The role of Allee effect in modelling post resection recurrence of glioblastoma

Resection of the bulk of a tumour often cannot eliminate all cancer cells, due to their infiltration into the surrounding healthy tissue. This may lead to recurrence of the tumour at a later time. We use a reaction-diffusion equation based model of tumour growth to investigate how the invasion front is delayed by resection, and how this depends on the density and behaviour of the remaining cancer cells. We show that the delay time is highly sensitive to qualitative details of the proliferation dynamics of the cancer cell population. The typically assumed logistic type proliferation leads to unrealistic results, predicting immediate recurrence. We find that in glioblastoma cell cultures the cell proliferation rate is an increasing function of the density at small cell densities. Our analysis suggests that cooperative behaviour of cancer cells, analogous to the Allee effect in ecology, can play a critical role in determining the time until tumour recurrence

Spatial distribution of rare-earth ions and GaS4 tetrahedra in chalcogenide glasses studied via laser spectroscopy and ab initio molecular dynamics simulation

The spatial distribution of Nd3+ ions and GaS4 tetrahedral units in Nd-doped Ge-As-Ga-S glasses has been studied by laser spectroscopy and ab initio molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. A sharp increase in Nd3+ fluorescence intensities and lifetimes was observed with increasing Ga content, and attributed to the formation of tightly bound Nd3+ clusters in Ga-free glasses and the subsequent dissolution of such clusters upon Ga doping. A large modification in Nd3+ sites was also identified from low-temperature site-selective excitation spectra, suggesting preferential spatial correlations between Nd3+ and GaS4 tetrahedra even at low Ga-doping levels. MD simulations of these materials in the liquid state showed a tendency for Ga cluster formation as well as spatial correlations between Nd and Ga atoms consistent with the experimental results. On the basis of this result, a comprehensive structural model for Nd- and Ga-doped sulfide glasses is proposed.open112626sciescopu

Is serum TSH a biomarker of thyroid carcinoma in patients residing in a mildly iodine-deficient area?

PURPOSE: To investigate the association between the pre-operative serum TSH (s-TSH) level and differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) in a mildly iodine-deficient area.METHODS: Patients undergoing surgery for thyroid nodular disease (TND) were included from three tertiary surgical departments. Data were collected from a national thyroid surgery database (THYKIR) and from patient charts. Individuals with overtly coexisting thyroid disorders were excluded for subgroup analyses. Patients were compared with the Danish background population, employing previous data from DanThyr, a study initiated to monitor the iodine fortification program in Denmark.RESULTS: Nine-hundred ninety-eight patients [cases/controls: 265/733; female/male: 794/204; age (mean ± SD): 51 ± 15 years] were included. S-TSH was significantly higher in the DTC group [median (IQR): 1.3 (0.9-1.9 mIU/L)] compared with the benign TND group [0.9 (0.6-1.5 mIU/L)] (p &lt; 0.0001). The median s-TSH in the background population was similar to that found among DTC patients (p = 1.00), but markedly higher than the s-TSH level in the benign TND group (p &lt; 0.0001). There was no association between s-TSH and DTC disease stage (p = 0.08-0.87).CONCLUSIONS: s-TSH was significantly higher in patients with DTC than in those with benign TND. However, this difference can be explained by abnormally lower s-TSH level in the latter group, probably caused by subtle nodular functional autonomy. Due to the huge overlap and the small difference in median s-TSH between patients with benign and malignant TND, s-TSH is not suitable as a biomarker of DTC in a clinical setting.</p