OncoLog, Volume 60, Number 01, January 2015

Simultaneous Resection of Liver and Lung Metastases from Colorectal Cancer Eliminates Need for Second Surgery: Patients with colorectal cancer metastases to the liver and one or both lungs often face the unwelcome prospect of two operations and two recovery periods. But a novel surgical approach enables the liver and lung lesion resections to be performed during the same operation. Some Breast Cancer Patients May Benefit from Shorter Course of Whole-Breast Irradiation: A shorter course of radiation therapy at higher doses per fraction than the standard regimen could reduce side effects and improve quality of life for some patients with breast cancer. IMPACT2 Study Tests Benefits of Personalized Cancer Treatment based on Molecular Profiling: Molecular profiling has the potential to revolutionize cancer medicine by helping clinicians select treatments based on the genomic characteristics of each patient\u27s tumor. But for most types of cancer, this potential has yet to be verified by a randomized clinical study-in which treatment selection based on tumor molecular profiling-is now enrolling patients with metastatic solid tumors at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. HOUSE CALL: Telling Your Child About Your Cancer-Open, honest communication helps children copehttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/oncolog/1251/thumbnail.jp

OncoLog, Volume 60, Number 02, February 2015

Natural Killer Cell Therapy May Augment Treatment of Hematological Cancers: Tough cancer treatments can severely weaken the body\u27s natural ability to attack cancer cells. To improve immune recovery and function in patients who have undergone these treatments, especially those who may later receive a stem cell transplant, researchers are turning to natural killer cells that have been expanded in the laboratory. Concurrent Treatment of HIV and Cancer Improves Survival Outcomes: Concurrent HIV and cancer present special challenges in the clinic, regardless of which disease is diagnosed first. The simultaneous treatment of HIV and cancer is complicated by patients\u27 weakened immune systems, the lack of routine HIV screening, and interactions between drugs. Infectious disease specialists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center routinely treat HIV in cancer patients and are discovering ways to overcome these challenges. HOUSE CALL: Facts About Radiation-Radiation exposure comes from many sources INBRIEF: Sleeping Beauty Gene Therapy Shows Promise Against B Cell Malignancieshttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/oncolog/1252/thumbnail.jp

OncoLog, Volume 63, Number 08, August 2018

High-Dose Radiation Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer: trial tests whether radiomodulating agent GC4419 can enable higher doses of stereotactic body radiation therapy Image-Guided Cordotomy for Cancer Pain: Computed tomography-guided cordotomy relieves cancer-related refractory pain Esophageal, Pharyngoesophageal Reconstruction: Advanced surgical techniques restore digestive continuity Therapy Preserves Swallowing Function: New trial tests different swallowing therapy regimens for head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy OncoLog Says Farewellhttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/oncolog/1289/thumbnail.jp

Electron-multiplying CCDs for future soft X-ray spectrometers

CCDs have been used in several high resolution soft X-ray spectrometers for both space and terrestrial applications such as the Reflection Grating Spectrometer on XMM-Newton and the Super Advanced X-ray Emission Spectrometer at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland. However, with their ability to use multiplication gain to amplify signal and suppress readout noise, EM-CCDs are being considered instead of CCDs for future soft X-ray spectrometers. When detecting low energy X-rays, EM-CCDs are able to increase the Signal-to-Noise ratio of the device, making the X-rays much easier to detect. If the signal is also significantly split between neighbouring pixels, the increase in the size of the signal will make complete charge collection and techniques such as centroiding easier to accomplish. However, multiplication gain from an EM-CCD does cause a degradation of the energy resolution of the device and there are questions about how the high field region in an EM-CCD will behave over time in high radiation environments. This paper analyses the possible advantages and disadvantages of using EM-CCDs for high resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy and suggests in which situations using them would not only be possible, but also beneficial to the instrument

EULER-LAGRANGE COUPLING WITH DEFORMABLE POROUS SHELLS

A newly developed approach for tridimensional fluidstructure interaction with a deformable thin porous media is presented under the framework of the LS-DYNA software. The method presented couples a Arbitrary Lagrange Euler formulation for the fluid dynamics and a updated Lagrangian finite element formulation for the thin porous medium dynamics. The interaction between the fluid and porous medium are handled by a Euler-Lagrange coupling, for which the fluid and structure meshes are superimposed without matching. The coupling force is computed with an anisotropic Ergun porous flow model. As test case, the method is applied to an anchored porous MIL-c-7020 type III fabric placed in an air stream

Phenylalanine Stereoisomers of CJ-15,208 and [d-Trp]CJ-15,208 Exhibit Distinctly Different Opioid Activity Profiles

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.The macrocyclic tetrapeptide cyclo[Phe-d-Pro-Phe-Trp] (CJ-15,208) and its stereoisomer cyclo[Phe-d-Pro-Phe-d-Trp] exhibit different opioid activity profiles in vivo. The present study evaluated the influence of the Phe residues’ stereochemistry on the peptides’ opioid activity. Five stereoisomers were synthesized by a combination of solid-phase peptide synthesis and cyclization in solution. The analogs were evaluated in vitro for opioid receptor affinity in radioligand competition binding assays, and for opioid activity and selectivity in vivo in the mouse 55 °C warm-water tail-withdrawal assay. Potential liabilities of locomotor impairment, respiratory depression, acute tolerance development, and place conditioning were also assessed in vivo. All of the stereoisomers exhibited antinociception following either intracerebroventricular or oral administration differentially mediated by multiple opioid receptors, with kappa opioid receptor (KOR) activity contributing for all of the peptides. However, unlike the parent peptides, KOR antagonism was exhibited by only one stereoisomer, while another isomer produced DOR antagonism. The stereoisomers of CJ-15,208 lacked significant respiratory effects, while the [d-Trp]CJ-15,208 stereoisomers did not elicit antinociceptive tolerance. Two isomers, cyclo[d-Phe-d-Pro-d-Phe-Trp] (3) and cyclo[Phe-d-Pro-d-Phe-d-Trp] (5), did not elicit either preference or aversion in a conditioned place preference assay. Collectively, these stereoisomers represent new lead compounds for further investigation in the development of safer opioid analgesics.National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01 DA18832)National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01 DA032928

Crystal-Chemical Origins of the Ultrahigh Conductivity of Metallic Delafossites

Despite their highly anisotropic complex-oxidic nature, certain delafossite compounds (e.g., PdCoO2, PtCoO2) are the most conductive oxides known, for reasons that remain poorly understood. Their room-temperature conductivity can exceed that of Au, while their low-temperature electronic mean-free-paths reach an astonishing 20 microns. It is widely accepted that these materials must be ultrapure to achieve this, although the methods for their growth (which produce only small crystals) are not typically capable of such. Here, we first report a new approach to PdCoO2 crystal growth, using chemical vapor transport methods to achieve order-of-magnitude gains in size, the highest structural qualities yet reported, and record residual resistivity ratios (>440). Nevertheless, the first detailed mass spectrometry measurements on these materials reveal that they are not ultrapure, typically harboring 100s-of-parts-per-million impurity levels. Through quantitative crystal-chemical analyses, we resolve this apparent dichotomy, showing that the vast majority of impurities are forced to reside in the Co-O octahedral layers, leaving the conductive Pd sheets highly pure (~1 ppm impurity concentrations). These purities are shown to be in quantitative agreement with measured residual resistivities. We thus conclude that a previously unconsidered "sublattice purification" mechanism is essential to the ultrahigh low-temperature conductivity and mean-free-path of metallic delafossites

Mitigating radiation-induced charge transfer inefficiency in full-frame CCD applications by 'pumping' traps

The charge transfer efficiency of a CCD is based on the average level of signal lost per pixel over a number of transfers. This value can be used to directly compare the relative performances of different structures, increases in radiation damage or to quantify improvements in operating parameters. This number does not however give sufficient detail to mitigate for the actual signal loss/deference in either of the transfer directions that may be critical to measuring shapes to high accuracy, such as those required in astronomy applications (e.g. for Gaia’s astrometry or the galaxy distortion measurements for Euclid) based in the radiation environment of space. Pocket-pumping is an established technique for finding the location and activation levels of traps; however, a number of parameters in the process can also be explored to identify the trap species and location to sub-pixel accuracy. This information can be used in two ways to increase the sensitivity of a camera. Firstly, the clocking process can be optimised for the time constant of the majority of traps in each of the transfer directions, reducing deferred charge during read out. Secondly, a correction algorithm can be developed and employed during the post-processing of individual frames to move most of any deferred signal back into the charge packet it originated from. Here we present the trap-pumping techniques used to optimise the charge transfer efficiency of p- and n-channel e2v CCD204s and describe the use of trap-pumped images for on-orbit calibration and ground based image correction algorithms

Breast cancer genome heterogeneity: a challenge to personalised medicine?

Implementation of high-throughput genomics sequencing approaches into routine laboratory practice has raised the potential for the identification of multiple breast cancer targets suitable for future therapeutic intervention in order to improve cancer outcomes. Results from these studies have revealed bewildering breast cancer genome complexity with very few aberrations occurring in common between breast cancers. In addition, such complexity is compounded by evidence of genomic heterogeneity occurring within individual breast cancers. Such inter-tumoural and intratumoural heterogeneity is likely to present a challenge to personalised therapeutic approaches that might be circumvented through the definition of genome instability mechanisms governing such diversity and their exploitation using synthetic lethal approaches