CRITICS-II: a multicentre randomised phase II trial of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery versus neo-adjuvant chemotherapy and subsequent chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery versus neo-adjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery in resectable gastric cancer

Background: Although radical surgery remains the cornerstone of cure in resectable gastric cancer, survival remains poor. Current evidence-based (neo)adjuvant strategies have shown to improve outcome, including perioperative chemotherapy, postoperative chemoradiotherapy and postoperative chemotherapy. However, these regimens suffer from poor patient compliance, particularly in the postoperative phase of treatment. The CRITICS-II trial aims to optimize preoperative treatment by comparing three treatment regimens: (1) chemotherapy, (2) chemotherapy followed by chemoradiotherapy and (3) chemoradiotherapy. Methods: In this multicentre phase II non-comparative study, patients with clinical stage IB-IIIC (TNM 8th edition) resectable gastric adenocarcinoma are randomised between: (1) 4 cycles of docetaxel+oxaliplatin+capecitabine (DOC), (2) 2 cycles of DOC followed by chemoradiotherapy (45Gy in combination with weekly paclitaxel and carboplatin) or (3) chemoradiotherapy. Primary endpoint is event-free survival, 1 year after randomisation (events are local and/or regional recurrence or progression, distant recurrence, or death from any cause). Secondary endpoints include: toxicity, surgical outcomes, percentage radical (R0) resections, pathological tumour response, disease recurrence, overall survival, and health related quality of life. Exploratory endpoints include translational studies on predictive and prognostic biomarkers. Discussion: The aim of this study is to select the most promising among three preoperative treatment arms in patients with resectable gastric adenocarcinoma. This treatment regimen will subsequently be compared with the standard therapy in a phase III trial

SOLITARY SPLENIC METASTASIS OF COLON CANCER: A CASE REPORT

Although splenic metastasis is fairly common in disseminated cancer, solitary splenic metastasis in the absence of diffuse dissemination is rare. We report a case of 44 year-old man who developed isolated splenic metastasis of colon cancer. The patient had undergone right sided hemicolectomy for colon cancer in 1988. In 2001, he underwent reoperation because of local recurrence of tumor in the anastomotic site. The patient was admitted to our hospital on Sep 2003 with abdominal pain. Chest X-ray was normal. Abdominal CT scan showed a large cystic lesion in the spleen. Splenectomy was performed for the patient. The spleen was enlarged, firm and irregular. Histological examination showed metastatic mucinous adenocarcinoma. Based on this case, we recommend that clinicians consider possibility of metastasis in cystic lesions of spleen, especially in patients with a history of a malignant disease

Study of the prevalence of parasitical skin infections of rainbow trout (250 – 300gr) in commercial fish farms of East Azarbaijan province

Parasitic infestations constitute an important part of aquatic animal diseases. In order to study the prevalence of parasitic skin infections of rainbow trouts in mordad of 1385, 5 breeding farms were selected and 386 rainbow trouts with the body weight of 250-300 gr were collected randomly from each farm and examined. Of the 1930 examined specimens of 5 farms in this study, 14 were infected by Ichthyophthirius sp. (0.7%), 890 by Trichodina sp. (46.1%), 41 by Dactylogyrus sp. (2.1%), 111 by Gyrodactylus sp. (508%) and 874 were without any parasitic infections (45.3%). The highest infection rate belonged to Trichodina sp

Survey on infestation of Persian cats in Tabriz area by Toxocara cati

Toxocara cati is among the most common feline parasites which can infect human especially children and cause various symptoms. Due to close connection of this species with humans as pets and with other stray cats either directly or indirectly; this study was conducted specially for the first time to determine the infection status of Persian cats of Tabriz area to this parasite. In this study, from a total of 50 Persian cats studied, 13 (26%) were infected by a variety of enteric parasites and 37 (74%) were without infection and 10 (20%) of the cats were infected by Toxocara cati. According to the results, significant difference in infection rate was observed between Persian cats kept indoors and those that were kept in cattery and also there was significant differences in infection rate between males and females (

Synthesis and Structural Properties of Niobium Pentoxide Powders: A Comparative Study of the Growth Process

Powders Nb2 O5 were prepared by two different synthesis method, Sol-Gel and polymeric precursors (Pechini). In the Pechini method before adding the citric acid in the process, four different solutions were used to get the samples. For Sol-gel method, two different processes were also used in obtaining powders. The precursor was completely solubilized in ethanol and then hydrolyzed with ammonia and water. The calcination of the samples was between 500 and 750°C. The resulting powders were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) surface area measurements, UV-visible and Raman spectroscopy. The formation of T−Nb2 O5 orthorhombic took place upon calcination at 7500C. Crystallite sizes were determined using the Scherrer method which resulted in an uniformed size of about 25 − 65nm. Ultraviolet-Visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy indicated a variation in the optical band gap values (3.32-3.40 eV) in crystal growth process. The Raman vibrational modes indicate the presence of the orthorhombic phase of the material