A, Hegde P, Cronin E, Kane M, Tavakoli B, Xu Y. Near Infrared Imaging Using US Localization To Assess Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Background: Pilot data obtained from a novel ultrasound (US)-guided diffusive-wave optical tomography in the near infrared (NIR) spectrum showed that it is feasible to use this technique to monitor vascular changes within breast tumors during neoadjuvant chemotherapy. These changes correlated well to tumor pathologic response. The earlier study was performed at a single hospital with a smaller patient pool and the tumor vascular assessment was made at a period of two treatment cycles. The objectives of this study are: (i) to validate the initial findings with a larger patient pool, and (ii) to assess vascular changes at every treatment cycle and to correlate early vascular changes with the tumor pathological response.Materials and Methods: 13 patients who underwent neoadjuvant treatment were recruited from two hospitals from December 2007 to May 2009 and their tumor vascular content was assessed with a combined imager consisting of a commercially available US system coupled to a NIR imager (NIR/US). Patients were imaged before their treatment, at the end of every treatment cycle and before their definitive surgery. The co-registered US was used to localize the tumor and to guide the NIR imaging reconstruction, and the NIR imager was used to map the tumor vascular distribution which was assessed based on a percentage total hemoglobin (%tHb) concentration normalized to the pre-treatment level. Of the 13 patients, 12 patients had contrast enhanced MRI before treatment and prior to surgery. The NIR results were compared with MRI findings. At treatment completion, pathological assessment revealed three response groups: complete or near-complete responders (A), partial responders (B), and non-responders (C).Results: There were four complete or near-complete responders, five partial responders, and four non-responders. The mean %tHbs of groups of A, B and C at the treatment completion were 38%±7.0%, 57.3%±5.7%, and 91.0%±10.1%, respectively (differences statistically significant, p<0.05). At the end of cycle one, the %tHb of group A showed no noticeable difference than that of partial and non-responder groups, however, the %tHb at the end of cycle two or three of group A was significantly lower than that of partial and non-responder groups. Figure 1 shows an example of a complete responder imaged before the treatment and at the end of cycle two.All complete or near-complete responders showed rapid reduction in %tHb at the end of cycle two or three; while all non-responders showed no change or small change in %tHb throughout the treatment. On average, partial responders showed changes in between. Both NIR/US and MRI were equally effective in distinguishing different response groups in this study.Discussion: Our findings indicate that NIR can be used during neoadjuvant chemotherapy to repeatedly monitor tumor vascular changes. NIR/US may also assess early pathological response during treatment.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 5016.

Treatment and outcome of intracranial hemorrhage after carotid artery stenting. A ten year single center experience

SUMMARY

Intracranial hemorrhage following carotid artery stenting (CAS) is a rare but potentially devastating complication. The present study reviewed intracranial hemorrhage cases from patients undergoing CAS in ten years to find the methods to rescue patients from this fatal complication. Patients with postoperative intracranial hemorrhage following CAS were retrospectively selected, and clinical features, treatments and outcomes were studied. Ten patients with intracranial hemorrhage were identified. The mean onset time of hemorrhage was 6.1-/+7.1h. Intracerebral hemorrhage occurred in eight patients and SAH in two patients. The patients were treated by stopping anti-platelet and anticoagulant for at least three days, and surgical drainage of the hematoma/ventricle drainage or conservative treatment. Six patients survived, two had left moderate paralysis, four had a good recovery at four week follow-up, and four patients died. No patients underwent thrombosis in stent after withdrawing of antiplatelet and anticoagulant. Intracranial hemorrhage after CAS occurs usually in a few hours and leads to catastrophic results. Once patients have intracranial hemorrhage, good neurocritical care may help to save them. Stopping antiplatelet and anticoagulant for at least three days may avoid thrombosis in the stenting site.

A common gain of function of p53 cancer mutants in inducing genetic instability

The critical tumor suppressor p53 is mutated in over half of all human cancers. The majority of p53 cancer mutations are missense mutations, which can be classified into contact mutations that directly disrupt the DNA-binding of p53 but have modest impact on p53 conformation and structural mutations that greatly disrupt p53 conformation. Many p53 cancer mutants, including the hot spot mutations (R175H, R248W and R273H), not only lose p53-dependent tumor-suppressor activities, but also acquire new oncogenic activities to promote cancer. Therefore, it is critical to elucidate the gain of oncogenic function of p53 cancer mutants. Using humanized p53-mutant knock-in mouse models, we have identified a gain of oncogenic function shared by the most common p53 contact mutants (R273H and R248W) and structural mutant (R175H). This gain of function inactivates Mre11/ATM-dependent DNA damage responses, leading to chromosomal translocation and defective G(2)/M checkpoint. Considering the critical roles of ATM in maintaining genetic stability and therapeutic responses to many cancer treatments, the identification of this common gain of function of p53 cancer mutants will have important implication on the drug resistance of a significant portion of human cancers that express either the contact or structural p53 cancer mutants.

Growth of long range forward-backward multiplicity correlations with centrality in Au + Au collisions at square root of sNN = 200 GeV

Forward-backward multiplicity correlation strengths have been measured with the STAR detector for Au + Au and p + p collisions at square root of s(NN) = 200 GeV. Strong short- and long-range correlations (LRC) are seen in central Au + Au collisions. The magnitude of these correlations decrease with decreasing centrality until only short-range correlations are observed in peripheral Au + Au collisions. Both the dual parton model (DPM) and the color glass condensate (CGC) predict the existence of the long-range correlations. In the DPM, the fluctuation in the number of elementary (parton) inelastic collisions produces the LRC. In the CGC, longitudinal color flux tubes generate the LRC. The data are in qualitative agreement with the predictions of the DPM and indicate the presence of multiple parton interactions.

Mechanisms of Dipolar Ortho/Para-H2O Conversion in Ice

In this paper a possible explanation for an unexpected ortho/para-water ratio in the gas clouds of comets is given. The description is based on the quantum-mechanical density matrix formalism and the spin temperature concept. Only the nuclear spin system is treated quantum-mechanically. Employing the model of a four spin system, created by two nearest neighbour water molecules, spin eigenstates and their dynamics under the influence of their mutual dipolar interactions are studied. It is shown that a fast conversion between ortho- and para-states occurs on a msec time scale, caused by the intermolecular homonuclear magnetic dipolar interaction. Moreover the spin eigenstates of water in an ice crystal are determined by magnetic dipolar interactions and are not given by normal ortho- and para-H2O states of gaseous water. As a result of this the spin temperature of gaseous water evaporated from ice depends strongly on its evaporation history and the ortho/para-ratio of water molecules are only an indirect measure of the temperature of ice crystals from where they descend. This result could explain the unexpected experimentally observed ortho/para-ratios in the clouds of comets.

Genomic full length sequence of HLA-Cw*030301, identified by cloning and sequencing

Genomic full length sequence of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-Cw*030301 that differs from Cw*030401 by two-nucleotide exchange at nt 473 (G>A) in exon 2 and nt 3033 (G>C) in 3'UTR, was identified by cloning and sequencing from a male Chinese donor.