1,721,008 research outputs found
Identification of the most significant magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radiomic features in oncological patients with vertebral bone marrow metastatic disease: a feasibility study
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Treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma with radiotherapy and imiquimod (Aldara): a case report.
No full textAims and background Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare skin tumor occurring mostly in older people. Postoperative radiotherapy is strongly recommended to improve local control. A case of a MCC treated by radiotherapy associated with imiquimod (Aldara) is presented. A possible physiopathological rationale for this concomitant treatment is also given. Materials and methods We treated a diabetic 82-year-old man presenting with a MCC of the right zygomatic area. Despite surgery, postoperative ultrasonography showed a firm, painless residual mass of about 11 × 10 cm, fixed to the deep tissues. Parotid and zygomatic areas were treated along with the ipsilateral laterocervical lymph nodes. The total dose to the planning target volume was 50.4 Gy (1.8 Gy/day). Imiquimod was applied once a day to the zygomatic area with macroscopic infiltration and to the surrounding erythema. Results During the combination treatment, the patient showed acute G3 skin toxicity (RTOG) and a scab that resolved after a 3-week interruption of the radiotherapy and imiquimod treatment. When the scab was removed, the underlying skin appeared completely re-epithelialized. Imiquimod was suspended and treatment was continued only with irradiation. During this second phase of the treatment, the patient developed G2 dermatitis and G2 stomatitis. Clinical and instrumental re-evaluation showed a complete response 7 months after the end of radiotherapy, with very good local tropism. Conclusion This case report suggests the possible effective use of immunomodulators, in this case imiquimod, combined with radiation therapy for cutaneous malignancies such as MCC. Skin tolerance should be an important issue to consider. </jats:sec
External validation of a composite bio-humoral index in anal cancer patients undergoing concurrent chemoradiation
No full textBackground and purpose: A prognostic scoring system based on laboratory inflammation parameters, [Hemo-Eosinophils-Inflammation (HEI) index], including baseline hemoglobin level, the systemic inflam-matory index and eosinophil count was recently proposed in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the anus (ASCC). HEI was shown to discriminate disease-free (DFS) and overall (OS) survival in ASCC patients treated with concurrent chemoradiation (CRT). We tested the accuracy of the model on a mul-ticentric cohort for external validation.Materials and methods: Patients treated with CRT were enrolled. The Kaplan-Meier curves for DFS and OS based on HEI risk group were calculated and the log-rank test was used. Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the prognostic factors for DFS and OS. The exponential of the regression coefficients provided an estimate of the hazard ratio (HR). For model discrimination, we determined Harrell's C -index, Gonen & Heller K Index and the explained variation on the log relative hazard scale.Results: A total of 877 patients was available. Proportional hazards were adjusted for age, gender, tumor -stage, and chemotherapy. Two-year DFS was 77 %(95 %CI:72.0-82.4) and 88.3 %(95 %CI:84.8-92.0 %) in the HEI high-and low-risk groups. Two-year OS was 87.8 %(95 %CI:83.7-92.0) and 94.2 %(95 %CI:91.5- 97). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards model showed a HR = 2.02(95 %CI:1.25-3.26; p = 0.004) for the HEI high-risk group with respect to OS and a HR = 1.53(95 %CI:1.04-2.24; p = 0.029) for DFS. Harrel C-indexes were 0.68 and 0.66 in the validation dataset, for OS and DFS. Gonen-Heller K indexes were 0.67 and 0.71, respectively.Conclusion: The HEI index proved to be a prognosticator in ASCC patients treated with CRT. Model dis-crimination in the external validation cohort was acceptable.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Radiotherapy and Oncology 177 (2022) 9-1
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Automatic segmentation software in locally advanced rectal cancer: READY (REsearch program in Auto Delineation sYstem)-RECTAL 02: prospective study
No full textTo validate autocontouring software (AS) in a clinical practice including a two steps delineation quality assurance (QA) procedure.The existing delineation agreement among experts for rectal cancer and the overlap and time criteria that have to be verified to allow the use of AS were defined.Median Dice Similarity Coefficient (MDSC), Mean slicewise Hausdorff Distances (MSHD) and Total-Time saving (TT) were analyzed.Two expert Radiation Oncologists reviewed CT-scans of 44 patients and agreed the reference-CTV: the first 14 consecutive cases were used to populate the software Atlas and 30 were used as Test.Each expert performed a manual (group A) and an automatic delineation (group B) of 15 Test patients.The delineations were compared with the reference contours.The overlap between the manual and automatic delineations with MDSC and MSHD and the TT were analyzed.Three acceptance criteria were set: MDSC ≥ 0.75, MSHD ≤1mm and TT sparing ≥ 50%.At least 2 criteria had to be met, one of which had to be TT saving, to validate the system.The MDSC was 0.75, MSHD 2.00 mm and the TT saving 55.5% between group A and group B. MDSC among experts was 0.84.Autosegmentation systems in rectal cancer partially met acceptability criteria with the present version
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