apeNEXT: A Multi-Tflops LQCD Computing Project

This paper is a slightly modified and reduced version of the proposal of the {\bf apeNEXT} project, which was submitted to DESY and INFN in spring 2000. .It presents the basic motivations and ideas of a next generation lattice QCD (LQCD) computing project, whose goal is the construction and operation of several large scale Multi-TFlops LQCD engines, providing an integrated peak performance of tens of TFlops, and a sustained (double precision) performance on key LQCD kernels of about 50% of peak speed

A case of renal cell carcinoma with bone and lymph node metastases

We present a rare case of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with a metastatic, mainly osteoblastic lesion of the skull and spread to the lymph nodes. Renal tumors are often associated with bone metastases; these are most often of the osteolytic type, while osteoblastic metastases are extremely rare. In the case presented here, the primary metastasis was a large osteoblastic lesion of the skull that spread to the lymph nodes. The patient has undergone treatment for 20 months with interleukin-2: 3 million IU/day (subcutaneous) for six consecutive days once every four weeks, ie a total weekly dose of 18 million IU

Phase II study evaluating the activity and toxicity of biweekly schedule of gemcitabine and paclitaxel in anthracycline-pretratted breast cancer

New cytotoxic agents with activity against breast cancer have been recently introduced in clinical practice with positive impact in survival. Among these agents, paclitaxel as single agent has produced response rates of 29–62%. Many clinical trials are in progress to evaluate the most promising associations of paclitaxel with other new agents; gemcitabine has demonstrated activity in metastatic breast cancer (MBC) with response rates ranging from 12% to 29% (in pretreated pts) and from 14% to 37% (as first-line therapy) when used as a single agent. Phase II studies of gemcitabine plus paclitaxel in pretreated patients with MBC have shown impressive response rates ( 50%). Recent clinical trials have demonstrated the feasibility, safety and activity of a biweekly administration of paclitaxel and gemcitabine in MBC and according to these data, a phase II study was started in order to assess this schedule in a subset of patients pretreated with anthracyclines. In a phase II study, paclitaxel (135 mg/mq) was given on day 1, followed by gemcitabine (2000 mg/mq) also on day 1, of a 14-day course. Treatments with colony-stimulating factors were allowed in order to respect the dose-density of the schedule. Twenty-two patients were recruited and their characteristics were: median age 53, PS 0–1 in 18 pts (82%) and 2 in 4 pts (18%), pre-treatment with anthracyclines in adjuvant and advanced setting. All the patients were evaluable for toxicity and activity. The treatment was feasible and well tolerated: grade 4 toxicity was very rare and occurred in only three cases (2 pts with neutropenia and one with thrombocytopenia); grade 3 toxicity was more frequent but promptly reversible (the most recurrent was anemia in 24% of cases); no febrile neutropenia was observed. We observed 13 (58%) objective responses, three complete responses (13%), 10 (45%) partial responses and five (23%) stable disease. Progression was documented in 4 pts (18%). This study confirms the evidence that the biweekly association of paclitaxel and gemcitabine is a safe and active regimen in anthracycline-pretreated patients with MBC and suggests the necessity to investigate whether the combination of gemcitabine and paclitaxel is better than paclitaxel alone in this subset of patients

Status of APE projects

This talk is divided in two parts. In the first part, we will summarize the status of the APEmille project that will Le completed by the end of the year. We will then devote the rest of the talk to the description of a new project for a multi-TeraFlop machine, apeNEXT. The interested reader will find a much more detailed discussion of all the items touched upon here in the full proposal of the project that will shortly appear on hep-lat