Heavy ion therapy

BACKGROUND: Mesonephric adenocarcinoma is an extremely rare subtype of uterine cervical cancer that is associated with a poor prognosis and for which a standardized treatment protocol has not been established. Carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT) is an emerging radiotherapy modality that has been shown to have a favorable anti-tumor effect, even for tumors resistant to conventional photon radiotherapy or chemotherapy. However, there is no report on CIRT outcomes for mesonephric adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix...

Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NC) refers to the malignant tumor that occurs at the top and side walls of the nasopharyngeal cavity. The NC incidence rate always dominates the first among the malignant tumors of the ear, nose and throat, and mainly occurs in Asia. NC cases are mainly concentrated in southern provinces in China, with about 4 million existing NC. With the pollution of environment and pickled diet, and the increase of life pressure, the domestic NC incidence rate has reached 4.5-6.5/100000 and is increasing year by year...

BACKGROUND: The presence of a wound can be anywhere from non-problematic to life-threatening on a severity spectrum, with bacterial infection and resistance playing a major role in the development of chronicity, delaying wound healing. Wound colonization with multiple organisms and the limited number of effective antibiotics place a heavy burden on the healthcare system, with patients going through multiple surgeries during a prolonged hospitalization time. By analyzing the resistance patterns of pluri-bacterial populations and the approach used in managing complex cases, we aim to improve the protocols applied in caring for chronic wounds in our practice and share our experiences and observations...

BACKGROUND: Monte Carlo simulation code is commonly used for the dose calculation of boron neutron capture therapy. In the past, dose calculation was performed assuming a homogeneous mass density and elemental composition inside the tissue, regardless of the patient's age or sex. Studies have shown that the mass density varies with patient to patient, particularly for those that have undergone surgery or radiotherapy. A method to convert computed tomography numbers into mass density and elemental weights of tissues has been developed and applied in the dose calculation process using Monte Carlo codes...

Heavy metals are harmful environmental pollutants that have attracted widespread attention due to their health hazards to human cardiovascular disease. Heavy metals, including lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, and chromium, are found in various sources such as air, water, soil, food, and industrial products. Recent research strongly suggests a connection between cardiovascular disease and exposure to toxic heavy metals. Epidemiological, basic, and clinical studies have revealed that heavy metals can promote the production of reactive oxygen species, which can then exacerbate reactive oxygen species generation and induce inflammation, resulting in endothelial dysfunction, lipid metabolism distribution, disruption of ion homeostasis, and epigenetic changes...

BACKGROUND: Radiation-induced liver damage (RILD) occasionally occurs following carbon-ion radiotherapy (CIRT) for liver tumors, such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), in patients with impaired liver function disease. However, the associated risk factors remain unknown. The present study aimed to determine the risk factors of RILD after CIRT. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 108 patients with HCC treated with CIRT at the Osaka Heavy Ion Therapy Center between December 2018 and December 2022...

To improve particle radiotherapy, we need a better understanding of the biology of radiation effects, particularly in heavy ion radiation therapy, where global responses are observed despite energy deposition in only a subset of cells. Here, we integrated a high-speed swept confocally-aligned planar excitation (SCAPE) microscope into a focused ion beam irradiation platform to allow real-time 3D structural and functional imaging of living biological samples during and after irradiation. We demonstrate dynamic imaging of the acute effects of irradiation on 3D cultures of U87 human glioblastoma cells, revealing characteristic changes in cellular movement and intracellular calcium signaling following ionizing irradiation...

BACKGROUND: Particle mini-beam therapy exhibits promise in sparing healthy tissue through spatial fractionation, particularly notable for heavy ions, further enhancing the already favorable differential biological effectiveness at both target and entrance regions. However, breathing-induced organ motion affects particle mini-beam irradiation schemes since the organ displacements exceed the mini-beam structure dimensions, decreasing the advantages of spatial fractionation. PURPOSE: In this study, the impact of breathing-induced organ motion on the dose distribution was examined at the target and organs at risk(OARs) during carbon ion mini-beam irradiation for pancreatic cancer...

Radiotherapy (RT) remodels the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) and modulates the immune response to indirectly destroy tumor cells, in addition to directly killing tumor cells. RT combined with immunotherapy may significantly enhance the efficacy of RT in colorectal cancer by modulating the microenvironment. However, the molecular mechanisms by which RT acts as an immunomodulator to modulate the immune microenvironment remain unclear. Further, the optimal modalities of RT combined with immunotherapy for the treatment of colorectal cancer, such as the time point of combining RT and immunization, the fractionation pattern and dosage of radiotherapy, and other methods to improve the efficacy, are also being explored parallelly...

BACKGROUND: Diphtheria can be prevented by vaccination, but some epidemics occur in several places, and diphtheria's threat is considerable. Administration of diphtheria antitoxin (DAT) produced from hyperimmunized animals is the most common treatment. Recombinant human antibody fragments such as single-chain variable fragments (scFv) produced by phage display library may introduce an interesting approach to overcome the limitations of the traditional antibody therapy. In the present study, B cells of immunized volunteers were used to construct a human single-chain fragment (HuscFv) library...

At the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST), a multi-ion therapy using helium, carbon, oxygen, and neon ions has been studied for charged particle therapy with more optimal biological effects. To make multi-ion therapy clinically feasible, a new treatment system was developed to realize the changes of the ion species in each irradiation using the Heavy Ion Medial Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC). Since radiation therapy is safety-critical, it is necessary to construct a safety system that includes multiple safety barriers in the new treatment system for multi-ion therapy and to perform a safety analysis for the prevention of serious accidents...

Polysaccharides are functional foods or drugs that can be used to alleviate heavy metal poisoning by cadmium, lead, mercury, and arsenic. Industries generate substantial quantities of toxic heavy metal wastes, such as wastewater discharges, paints, electronic waste, batteries, pigments, and plastics, into the environment that pose a risk to human health. Therefore, it is imperative to eliminate accumulated heavy metal ions from the body and the environment. Heavy metal toxicity can lead to decreased energy levels and impair the functioning of vital organs, such as the brain, lungs, kidneys, liver, and blood...

This review examines the transformative role of external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) in managing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), spotlighting the progression from traditional EBRT techniques to advanced modalities like intensity-modulated radiotherapy (RT), stereotactic body RT (SBRT), and innovative particle therapy, including proton beam therapy and carbon ion RT. These advancements have significantly improved the precision and efficacy of RT, marking a paradigm shift in the multimodal management of HCC, particularly in addressing complex cases and enhancing local tumor control...

The unique physical and biological characteristics of proton and carbon ions allow for improved sparing of normal tissues, decreased integral dose to the body, and increased biological effect through high linear energy transfer. These properties are particularly useful for sarcomas given their histology, wide array of locations, and age of diagnosis. This review summarizes the literature and describes the clinical situations in which these heavy particles have advantages for treating sarcomas.

BACKGROUND: Monte Carlo simulations have been considered for a long time the gold standard for dose calculations in conventional radiotherapy and are currently being applied for the same purpose in innovative radiotherapy techniques such as targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT). PURPOSE: We present in this work a benchmarking study of the latest version of the Transport d'Ions Lourds Dans l'Aqua & Vivo (TILDA-V ) Monte Carlo track structure code, highlighting its capabilities for describing the full slowing down of <mml:math xmlns:mml="https://www...

BACKGROUND: FLASH Radiotherapy (RT) is an emergent cancer RT modality where an entire therapeutic dose is delivered at more than 1000 times higher dose rate than conventional RT. For clinical trials to be conducted safely, a precise and fast beam monitor that can generate out-of-tolerance beam interrupts is required. This paper describes the overall concept and provides results from a prototype ultra-fast, scintillator-based beam monitor for both proton and electron beam FLASH applications...

PURPOSE: Lymphopenia is now generally recognized as a negative prognostic factor in radiotherapy. Already at the beginning of the century we demonstrated that high-energy carbon ions induce less damage to the lymphocytes of radiotherapy patients than X-rays, even if heavy ions are more effective per unit dose in the induction of chromosomal aberrations in blood cells irradiated ex-vivo. The explanation was based on the volume effect, i.e. the sparing of larger volumes of normal tissue in Bragg peak therapy...

Radiation therapy uses ionizing radiation to break chemical bonds in cancer cells, thereby causing DNA damage and leading to cell death. The therapeutic effectiveness can be further increased by making the tumor cells more sensitive to radiation. Here, we investigate the role of the initial halogen atom core hole on the photofragmentation dynamics of 2-bromo-5-iodo-4-nitroimidazole, a potential bifunctional radiosensitizer. Bromine and iodine atoms were included in the molecule to increase the photoionization cross-section of the radiosensitizer at higher photon energies...

BACKGROUND: The current study aims to evaluate the occurrence of temporal lobe reactions and identify possible risk factors for patients who underwent particle therapy of the skull base. METHODS: 244 patients treated for skull base chordoma ( n = 144) or chondrosarcoma ( n = 100) at the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center (HIT) using a raster scan technique, were analyzed. Follow-up MRI-scans were matched with the initial planning images. Radiogenic reactions were contoured and analyzed based on volume and dose of treatment...

BACKGROUND: Although carbon ion radiation therapy (CIRT) substantially improves the overall survival (OS) of patients with LR-NPC, approximately 40% of the patients may develop local recurrence. The purpose of study is to assess the value of tumor volume (TV) as a predictive tool to guide individualized CIRT. METHODS: Consecutive patients with LR-NPC treated using CIRT at Shanghai Proton and Heavy Ion Center between April 2015 and May 2019 were included. TV before CIRT was delineated and calculated...