Meta-analysis of late course accelerated hyperfractionated radiotherapy combined with FP chemotherapy for esophageal carcinoma

Background and Objective:Although there are many randomized clinical trials of late course accelerated hyperfractionated radiotherapy (LCAHFR) combined with FP chemotherapy for esophageal cancer, the efficacy and toxicity are controversial. This study was to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of LCAHFR combined with FP chemotherapy in treating esophageal cancer. Methods: Reports of randomized clinical trials on LCAHFR combined with FP chemotherapy for esophageal cancer published between January 1999 and January 2009 were researched through Wanfang, CNKI, and PubMed databases. RevMan4.2 software was used for Meta-analysis. Results: Twenty-one reports, including 2030 patients, were included in the meta-analysis. Of the 2030 patients, 1006 underwent LCAHFR (LCAHFR group), and 1024 underwent LCAHFR combined with FP chemotherapy (combination group). Compared with those of the LCAHFR group, the 1-, 2-, 3-, 5-years survival rates and 1-, 2-, 3-year local control rates of the combination group were significant increased, and the acute toxicity was also increased, but chronic toxicity showed no significant difference. C onclusions: LCAHFR combined with FP chemotherapy can improve the survival rate and the local control rate of the patients with esophageal cancer. The increased acute toxicity need to be concerned, whereas the chronic toxicity needs a long-term observation.

Cryoablation combined with radiotherapy for hepatic malignancy:Five case reports

BACKGROUND The survival of patients treated with monotherapy for hepatic malignancies is not ideal.A comprehensive program of cryoablation combined with radiotherapy for the treatment of hepatic malignancies results in less trauma to the patients.It may provide an option for the treatment of patients with advanced hepatic malignancies.CASE SUMMARY We reported 5 cases of advanced-stage hepatic malignancies treated in our hospital from 2017-2018,including 3 cases of primary hepatocellular carcinoma and 2 cases of metastatic hepatic carcinoma.They first received cryoablation therapy on their liver lesions.The procedure consisted of 2 freeze-thaw cycles,and for each session,the duration of freezing was 13-15 min,and the natural rewarming period was 2-8 min.Depending on the tumor size,the appropriate cryoprobes were selected to achieve complete tumor ablation to the greatest extent possible.After cryoablation surgery,intensity-modulated radiotherapy(IMRT)for liver lesions was performed,and the radiotherapy regimen was 5400 cGy/18f and 300 cGy/f.None of the 5 patients had adverse events above grade II,and their quality of life was significantly improved.Among them,4 patients were free of disease progression in the liver lesions under local control,and their survival was prolonged;3 patients are still alive.CONCLUSION Our clinical practice demonstrated that cryoablation combined with IMRT could be implemented safely.The definitive efficacy for hepatic malignancies needs to be confirmed in larger-size sample prospective studies.

Surface Majorana flat bands in j=3/2 superconductors with singlet-quintet mixing

Recent experiments[Science Advances 4 eaao4513(2018)]have revealed the evidence of nodal-line superconductivity in half-Heusler superconductors,e.g.,YPt Bi.Theories have suggested the topological nature of such nodal-line superconductivity and proposed the existence of surface Majorana flat bands on the(111)surface of half-Heusler superconductors.Due to the divergent density of states of the surface Majorana flat bands,the surface order parameter and the surface impurity play essential roles in determining the surface properties.We study the effect of the surface order parameter and the surface impurity on the surface Majorana flat bands of half-Heusler superconductors based on the Luttinger model.To be specific,we consider the topological nodal-line superconducting phase induced by the singlet-quintet pairing mixing,classify all the possible translationally invariant order parameters for the surface states according to irreducible representations of C3vpoint group,and demonstrate that any energetically favorable order parameter needs to break the time-reversal symmetry.We further discuss the energy splitting in the energy spectrum of surface Majorana flat bands induced by different order parameters and non-magnetic or magnetic impurities.We propose that the splitting in the energy spectrum can serve as the fingerprint of the pairing symmetry and mean-field order parameters.Our theoretical prediction can be examined in the future scanning tunneling microscopy experiments.

Quantum anomalous Hall effect in two-dimensional magnetic insulator heterojunctions

Recent years have witnessed tremendous success in the discovery of topological states of matter.Particularly,sophisticated theoretical methods in time-reversal-invariant topological phases have been developed,leading to the comprehensive search of crystal database and the prediction of thousands of topological materials.In contrast,the discovery of magnetic topological phases that break time reversal is still limited to several exemplary materials because the coexistence of magnetism and topological electronic band structure is rare in a single compound.To overcome this challenge,we propose an alternative approach to realize the quantum anomalous Hall(QAH)effect,a typical example of magnetic topological phase,via engineering two-dimensional(2D)magnetic van der Waals heterojunctions.