Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)—tyrosine kinase inhibitors as a first-line treatment for postoperative recurrent and EGFR-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer

[OBJECTIVES] To clarify survival outcomes and prognostic factors of patients receiving epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) - tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) as first-line treatment for postoperative recurrence. [METHODS] A retrospective chart review was performed to identify consecutive patients who received EGFR-TKIs as first-line treatment for postoperative recurrence of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harbouring EGFR gene mutations at our institution between August 2002 and October 2020. Therapeutic response, adverse events, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were investigated. Survival outcomes were assessed using the Kaplan–Meier analysis. The Cox proportional hazards model was used for univariable and multivariable analyses. [RESULTS] Sixty-four patients were included in the study. The objective response and disease control rates were 53% and 92%, respectively. Grade 3 or greater adverse events were noted in 4 (6.3%) patients, including 1 patient (1.6%) of interstitial pneumonia. The median follow-up period was 28.5 months (range 3–202 months). The total number of events was 43 for PFS and 23 for OS, respectively. The median PFS was 18 months, and the median OS was 61 months after EGFR-TKI treatment. In multivariable analysis, osimertinib showed a tendency to prolong PFS [hazard ratio (HR) 0.41, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.12–1.1; P = 0.071], whereas the micropapillary component was significantly associated with shorter OS (HR 2.1, 95% CI 1.02–6.9; P = 0.045). [CONCLUSIONS] EGFR-TKIs as first-line treatment appeared to be a reasonable treatment option in selected patients with postoperative recurrent EGFR-mutated NSCLC. Osimertinib and the micropapillary component may be prognostic factors

A New Pretreatment Technique for Environmental Tritium Analysis with Microwave Heating Method

The conventional method for FWT and OBT analysis is a liquid scintillation counting method after freeze-drying and combustion of the sample. However, pretreatment for FWT and OBT analysis are complicated and time consuming processes over weeks. Thus, we propose the application of microwave heating technique to save time and effort of the pretreatment of plant samples for FWT analysis. To understand the behavior of the combustion and drying of organic samples, we conducted TG/DTA analysis of pine needle samples. It is found that the sample has to be heated up to 100 - 110 ℃ for complete drying under N2 gas flow condition. Then, we tried the water recovery from fresh pine needle samples by the multi-mode microwave heating system. As a results, it was provided to good recovery yield achieved more than 97% under these experimental conditions. This result shows more preferable for the pretreatment of organic samples by microwave irradiation method than the conventional method

Development of Field Estimation Technique and Improvement of Environmental Tritium Behavior Model

To estimate the environmental transfer of tritium into the atmosphere and to establish tritium analysis techniques, this study improves our previous compartment model and proposes new analytical technique based on the microwave heating method and a water-sample purification technique using ion resin. This article introduces a new conceptual approach for estimating environmental tritium behavior

Preliminary Investigation of Pretreatment Methods for Liquid Scintillation Measurements of Environmental Water Samples Using Ion Exchange Resins

This paper presents an evaluation of a rapid pretreatment method for tritium analysis, that uses ion exchange resins (the batch method). The standard water samples were prepared with river water collected in Okinawa, Japan. Powdex resin was used in this study, which is an ion exchange resins in the form of powder beads. First, 100 mL of the standard sample was stirred with the cation exchange (PCH) and anion exchange (PAO) resins, as well as with activated carbon. To determine the optimal stirring time, we tested stirring times of 5, 10, 20 and 30 min. Additionally, to determine a suitable amount of ion exchange resin for environmental water samples, variations in the amount of resin and activated carbon were tested. Under the conditions of Experiment-3 (0.3 g, 0.3 g and 0.6 g of PCH, PAO and activated carbon, respectively) and with a stirring time of 5 min, electrical conductivity values of less than 1 mSm^ were achieved. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the removal of impurities in the sample water by ion exchange resins and confirm that such an effect can be achieved during a short period of time (i.e., in 5 min)

Behavior of Environmental Tritium at NIFS Toki Site of Japan

The levels of tritium in the atmosphere are nowadays almost only of natural origin and of the same range as before the era of the nuclear tests. In order to appraise the influence of tritium released from nuclear facilities to the environment, it is necessary to confirm the effect of tritium appearing overlapped on background tritium levels. Tritium concentrations and stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in rain water, stream water and groundwater at the NIFS (National Institute for Fusion Science, Gifu prefecture, Japan) site were analyzed to understand behavior of the natural tritium in coupling with rain event. Conductivity, temperature and flow rate of the stream were monitored continuously. The range of tritium concentrations in rain for three year period was 0.09-0.78 Bq/l (average 0.37 +- 0.14 Bq/l). The tritium concentrations of stream water and groundwater were almost constant, 0.34 Bq/l and 0.25 Bq/l, respectively. The isotopic ratio of oxygen and hydrogen showed a typical seasonal pattern observed in Japan. Two component separation analysis was carried out for the stream water at the time of rain using isotopic ratio, conductivity and tritium concentration

Development of Field Estimation Technique and Improvement of Environmental Tritium Behavior Model

To estimate the environmental transfer of tritium into the atmosphere and to establish tritium analysis techniques, this study improves our previous compartment model and proposes new analytical technique based on the microwave heating method and a water-sample purification technique using ion resin. This article introduces a new conceptual approach for estimating environmental tritium behavior

Preliminary Investigation of Pretreatment Methods for Liquid Scintillation Measurements of Environmental Water Samples Using Ion Exchange Resins

This paper presents an evaluation of a rapid pretreatment method for tritium analysis, that uses ion exchange resins (the batch method). The standard water samples were prepared with river water collected in Okinawa, Japan. Powdex resin was used in this study, which is an ion exchange resins in the form of powder beads. First, 100 mL of the standard sample was stirred with the cation exchange (PCH) and anion exchange (PAO) resins, as well as with activated carbon. To determine the optimal stirring time, we tested stirring times of 5, 10, 20 and 30 min. Additionally, to determine a suitable amount of ion exchange resin for environmental water samples, variations in the amount of resin and activated carbon were tested. Under the conditions of Experiment-3 (0.3 g, 0.3 g and 0.6 g of PCH, PAO and activated carbon, respectively) and with a stirring time of 5 min, electrical conductivity values of less than 1 mSm−1 were achieved. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the removal of impurities in the sample water by ion exchange resins and confirm that such an effect can be achieved during a short period of time (i.e., in 5 min)