Reports from the Fifth EAHN Meeting in Tallinn

The fifth international meeting of the European Architectural History Network was held in Tallinn, at the National Library of Estonia, from 13 to 16 June 2018. The reports from this meeting aim to capture some of the main themes that came up during four intense days of academic discussions and exchange, meetings, and free-form interaction in different spatial and social settings. After the introduction by Andres Kurg, host of the Tallinn Meeting, five delegates review the five thematic tracks which organised the selected sessions and ran in parallel throughout the three days of the conference: Mediations, Comparative Modernities, Peripheries, Discovery and Persistence, and Body and Mind. In his closing keynote lecture, Reinhold Martin from Columbia University further reflected on the ample critical discussions which had taken place throughout the conference

Nucleosomes in colorectal cancer patients during radiochemotherapy

Apoptotic markers and tumor-associated antigens might be suitable to indicate the response to radiochemotherapy early. We analyzed the courses of nucleosomes, CEA, CA 19-9 and CYFRA 21-1 in 25 colorectal cancer patients during radiochemotherapy (4 postoperative, 13 preoperative, 8 local relapse therapy). Blood was taken before therapy, daily during the first week, once weekly during the following weeks, and at the end of the radiochemotherapy. After a temporary decline 6 h after the first irradiation, nucleosomes rose in most patients rapidly reaching a maximum during the first days which was followed by a subsequent decrease. In patients receiving postoperative therapy after complete resection of tumor, nucleosome levels generally were lower than in patients with preoperative or relapse therapy. Correspondingly, CEA, CA 19-9 and CYFRA 21-1 levels of postoperatively treated patients were the lowest whereas those with tumor relapse had the highest ones. During preoperative therapy, lower nucleosome concentrations were found in patients with response to therapy resulting in a smaller area under the curve of days 1-3 (AUC) than in those with progressive disease (p = 0.028). The other parameters did not indicate the response to therapy at the initial treatment phase. In conclusion, the course of nucleosomes (AUC) might be valuable for the early prediction of therapy response in preoperatively treated colorectal cancer patients. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

Non-Newtonian Mixed Thermo-Elastohydrodynamics of Hypoid Gear Pairs

Transmission efficiency is the main objective in the development of vehicular differential systems, comprising hypoid gear pairs. The overall aim is to contribute to improved vehicle fuel efficiency and thus levels of harmful emissions for modern desired eco-drive axles. Detailed predictive analysis plays an important role in this quest, particularly under realistic operating conditions, comprising high contact loads and shear rates. Under these conditions, the hypoid gear pairs are subject to mixed non-Newtonian thermo-elastohydrodynamic conditions, which is the approach undertaken in this paper. Such an approach for hypoid gear pair has not hitherto been reported in the literature

Prognostic and therapeutic significance of carbohydrate antigen 19-9 as tumor marker in patients with pancreatic cancer

In pancreatic cancer ( PC) accurate determination of treatment response by imaging often remains difficult. Various efforts have been undertaken to investigate new factors which may serve as more appropriate surrogate parameters of treatment efficacy. This review focuses on the role of carbohydrate antigen 19- 9 ( CA 19- 9) as a prognostic tumor marker in PC and summarizes its contribution to monitoring treatment efficacy. We undertook a Medline/ PubMed literature search to identify relevant trials that had analyzed the prognostic impact of CA 19- 9 in patients treated with surgery, chemoradiotherapy and chemotherapy for PC. Additionally, relevant abstract publications from scientific meetings were included. In advanced PC, pretreatment CA 19- 9 levels have a prognostic impact regarding overall survival. Also a CA 19- 9 decline under chemotherapy can provide prognostic information for median survival. A 20% reduction of CA 19- 9 baseline levels within the first 8 weeks of chemotherapy appears to be sufficient to define a prognostic relevant subgroup of patients ('CA 19- 9 responder'). It still remains to be defined whether the CA 19- 9 response is a more reliable method for evaluating treatment efficacy compared to conventional imaging. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

Methylated free-circulating HPP1 DNA is an early response marker in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer

Detection of methylated free-circulating DNA (mfcDNA) for hyperplastic polyposis 1 (HPP1) in blood is correlated with a poor prognosis for patients with metastatic colorectal cancers (mCRC). Here, we analyzed the plasma levels of HPP1 mfcDNA in mCRC patients treated with a combination therapy containing a fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin and bevacizumab to test whether HPP1 mfcDNA is a suitable prognostic and response biomarker. From 467 patients of the prospective clinical study AIO-KRK-0207, mfcDNA was isolated from plasma samples at different time points and bisulfite-treated mfcDNA was quantified using methylation specific PCR. About 337 of 467 patients had detectable levels for HPP1 mfcDNA before start of treatment. The detection was significantly correlated with poorer overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.86; 95%CI 1.37-2.53). About 2-3 weeks after the first administration of combination chemotherapy, HPP1 mfcDNA was reduced to non-detectable levels in 167 of 337 patients. These patients showed a better OS compared with patients with continued detection of HPP1 mfcDNA (HR HPP1(sample 1: pos/ sample 2: neg) vs. HPP1(neg/neg) = 1.41; 95%CI 1.00-2.01, HPP1(neg,pos/pos) vs. HPP1(neg/neg) = 2.60; 95%CI 1.86-3.64). Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that HPP1 mfcDNA discriminates well between patients who do (not) respond to therapy according to the radiological staging after 12 or 24 weeks (AUC = 0.77 or 0.71, respectively). Detection of HPP1 mfcDNA can be used as a prognostic marker and an early marker for response (as early as 3-4 weeks after start of treatment compared with radiological staging after 12 or 24 weeks) to identify patients who will likely benefit from a combination chemotherapy with bevacizumab.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Transarterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma: development and external validation of the Munich-TACE score

Background: Allocation of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to the adequate therapy is determined by both tumor burden and liver function. The Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system and therapeutic algorithm recommends transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) based on the best evidence available to patients with intermediate-stage HCC (BCLC-B). However, many centers also treat subgroups of patients outside these recommendations and with more advanced disease by TACE. The purpose of this study was to identify prognostic factors in a TACE cohort, including BCLC-B patients, as well as patients treated outside of BCLC-B, to test the prognostic capabilities of published staging systems and to optimize prognostication for TACE patients.Patients and Methods: A cohort of 186 first-line TACE patients was analyzed. Independent prognostic factors were identified and used to construct the Munich-TACE score (M-TACE). M-TACE was tested against established staging systems (including BCLC and two recently published TACE-specific scores) and a ranking using concordance index and Akaike Information Criterion was performed. Finally, an external validation in an independent TACE cohort (n=71) was conducted.Results: Bilirubin, Quick/international normalized ratio, C-reactive protein, creatinine, -feto protein, and tumor extension were identified as independent prognostic factors and used to construct M-TACE. M-TACE identifies three distinct subgroups (P<0.0001) with median survival times of 35.2, 16.9, and 8.6 months, respectively. Compared with established staging systems, M-TACE showed the best prognostic capabilities in both cohorts of patients (cohort 1: c-index, 0.71;Akaike Information Criterion: 1276;cohort 2: c-index, 0.754).Conclusion: We identified independent risk factors for patients treated with TACE. The newly constructed M-TACE score is superior to established staging systems and might prove helpful to identify patients who are most suitable for TACE