Impact of radiotherapy on survival in resected or unresectable anaplastic thyroid carcinomas, a Rare Cancer Network study

PURPOSE

Anaplastic thyroid carcinomas (ATC) are a heterogenous group of tumors of overall dismal prognosis. We designed models to identify relevant prognostic factors of survival of irradiated ATC patients including radiotherapy modalities (field size, dose).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Between 2000 and 2017, 166 ATC patients' treatments were divided into surgery and postoperative radiotherapy (poRT) or definitive radiotherapy (RT). Multiple imputation approach was used for missing data. Prognostic factors were identified using Lasso-penalized Cox modelling and predicted risk scores were built.

RESULTS

Patients undergoing RT (n=70) had more adverse patient and disease characteristics than those undergoing poRT (n=96). Corresponding median survival rates were 5.4 and 12.1 months, respectively. PoRT patients undergoing poRT more likely received extended-field radiotherapy with prophylactic nodal irradiation, but rather received platinum- vs. adriamycin-based chemoradiotherapy. Radiotherapy was conventionally fractionated, delivered >60Gy in 51.9% and 61.7% and used extended fields in 88.5% and 71.2% of patients with poRT or RT. Radiotherapy interruption rates for toxicity were similar in the two groups. The best poRT-group model identified age>45yo, PS≥1, pathologic tumor stage≥pT4b,>N1 and R2 resection as poor prognostic factors. The best RT-group model (C-index of 0.72) identified PS≥3,>N1 and extended-field radiotherapy with prophylactic nodal irradiation (as opposed to tumour-bed irradiation only) as poor prognostic factors.

CONCLUSION

In patients undergoing poRT, radiotherapy parameters had little influence over their survival irrespective of patient, disease characteristics, and quality of resection. In patients undergoing RT, extended-field radiotherapy improved survival in addition to PS and nodal stage.

How is charge transport different in ionic liquids? The effect of high pressure

Modern ionic liquids (ILs) are considered green solvents for the future applications due to their inherited advantages and remarkable transport properties. One of the ubiquitous properties of ILs is their intrinsic ionic conductivity. However, understanding of the super-Arrhenius behavior of the ionic conductivity process at elevated pressure still remains elusive and crucial in glass science. In this work, we investigate the ion transport properties of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide: [C₄mim][NTf₂], 1-butylimidazolium bis[(trifluoromethyl)-sulfonyl]imide: [C₄Him][NTf₂] and 1-butylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate: [C₄Him][HSO₄] ILs in the supercooled liquid state using dielectric spectroscopy at ambient and high pressure. We present the experimental data in the dynamic window of the conductivity formalism to examine the charge transport properties. The frequency-dependent ionic conductivity data have been analyzed using the time-temperature superposition principle. In the Arrhenius diagram, the thermal evolution of the dc-conductivity reveals similar temperature dependence for both protic and aprotic ILs thus making it difficult to distinguish the ion dynamics. However, our results demonstrate the key role of high pressure that unambiguously separates the charge transport properties of protic ILs from aprotic ones through the apparent activation volume parameter. We also highlight that the activation volume can be employed to assess the information connecting the ability of ionic systems to form H-bond networks and the impact of proton transfer involved in the conduction process.

On the scaling behavior of electric conductivity in [C4mim][NTf2]

In this work we examine, for the first time, the molar conductivity behavior of the deeply supercooled room temperature ionic liquid [C₄mim][NTf₂] in the temperature, pressure and volume thermodynamic space in terms of density scaling regime (TV^γ)⁻¹ combined with the equation of state (EOS).

Long-range and targeted ectopic recombination between the two homeologous chromosomes 11 and 12 in Oryza species

Whole genome duplication (WGD) and subsequent evolution of gene pairs have been shown to have shaped the present day genomes of most, if not all, plants and to have played an essential role in the evolution of many eukaryotic genomes. Analysis of the rice (Oryza sativa ssp. japonica) genome sequence suggested an ancestral WGD ∼50-70 Ma common to all cereals and a segmental duplication between chromosomes 11 and 12 as recently as 5 Ma. More recent studies based on coding sequences have demonstrated that gene conversion is responsible for the high sequence conservation which suggested such a recent duplication. We previously showed that gene conversion has been a recurrent process throughout the Oryza genus and in closely related species and that orthologous duplicated regions are also highly conserved in other cereal genomes. We have extended these studies to compare megabase regions of genomic (coding and noncoding) sequences between two cultivated (O. sativa, Oryza glaberrima) and one wild (Oryza brachyantha) rice species using a novel approach of topological incongruency. The high levels of intraspecies conservation of both gene and nongene sequences, particularly in O. brachyantha, indicate long-range conversion events less than 4 Ma in all three species. These observations demonstrate megabase-scale conversion initiated within a highly rearranged region located at ∼2.1 Mb from the chromosome termini and emphasize the importance of gene conversion in cereal genome evolution.

Evolutionary dynamics of Waxy and the origin of hexaploid Spartina species (Poaceae)

We investigated the evolutionary dynamics of duplicated copies of the granule-bound starch synthase I gene (GBSSI or Waxy) within polyploid Spartina species. Molecular cloning, sequencing, and phylogenetic analyses revealed incongruences between the expected species phylogeny and the inferred gene trees. Some genes within species were more divergent than expected from ploidy level alone, suggesting the existence of paralogous sets of Waxy loci in Spartina. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that this paralogy originated from a duplication that occurred prior to the divergence of Spartina from other Chloridoideae. Gene tree topologies revealed three divergent homoeologous sequences in the hexaploid S. alterniflora that are consistent with the proposal of an allopolyploid origin of the hexaploid clade. Waxy sequences differ in insertion-deletion events in introns, which may be used to diagnose gene copies. Both paralogous and homoeologous coding regions appear to evolving under selective constraints.

Relationship between input and output of cells in motor and somatosensory cortices of the chronic awake rat. A study using glass micropipettes

Experiments using the same glass microelectrode (6--8 M omega) for recording and stimulating were performed on 12 rats in which 379 cortical cells were studied in 65 penetrations through the motor and somatosensory cortical zones. To avoid anaesthetic effects the rats were chronically implanted with a head system derived from the one developed by Noda et al. (1971). These animals well accepted head fixation and the peripheral receptive fields could thus be easily investigated. In a preliminary experiment the number of pyramidal cells activated by a given stimulus intensity was evaluated. The lowest threshold intensities were always observed in the Vth pyramidal layer, as well as correspondence between cell input and output. The same type of organization, with identical thresholds, existed in the so-called "Motor" and "Somatosensory" cortical zones. Movements could be obtained when stimulating near non-PT cells (600--700 micron below the cortical surface). However, thresholds were higher at this level and it is thought that the movements were due to a spread of the stimulating current to the pyramidal tract cell layer.

[V.A.T.E.R. association and its limits]

Comparative investigation of 92 cases of V.A.T.E.R. syndrome (4 personal cases) and 62 cases of caudal regression (Duhamel syndrome) (2 personal cases) are performed. There is much analogy between these two entities. Initial impairment would be an early dysfunction of mesoderm setting up located on esophagus in V.A.T.E.R. syndrome and on kidneys in Duhamel syndrome. Etiopathogenic factors remain unknown. Genetic counseling is good. Detection of only one mesodermal malformation leads to inquire other unnoticed anomalies (kidneys, heart, spine, alimentary duct).