the history of KEKB and show the achievements made there