1871. Preoperative treatment with radiochemotherapy for locally advanced gastroesophageal junction cancer and unresectable locally advanced gastric cancerIvica Ratoša, Irena Oblak, Franc Anderluh, Vaneja Velenik, Jasna But-Hadžić, Ajra Šečerov Ermenc, Ana Jeromen, 2015, original scientific article Abstract: To purpose of the study was to analyze the results of preoperative radiochemotherapy in patients with unresectable gastric or locoregionally advanced gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer treated at a single institution. Between 1/2004 and 6/2012, 90 patients with locoregionally advanced GEJ or unresectable gastric cancer were treated with preoperative radiochemotherapy at the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana. Planned treatment schedule consisted of induction chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin, followed by concomitant radiochemotherapy four weeks later. Three-dimensional conformal external beam radiotherapy was delivered by dual energy (6 and 15 MV) linear accelerator in 25 daily fractions of 1.8 Gy in 5 weeks with two additional cycles of chemotherapy repeated every 28 days. Surgery was performed 4-6 weeks after completing radiochemotherapy. Following the surgery, multidisciplinary advisory team reassessed patients for the need of adjuvant chemotherapy. The primary endpoints were histopathological R0 resection rate and pathological response rate. The secondary endpoints were toxicity of preoperative radiochemotherapy and survival. Treatment with preoperative radiochemotherapy was completed according to the protocol in 84 of 90 patients (93.3%). Twenty patients (22.2%) did not undergo the surgery because of the disease progression, serious comorbidity, poor performance status or still unresectable tumour. In 13 patients (14.4%) only exploration was performed because the tumour was assessed as unresectable or diffuse peritoneal carcinomatosis was established. Fifty-seven patients (63.4%) underwent surgery with the aim of complete removal of the tumour. Radical resection was achieved in 50 (55.6%) patients and the remaining seven (7.8%) patients underwent non-radical surgery (R1 in five and R2 in two patients). In this group of patients (n = 57), pathological complete response of tumour was achieved in five patients (5.6% of all treated patients or 8.8% of all operated patients). Down-staging was recorded in 49 patients (86%), in one patient (1.8%) the stage after radiochemotherapy was unchanged while in seven patients (12.3%) the pathological stage was higher than clinical, mainly due to higher pN stage. No death was recorded during preoperative radiochemotherapy. Most grade 3 and 4 toxicities were due to vomiting, nausea and bone marrow suppression (granulocytopenia). Twentysix (45.6%) patients died due to GEJ or gastric carcinoma, one died because of septic shock following the surgery and a reason for two deaths was unknown. Twenty-eight patients (49.1%) were disease free at the time of analysis, while 29 patients (50.9%) developed the recurrence, mostly as distant metastases. At two years, locoregional control, diseasefree survival, disease-specific survival and overall survival were 82.9%, 43.9%, 56.9% and 53.9%, respectively. Preoperative radiochemotherapy was feasible in our group of patients and had acceptable toxicity. Majority of patients achieved down-staging, allowing greater proportion of radical resections (R0), which are essential for patientsʼ cure.
Keywords: neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy, perioperative chemotherapy, chemotherapy, adenocarcinoma, carcinoma, surgery
Published in DiRROS: 23.04.2024; Views: 450; Downloads: 170
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1872. Endobronchial ultrasound elastography strain ratio for mediastinal lymph node diagnosisAleš Rozman, Mateja Marc-Malovrh, Katja Adamič, Tjaša Šubic, Viljem Kovač, Matjaž Fležar, 2015, original scientific article Keywords: cancer staging, elastography, endobronchial ultrasound, lung cancer, needle biopsy
Published in DiRROS: 23.04.2024; Views: 467; Downloads: 245
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1874. Release of growth factors after mechanical and chemical pleurodesis for treatment of malignant pleural effusion : a randomized control studyAljaž Hojski, Maja Leitgeb, Anton Crnjac, 2015, original scientific article Abstract: Growth factors are key inducers of fibrosis but can also mediate inflammatory responses resulting in increasing pleural effusion and acute respiratory distress syndrome. The primary aim of the study was to analyse growth factors release after performing chemical and mechanical pleurodesis in the first 48 hours at the patients with malignant pleural effusion. The secondary endpoints were to evaluate the effectiveness of the both pleurodeses, symptoms release and the quality of life of patients after the treatment. Patients and methods. A prospective randomized study included 36 consecutive female patients with breast carcinoma and malignant pleural effusion in an intention-to-treat analysis. We treated 18 patients by means of thoracoscopic mechanical pleurodesis and 18 patients by chemical pleurodesis with talcum applied over a chest tube. We gathered the pleural fluid and serum samples in the following 48 hours under a dedicated protocol and tested them for growth factors levels. A quality of life and visual analogue pain score surveys were also performed. Results. Median measured serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) level after chemical pleurodesis was 930.68 pg/ml (95% CI: 388.22-4656.65) and after mechanical pleurodesis 808.54 pg/ml. (95% CI: 463.20-1235.13) (p = 0.103). Median pleural levels of transforming growth factor (TGF) ß1 were higher after performing mechanical pleurodesis (4814.00 pg/ml [95% CI: 2726.51-7292.94]) when compared to those after performing chemical pleurodesis (1976.50 pg/ml [95% CI: 1659.82-5136.26]) (p = 0.078). We observed similar results for fibroblast growth factor (FGF) ß; the serum level was higher after mechanical pleurodesis (30.45 pg/ml [95% CI: 20.40-59.42]), compared to those after chemical pleurodesis (13.39 pg/ml [95% CI: 5.04-74.60]) (p = 0.076). Mechanical pleurodesis was equally effective as chemical pleurodesis in terms of hospital stay, pleural effusion re-accumulation, requiring of additional thoracentesis, median overall survival, but, it shortened the mean thoracic drainage duration (p = 0.030) and resulted in a higher symptoms release and in a better quality of life (p = 0.047). Conclusions. We recorded an increase in serum VEGF levels after chemical pleurodesis, however on the contrary, an increase in the pleural fluid level of TGF%1 and FGF%] after mechanical pleurodesis with respect to compared group. Although the differences did not reach statistical significance, VEGF, TGFß1 and FGFß remain the most interesting parameters for future research. Considering the mechanisms of growth factors action, we conclude that in our study group mechanical pleurodesis might be more efficient in terms of growth factors release, thoracic drainage duration and resulted in a higher symptoms release and in a better quality of life than chemical pleurodesis.
Keywords: malignant pleural effusion, pleurodesis, growth factors, quality of life
Published in DiRROS: 23.04.2024; Views: 509; Downloads: 399
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1876. Towards deploying highly quantized neural networks on FPGA using chiselJure Vreča, Anton Biasizzo, 2023, published scientific conference contribution Abstract: We present chisel4ml, a Chisel-based tool that generates hardware for highly quantized neural networks described in QKeras. Such networks typically use parameters with bitwidths less than 8 bits and may have pruned connections. Chisel4ml can generate the highly quantized neural network as a single combinational circuit with pipeline registers in between the different layers. It supports heterogeneous quantization where each layer can have a different precision. The full parallelization enables very low-latency and high throughput inference, that are required for certain tasks. We illustrate this on the triggering system for the CERN Large Hadron Collider, which filters out events of interest and sends them on for further processing. We compare our tool against hls4ml, a high-level synthesis based approach for deploying similar neural networks. Chisel4ml is still under development. However, it already achieves comparable results to hls4ml for some neural network architectures. Chisel4ml is available on https://github.com/cs-jsi/chisel4ml.
Keywords: neural networks, QKeras, Chisel4ml
Published in DiRROS: 23.04.2024; Views: 364; Downloads: 237
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1877. Treatment of tongue cavernous haemangioma with direct puncture and sclerotization with ethanolTomaž Šeruga, Jernej Lučev, Marko Jevšek, 2015, professional article Abstract: Background. Haemangiomas of tongue are rare type of malformations. They can be treated mostly conservatively but in some cases they need more aggressive treatment with preoperative intra arterial embolization and surgical resection. Lesions of tongue that are localized superficially can also be treated with direct puncture and injection of sclerosing agent (absolute ethanol). Case report. We present a case of a 48 years old female patient, where we performed embolization of cavernous haemangioma with mixture of absolute ethanol and oil contrast. After the procedure the patient received analgetics and antioedematous therapy. After the sclerotization the planed surgery was abandoned. Control MRI examinations 6 and 12 months after the procedure showed only a small remnant of haemangioma and no signs of a larger relapse. Conclusion. In our case the direct puncture of haemangioma and sclerotherapy with ethanol proved to be a safe and effective method to achieve preoperative devascularization of the lesion. Direct puncture of the lesion is not limited by the anatomy of the vessels or vasospasm, which can occur during the intra-arterial approach.
Published in DiRROS: 23.04.2024; Views: 411; Downloads: 214
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1878. Hypodontia phenotype in patients with epithelial ovarian cancerAnita Fekonja, Andrej Čretnik, Danijel Žerdoner, Iztok Takač, 2015, original scientific article Abstract: Background. Ovarian cancer is usually diagnosed in an advanced stage and the present clinical and diagnostic molecular markers for early OC screening are insufficient. The aim of this study was to identify potential relationship between the hypodontia and epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Patients and methods. A retrospective study was conducted on 120 patients with EOC treated at the Department of Gynaecologic and Breast Oncology at the University Clinical Centre and 120 gynaecological healthy women (control group) of the same mean age. Women in both groups were reviewed for the presence of hypodontia and the patients with EOC also for clinicopathological characteristics of EOC according to hypodontia phenotype. Results. Hypodontia was diagnosed in 23 (19.2%) of patients with EOC and 8 (6.7%) controls (p = 0.004; odds ratio [OR] = 3.32; confidence interval [CI], 1.42-7.76). There was no statistically significant difference in patients with EOC with or without hypodontia regarding histological subtype (p = 0.220); they differed in regard to FIGO stage (p = 0.014; OR =3.26; CI, 1.23%8.64) and tumour differentiation grade (p = 0.042; OR = 3.1; CI, 1.01-9.53). Also, bilateral occurrence of EOC was more common than unilateral occurrence in women with hypodontia (p = 0.021; OR = 2.9; CI, 1.15-7.36). We also found statistically significant difference between the ovarian cancer group and control group in presence of other malignant tumours in subjects (p < 0.001). Conclusions. The results of the study suggest a statistical association between EOC and hypodontia phenotype. Hypodontia might serve as a risk factor for EOC detection.
Published in DiRROS: 23.04.2024; Views: 397; Downloads: 236
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1879. Giant solitary fibrous tumour of the pleura : case report and review of the literatureAnton Crnjac, Bojan Veingerl, Damjan Vidovič, Rajko Kavalar, Aljaž Hojski, 2015, review article Abstract: Background. Solitary fibrous tumours of the pleura (SFTP) are rare tumours. They are mostly benign. Only around 12% of them are malignant. In the initial stage they are mostly asymptomatic and by growing they cause chest pain, irritating cough and dyspnoea on account of the pressure created on the surrounding structures. Rare giant tumours have compression symptoms on the mediastinal structures. The condition requires tiered diagnostic radiology. Preoperative biopsy is not successful in most cases. The therapy of choice is radical surgical tumour removal. Malignant or nonradically removed benign solitary fibrous tumours of the pleura additionally require neoadjuvant therapy. Case report. A 68-year old patient was hospitalized for giant solitary fibrous tumour of the pleura in the right pleural cavity. With its expansive growth the tumour caused the shift of the mediastinum by compressing the lower vena cava, right cardiac auricle as well as the intermediate and lower lobe bronchus. Due to cardiac inflow obstruction and right lung collapse, the patient's life was endangered with signs of cardio-respiratory failure. After preoperative diagnostic radiology, the tumour was surgically removed. Postoperatively, the patient's condition improved. No disease recurrence was diagnosed after a year. Conclusions. Giant solitary fibrous tumour of the pleura may cause serious and life-threatening conditions by causing compression of the pleural cavity with its expansive growth. Early diagnosis of the condition enables less aggressive as well as video-assisted thoracic surgery in patients with significantly better state of health. Large tumour surgeries in cardio-respiratory affected patients are highly risk-associated procedures.
Published in DiRROS: 23.04.2024; Views: 547; Downloads: 377
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1880. Gamma-enolase : a well known tumour marker, with a less-known role in cancerTjaša Vižin, Janko Kos, 2015, review article Abstract: Gamma-enolase, known also as neuron-specific enolase (NSE), is an enzyme of the glycolytic pathway, which is expressed predominantly in neurons and cells of the neuroendocrine system. As a tumour marker it is used in diagnosis and prognosis of cancer; however, the mechanisms enrolling it in malignant progression remain elusive. As a cytoplasmic enzyme gamma-enolase is involved in increased aerobic glycolysis, the main source of energy in cancer cells, supporting cell proliferation. However, different cellular localisation at pathophysiological conditions, proposes other cellular engagements. The C-terminal part of the molecule, which is not related to glycolytic pathway, was shown to promote survival of neuronal cells by regulating neuronal growth factor receptor dependent signalling pathways, resulting also in extensive actin cytoskeleton remodelling. This additional function could be important also in cancer cells either to protect cells from stressful conditions and therapeutic agents or to promote tumour cell migration and invasion. Gamma-enolase might therefore have a multifunctional role in cancer progression: it supports increased tumour cell metabolic demands, protects tumour cells from stressful conditions and promotes their invasion and migration.
Keywords: gamma-enolase, cancer, glycolysis, cell survival, tumour marker
Published in DiRROS: 23.04.2024; Views: 419; Downloads: 233
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