1,726 research outputs found
Perioperative HDR brachytherapy for reirradiation in head and neck recurrences: Single-institution experience and systematic review
No full textAim: The aim of our study was to evaluate the outcomes of patients reirradiated with high-dose-rate (HDR) intensity-modulated brachytherapy (IMBT) for recurrent head and neck cancer and to perform a systematic review of the literature. Materials and methods: Patients treated with prior radiation doses > 65 Gy were considered. After resection of macroscopic disease, catheters were fixed to the tumor bed. The total dose was 30 Gy in 12 fractions of 2.5 Gy twice daily for 5 days a week. A systematic literature search was conducted through several electronic databases including Medline/PubMed, Scopus, Embase and the Cochrane library. Results: Seventeen patients were included; median overall survival was 19 months with a median local control interval of 15 months. Median follow-up was 36 months. Seven papers were considered for the review. Conclusions: IMBT could play an important role in the retreatment of recurrent head and neck cancer
Negative regulation of CD95-ligand gene expression by vitamin D3 in T lymphocytes.
No full textFas (APO-1/CD95) and its ligand (FasL/CD95L) are cell surface proteins whose interaction activates apoptosis of Fas-expressing targets. In T lymphocytes, the Fas/FasL system regulates activation-induced cell death, a fundamental mechanism for negative selection of immature T cells in the thymus and for maintenance of peripheral tolerance. Aberrant expression of Fas and FasL has also been implicated in diseases in which the lymphocyte homeostasis is compromised, and several studies have described the pathogenic functions of Fas and FasL in vivo, particularly in the induction/regulation of organ-specific autoimmune diseases. The 1,25(OH)(2)D-3 is a secosteroid hormone that activates the nuclear receptor vitamin D-3 receptor (VDR), whose immunosuppressive activities have been well studied in different models of autoimmune disease and in experimental organ transplantation. We and others have recently described the molecular mechanisms responsible for the negative regulation of the IFN-gamma and IL-12 genes by 1,25(OH)(2)D-3 in activated T lymphocytes and macrophages/dendritic cells. In this study, we describe the effect of 1,25(OH)(2)D-3 on the activation of the fasL gene in T lymphocytes. We show that 1,25(OH),D3 inhibits activation-induced cell death, fasL mRNA expression, and that 1,25(OH)(2)D-3-activated VDR represses fasL promoter activity by a mechanism dependent on the presence of a functional VDR DNA-binding domain and ligand-dependent transcriptional activation domain (AF-2). Moreover, we identified a minimal region of the promoter containing the transcription start site and a noncanonical c-Myc-binding element, which mediates this repression. These results place FasL as a novel target for the immunoregulatory activities of 1,25(OH)(2)D-3, and confirm the interest for a possible pharmacological use of this molecule and its derivatives
Meta structures in knowledge graphs
No full textThis paper investigates meta structures, schema-level graphs that abstract connectivity information among a set of entities in a knowledge graph. Meta structures are useful in a variety of knowledge discovery tasks ranging from relatedness explanation to data retrieval. We formalize the meta structure computation problem and devise efficient automata-based algorithms. We introduce a meta structure-based relevance measure, which can retrieve entities related to those in input. We implemented our machineries in a visual tool called MEKoNG. We report on an extensive experimental evaluation, which confirms the suitability of our proposal from both the efficiency and effectiveness point of view
CASE REPORT: UTILIZZO DELLA DEXMEDETOMIDINA IN PAZIENTE DI 102 ANNI SOTTOPOSTO A INTERVENTO ORTOPEDICO PER FRATTURA DI FEMORE
No full text1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and development of tuberculosis in cattle
No full textThis report describes the presence and activity of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25-D3) in experimental bovine tuberculosis. Animals that went on to develop tuberculous lesions exhibited a rapid transient increase in serum 1,25-D3 within the first 2 weeks following infection with Mycobacterium bovis. 1,25-D3-positive mononuclear cells were later identified in all tuberculous granulomas by immunohistochemical staining of postmortem lymph node tissue. These results suggest a role for 1,25-D3 both at the onset of infection and in the development of the granuloma in these infected animals. Using a monoclonal antibody to the vitamin D receptor (VDR) as a VDR agonist, we confirmed that activation of the vitamin D pathway profoundly depresses antigen-specific, but not mitogenic, bovine peripheral blood T-cell responses (proliferation and gamma interferon production). Investigation of the mechanism of this suppression showed that the VDR antibody modified the expression of CD80 by accessory cells, such that a significant positive correlation between T-cell proliferation and accessory cell CD80 emerged
Endoscopy-guided brachytherapy for sinonasal and nasopharyngeal recurrences
No full textObjective/Purpose: To evaluate the preliminary results of perioperative endoscopy-guided brachytherapy (BT) in recurrent sinonasal and nasopharyngeal tumors already treated for their primary tumor with a full course of radiotherapy. Methods and Materials: Patients with recurrence and already treated with a previous full course of radiotherapy >65Gy who underwent BT from December 2010 to January 2014 were taken into account for this work. Macroscopic disease was resected by an endoscopic approach, and catheters for BT were endoscopically positioned and fixed at the same time on the surgical bed. Surgery was performed under electromagnetic navigation guidance. The irradiation dose was 30Gy in 12 fractions, 2.5Gy each, twice a day, in 6days. Results: We performed the endoscopy-guided BT 11 times in 9 patients; in two cases, no previous radiation therapy had been performed; and in one case, followup was too short to be considered. A total of 6 patients were eligible for the analysis. One patient underwent BT three times because of previous target margin recurrences. There were no immediate complications. The median and mean followups were 21 and 19months, respectively. The median V90 and V85% were 93% and 95%, respectively. In one case, we had a transient deficit of the VI cranial nerve (G3), and in another case, we diagnosed a noncomplicated osteonecrosis (G2). The median disease-free survival is 12months, and the median overall survival is 23months. Conclusions: The combination of endoscopy and BT seems to be a safe option for treating recurrent sinonasal and nasopharyngeal tumors
Can interventional radiotherapy (brachytherapy) be an alternative to surgery in early-stage oral cavity cancer? A systematic review
No full textPurpose: Brachytherapy (BT), also known as interventional radiotherapy (IRT), has proven its utility in the treatment of localized tumors. The aim of this review was to examine the efficacy of modern BT in early-stage oral cavity cancer (OCC) in terms of local control (LC), overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and safety. Methods: The SPIDER framework was used, with sample (S), phenomena of interest (PI), design (D), evaluation (E), and research type (R) corresponding to early-stage oral cavity cancer (S); BT (PI); named types of qualitative data collection and analysis (D); LC, OS, DFS, CSS, and toxicity (E); qualitative method (R). Systematic research using PubMed and Scopus was performed to identify full articles evaluating the efficacy of BT in patients with early-stage OCC. The studies were identified using medical subject headings (MeSH). We also performed a PubMed search with the keywords “brachytherapy oral cavity cancer, surgery.” The search was restricted to the English language. The timeframe 2002–2022 as year of publication was considered. We analyzed clinical studies of patients with OCC treated with BT alone only as full text; conference papers, surveys, letters, editorials, book chapters, and reviews were excluded. Results: The literature search resulted in 517 articles. After the selection process, 7 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in this review, totaling 456 patients with early-stage node-negative OCC who were treated with BT alone (304 patients). Five-year LC, DFS, and OS for the BT group were 60–100%, 82–91%, and 50–84%, respectively. Conclusion: In conclusion, our review suggests that BT is effective in the treatment of early-stage OCC, particularly for T1N0 of the lip, mobile tongue, and buccal mucosa cancers, with good functional and toxicity profiles
L'ASSOCIAZIONE DI DRY NEEDLING E RADIOFREQUENZA COME VALIDO APPROCCIO AL DOLORE LOMBARE CRONICO: LA NOSTRA ESPERIENZA
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