Pattern of second primary malignancies in thyroid cancer patients

Many factors, including relatively young age of thyroid cancer diagnoses and improved survival, have led to increased concerns about the occurrence of second primary malignancies. This paper describes the pattern of occurrence of second primary malignancies in patients who were treated for malignant thyroid neoplasms in an Indian hospital. There were 21 affected patients of the approximately 4500 seen over 25 years. Most of the second primary cancers are solid tumors, and when nonthyroid cancers are the second tumors, ductal carcinoma of the female breast is the most common. Most of these tumors have very short detection intervals (including synchronous occurrences), suggesting that therapy with internal radiation was not contributory to the tumor development. Whenthyroid malignancies were the second primary cancers, they usually follow radiotherapy to the head and neck region for treatment of the first primary tumor and tend to be of aggressive histologic types than the common welldifferentiated thyroid carcinomas.Key words: Radiation, radiotherapy, second malignancies, thyroid cance

Sputum Smear Microscopy at Two Months into Continuation-Phase: Should It Be Done in All Patients with Sputum Smear-Positive Tuberculosis?

BACKGROUND: The Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) of India recommends follow-up sputum smear examination at two months into the continuation phase of treatment. The main intent of this (mid-CP) follow-up is to detect patients not responding to treatment around two-three months earlier than at the end of the treatment. However, the utility of mid-CP follow-up under programmatic conditions has been questioned. We undertook a multi-district study to determine if mid-CP follow-up is able to detect cases of treatment failures early among all types of patients with sputum smear-positive TB. METHODOLOGY: We reviewed existing records of patients with sputum smear-positive TB registered under the RNTCP in 43 districts across three states of India during a three month period in 2009. We estimated proportions of patients that could be detected as a case of treatment failure early, and assessed the impact of various policy options on laboratory workload and number needed to test to detect one case of treatment failure early. RESULTS: Of 10055 cases, mid-CP follow-up was done in 6944 (69%) cases. Mid-CP follow-up could benefit 117/8015 (1.5%) new and 206/2040 (10%) previously-treated sputum smear-positive cases by detecting their treatment failure early. Under the current policy, 31 patients had to be tested to detect one case of treatment failure early. All cases of treatment failure would still be detected early if mid-CP follow-up were discontinued for new sputum smear-positive cases who become sputum smear-negative after the intensive-phase of treatment. This would reduce the related laboratory workload by 69% and only 10 patients would need to be tested to detect one case of treatment failure early. CONCLUSION: Discontinuation of mid-CP follow-up among new sputum smear-positive cases who become sputum smear-negative after completing the intensive-phase of treatment will reduce the laboratory workload without impacting overall early detection of cases of treatment failure

Measurements of differential cross sections of Z/gamma*+jets+X events in proton anti-proton collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV

We present cross section measurements for Z/gamma*+jets+X production, differential in the transverse momenta of the three leading jets. The data sample was collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron proton anti-proton collider at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1 fb-1. Leading and next-to-leading order perturbative QCD predictions are compared with the measurements, and agreement is found within the theoretical and experimental uncertainties. We also make comparisons with the predictions of four event generators. Two parton-shower-based generators show significant shape and normalization differences with respect to the data. In contrast, two generators combining tree-level matrix elements with a parton shower give a reasonable description of the the shapes observed in data, but the predicted normalizations show significant differences with respect to the data, reflecting large scale uncertainties. For specific choices of scales, the normalizations for either generator can be made to agree with the measurements.Comment: Published in PLB. 11 pages, 3 figure

Simultaneous measurement of the ratio B(t->Wb)/B(t->Wq) and the top quark pair production cross section with the D0 detector at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV

We present the first simultaneous measurement of the ratio of branching fractions, R=B(t->Wb)/B(t->Wq), with q being a d, s, or b quark, and the top quark pair production cross section sigma_ttbar in the lepton plus jets channel using 0.9 fb-1 of ppbar collision data at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV collected with the D0 detector. We extract R and sigma_ttbar by analyzing samples of events with 0, 1 and >= 2 identified b jets. We measure R = 0.97 +0.09-0.08 (stat+syst) and sigma_ttbar = 8.18 +0.90-0.84 (stat+syst)} +/-0.50 (lumi) pb, in agreement with the standard model prediction.Comment: submitted to Phys.Rev.Letter

Measurement of the t-channel single top quark production cross section

The D0 collaboration reports direct evidence for electroweak production of single top quarks through the t-channel exchange of a virtual W boson. This is the first analysis to isolate an individual single top quark production channel. We select events containing an isolated electron or muon, missing transverse energy, and two, three or four jets from 2.3 fb^-1 of ppbar collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. One or two of the jets are identified as containing a b hadron. We combine three multivariate techniques optimized for the t-channel process to measure the t- and s-channel cross sections simultaneously. We measure cross sections of 3.14 +0.94 -0.80 pb for the t-channel and 1.05 +-0.81 pb for the s-channel. The measured t-channel result is found to have a significance of 4.8 standard deviations and is consistent with the standard model prediction.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Measurement of trilinear gauge boson couplings from WW + WZ to lnu jj events in pp-bar collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV

We present a direct measurement of trilinear gauge boson couplings at gammaWW and ZWW vertices in WW and WZ events produced in pp-bar collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV. We consider events with one electron or muon, missing transverse energy, and at least two jets. The data were collected using the D0 detector and correspond to 1.1/fb of integrated luminosity. Considering two different relations between the couplings at the gammaWW and ZWW vertices, we measure these couplings at 68% C.L. to be kappa_{gamma}=1.07^{+0.26}_{-0.29}, lambda =0.00^{+0.06}_{-0.06} and g_{1}^{Z}=1.04^{+0.09}_{-0.09} in a scenario respecting SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y gauge symmetry and kappa =1.04^{+0.11}_{-0.11} and lambda=0.00^{+0.06}_{-0.06} in an "equal couplings" scenario.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, published in Phys. Rev. D, updated to published versio

Measurement of the W boson mass

We present a measurement of the W boson mass in W -> ev decays using 1 fb^-1 of data collected with the D0 detector during Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron collider. With a sample of 499830 W -> ev candidate events, we measure M_W = 80.401 +- 0.043 GeV. This is the most precise measurement from a single experiment.Comment: As published in PR

Search for charged Higgs bosons decaying to top and bottom quarks in ppbar collisions

We describe a search for production of a charged Higgs boson, q \bar{q'} -> H^+, reconstructed in the t\bar{b} final state in the mass range 180 <= M_{H^+} <= 300 GeV. The search was undertaken at the Fermilab Tevatron collider with a center-of-mass energy sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV and uses 0.9 fb^{-1} of data collected with the D0 detector. We find no evidence for charged Higgs boson production and set upper limits on the production cross section in the Types I, II and III two-Higgs-doublet models (2HDMs). An excluded region in the (M_{H^+},tan\beta) plane for Type I 2HDM is presented.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter

Observation of ZZ production in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

We present an observation for ZZ -> l+l-l'+l'- (l, l' = e or mu) production in ppbar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV. Using 1.7 fb-1 of data collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, we observe three candidate events with an expected background of 0.14 +0.03 -0.02 events. The significance of this observation is 5.3 standard deviations. The combination of D0 results in this channel, as well as in ZZ -> l+l-nunubar, yields a significance of 5.7 standard deviations and a combined cross section of sigma(ZZ) = 1.60 +/- 0.63 (stat.) +0.16 -0.17 (syst.) pb.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables Modified slightly following review proces

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the missing energy and acoplanar b-jet topology at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

We report a search for the standard model Higgs boson in the missing energy and acoplanar b-jet topology, using an integrated luminosity of 0.93 inverse femtobarn recorded by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The analysis includes signal contributions from pp->ZH->nu nu b b, as well as from WH production in which the charged lepton from the W boson decay is undetected. Neural networks are used to separate signal from background. In the absence of a signal, we set limits on the cross section of pp->VH times the branching ratio of H->bb at the 95% C.L. of 2.6 - 2.3 pb, for Higgs boson masses in the range 105 - 135 GeV, where V=W,Z. The corresponding expected limits range from 2.8 pb - 2.0 pb.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter