The development of novel technologies for the safe and effective delivery of radiation is critical to advancing the field of radiation oncology. The Emerging Technology Committee of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology appointed a Task Group...
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: In early-stage Dupuytren's contracture, radiotherapy is applied to prevent disease progression. Long-term outcome and late toxicity of the treatment were evaluated in a retrospective analysis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between 12/1982 and 02/2006,...
PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of radiation therapy (RT) in the treatment of early stages of benign plantar fibromatosis (Morbus Ledderhose [ML]). PATIENTS AND METHODS: From 2003 to 2008, 24 patients (33 sites) with a mean age of 52 years received RT for...
To study the effects of cranial irradiation, we have constructed an all-plastic mouse bed equipped with an immobilizing head holder. The bed integrates with our in-house Small Animal Radiation Research Platform (SARRP) for precision focal irradiation experiments and...
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), who undergo chest instrumentation, may develop seeding at the site of intervention, leading to subcutaneous tumour. This is believed to be reduced by the common practice of prophylactic...
BACKGROUND: Keloids have been treated by using radiation for over a century, and it is currently suggested that keloids are best treated by a combination of surgery and postoperative radiation therapy, although randomized controlled trials testing this are still...
OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: To discuss the role of radiotherapy (RT) in the treatment of cutaneous squamous and basal cell carcinomas of the head and neck. METHODS: Review of the pertinent literature. RESULTS: The likelihood of cure with a good cosmetic outcome is high for...
Low-dose hyper-radiosensitivity (HRS) is the phenomenon whereby cells exposed to radiation doses of less than ∼0.5 Gy exhibit increased cell killing relative to that predicted from back-extrapolating high-dose survival data using a linear-quadratic model. While the exact mechanism remains to be elucidated, the involvement of several molecular repair pathways has been documented. These processes in turn are also associated with the response of cells to O6-methylguanine (O6MeG) lesions. We propose a model in which the level of low-dose cell killing is determined by the efficiency of both pre-replicative repair by the DNA repair enzyme O6-methylguanine methyltransferase (MGMT) and post-replicative repair by the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) system. We therefore hypothesized that the response of cells to low doses of radiation is dependent on the expression status of MGMT and MMR proteins. MMR (MSH2, MSH6, MLH1, PMS1, PMS2) and MGMT protein expression signatures were determined in a panel of normal (PWR1E, RWPE1) and malignant (22RV1, DU145, PC3) prostate cell lines and correlated with clonogenic survival and cell cycle analysis. PC3 and RWPE1 cells (HRS positive) were associated with MGMT and MMR proficiency, whereas HRS negative cell lines lacked expression of at least one (MGMT or MMR) protein. MGMT inactivation had no significant effect on cell survival. These results indicate a possible role for MMR-dependent processing of damage produced by low doses of radiation.
Lynn Martin, Brian Marples, Mary Coffey, Mark Lawler, Donal Hollywood, and Laure Marignol
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Courtship is well known for its positive effects on mating success. However, in polyandrous species, sexual selection continues to operate after copulation. Cryptic female choice is expected under unpredictable mating rates in combination with sequential mate encounters. However, there are very few accounts of the effects of courtship on cryptic female choice, and the available evidence is often correlative.
Mature Argiope bruennichi females are always receptive and never attack or reject males before mating, although sexual cannibalism after mating occurs regularly. Still, males usually perform an energetic vibratory display prior to copulation. We tested the hypothesis that beneficial effects of courtship arise cryptically, during or after mating, resulting in increased paternity success under polyandry. Manipulating courtship duration experimentally, we found that males that mated without display had a reduced paternity share even though no differences in post-copulatory cannibalism or copulation duration were detected. This suggests that the paternity advantage associated with courtship arose through female-mediated processes after intromission, meeting the definition of cryptic female choice.
Jutta M Schneider and Kristiani Lesmono
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