Initial outcomes in lung cancer treatment with VMAT

Use of the lung cancer-specific Quality of Life Questionnaire EORTC QLQ-LC13 in clinical trials: A systematic review of the literature 20 years after its development

The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire-Lung Cancer 13 (QLQ-LC13) covers 13 typical symptoms of lung cancer patients and was the first module developed in conjunction with the EORTC core quality-of-life (QL) questionnaire. This review investigates how the module has been used and reported in cancer clinical trials in the 20 years since its publication. Thirty-six databases were searched with a prespecified algorithm. This search plus an additional hand search generated 770 hits, 240 of which were clinical studies. Two raters extracted data using a coding scheme. Analyses focused on the randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Of the 240 clinical studies that were identified using the LC13, 109 (45%) were RCTs. More than half of the RCTs were phase 3 trials (n = 58). Twenty RCTs considered QL as the primary endpoint, and 68 considered it as a secondary endpoint. QL results were addressed in the results section of the article (n = 89) or in the abstract (n = 92); and, in half of the articles, QL results were presented in the form of tables (n = 53) or figures (n = 43). Furthermore, QL results had an impact on the evaluation of the therapy that could be clearly demonstrated in the 47 RCTs that yielded QL differences between treatment and control groups. The EORTC QLQ-LC13 fulfilled its mission to be used as a standard instrument in lung cancer clinical trials. An update of the LC13 is underway to keep up with new therapeutic trends and to ensure optimized and relevant QL assessment in future trials.

Magnetic nanoparticle-based hyperthermia for cancer treatment

Nanotechnology involves the study of nature at a very small scale, searching new properties and applications. The development of this area of knowledge affects greatly both biotechnology and medicine disciplines. The use of materials at the nanoscale, in particular magnetic nanoparticles, is currently a prominent topic in healthcare and life science. Due to their size-tunable physical and chemical properties, magnetic nanoparticles have demonstrated a wide range of applications ranging from medical diagnosis to treatment. Combining a high saturation magnetization with a properly functionalized surface, magnetic nanoparticles are provided with enhanced functionality that allows them to selectively attach to target cells or tissues and play their therapeutic role in them. In particular, iron oxide nanoparticles are being actively investigated to achieve highly efficient carcinogenic cell destruction through magnetic hyperthermia treatments. Hyperthermia in different approaches has been used combined with radiotherapy during the last decades, however, serious harmful secondary effects have been found in healthy tissues to be associated with these treatments. In this framework, nanotechnology provides a novel and original solution with magnetic hyperthermia, which is based on the use of magnetic nanoparticles to remotely induce local heat when a radiofrequency magnetic field is applied, provoking a temperature increase in those tissues and organs where the tumoral cells are present. Therefore, one important factor that determines the efficiency of this technique is the ability of magnetic nanoparticles to be driven and accumulated in the desired area inside the body. With this aim, magnetic nanoparticles must be strategically surface functionalized to selectively target the injured cells and tissues.