A simple computer program for calculating PSA recurrence in prostate cancer patients

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer is the most common tumor in men. The most commonly used diagnostic and tumor recurrence marker is Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). After surgical removal or radiation treatment, PSA levels drop (PSA nadir) and subsequent elevated or increased PSA levels are indicative of recurrent disease (PSA recurrence). For clinical follow-up and local care PSA nadir and recurrence is often hand calculated for patients, which can result in the application of heterogeneous criteria. For large datasets of prostate cancer patients used in clinical studies PSA measurements are used as surrogate measures of disease progression. In these datasets a method to measure PSA recurrence is needed for the subsequent analysis of outcomes data and as such need to be applied in a uniform and reproducible manner. This method needs to be simple and reproducible, and based on known aspects of PSA biology. METHODS: We have created a simple Perl-based algorithm for the calculation of post-treatment PSA outcomes results based on the initial PSA and multiple PSA values obtained after treatment. The algorithm tracks the post-surgical PSA nadir and if present, subsequent PSA recurrence. Times to PSA recurrence or recurrence free intervals are supplied in months. RESULTS: Use of the algorithm is demonstrated with a sample dataset from prostate cancer patients. The results are compared with hand-annotated PSA recurrence analysis. The strengths and limitations are discussed. CONCLUSIONS: The use of this simple PSA algorithm allows for the standardized analysis of PSA recurrence in large datasets of patients who have undergone treatment for prostate cancer. The script is freely available, and easily modifiable for desired user parameters and improvements

Feeding Arsenic-Containing Rice Bran to Growing Pigs: Growth Performance, Arsenic Tissue Distribution, and Arsenic Excretion

This research was conducted to study the growth performance, arsenic (As) tissue distribution, and As excretion of pigs fed As-containing rice bran. Twenty gilts (26.3 kg) were randomly assigned to 3 dietary treatments (n = 6 or 7) with Diets I, II, and III containing 0, 36.7, and 73.5% rice bran and 0, 306, and 612 ppb As, respectively. Pigs were fed for 6 weeks, and their growth performance and daily activities were examined. Fecal, blood, and hair samples were collected immediately before and after the 6-weeks. At the end of the 6-weeks, pigs were slaughtered; the liver, kidney, muscle, and urine samples were collected. No pig showed any unhealthy signs throughout the trial. The average daily feed intake, average daily gain, and final body weight of Diet III pigs were lower (p ≤ 0.001) than Diet I pigs. The gain to feed ratios were not different among the treatments. The fecal, hair, kidney, and urinary As concentrations of both Diets II and III pigs were higher than Diet I pigs. The hair As concentration of Diet III pigs was higher than Diet II pigs, but no difference was found in the fecal, urinary, kidney, or muscle As concentrations between Diets II and III pigs. The blood and muscle As concentrations were below 10 ppb. These results suggest that 73.5% dietary rice bran inclusion compromised growth performance, whereas the 36.7% inclusion did not. The fecal As data imply that dietary As was poorly absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract. The tissue As data indicate that the absorbed As was rapidly cleared from the blood with some retained in various organs and others eliminated via urine. The hair As concentration was much higher than that of liver and kidney. The muscle As data suggest that the pork produced from the pigs fed a typical As-containing rice bran as used in this study is safe for human consumption

Efficient Excitation and Tuning of Multi-Fano Resonances with High Q-Factor in All-Dielectric Metasurfaces

Exciting Fano resonance can improve the quality factor (Q-factor) and enhance the light energy utilization rate of optical devices. However, due to the large inherent loss of metals and the limitation of phase matching, traditional optical devices based on surface plasmon resonance cannot obtain a larger Q-factor. In this study, a silicon square-hole nano disk (SHND) array device is proposed and studied numerically. The results show that, by breaking the symmetry of the SHND structure and transforming an ideal bound state in the continuum (BIC) with an infinite Q-factor into a quasi-BIC with a finite Q-factor, three Fano resonances can be realized. The calculation results also show that the three Fano resonances with narrow linewidth can produce significant local electric and magnetic field enhancements: the highest Q-factor value reaches 35,837, and the modulation depth of those Fano resonances can reach almost 100%. Considering these properties, the SHND structure realizes multi-Fano resonances with a high Q-factor, narrow line width, large modulation depth and high near-field enhancement, which could provide a new method for applications such as multi-wavelength communications, lasing, and nonlinear optical devices