Palliative Local Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Tumor-stage Cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma/ Mycosis Fungoides

Objective To determine the efficacy of palliative radiotherapy in treating tumor-stage cutaneous T-cell lymphoma/mycosis fungoides(MF).Methods From January 2008 to January 2013,a total of 11 patients with tumor-stage MF were treated with local radiation therapy in Peking Union Medical College Hospital.The median age of these patients was 53.36±14.45 years.Female-male ratio was 1:1.2.The average course of disease was 10.82±3.37 years.All the patients were treated with local electronic beam irradiation with a total median dosage of 48.55±9.51(40-74) Gy in an average of 24.55±5.57(20-40) fractions,5 fractions per week.Results The median follow-up time was 55.27±29.3(13-103) months.No severe acute or chronic side effects of irradiation were observed.Complete clinical response(CR) rate of the radiated sites was 54.5%(6/11),partial response(PR) rate was 36.4%(4/11),and the overall response rate(CR+PR) was 90.9%.One patient showed no response.Conclusion Local radiotherapy with psolaren plus ultraviolet A and/or interferon maintaining treatment is an effective palliative therapy in the treatment of tumor-stage MF patients.

Synthesis of nanoscale CeAl4 and its high catalytic efficiency for hydrogen storage of sodium alanate

Nanoscale CeAl4 was directly synthesized by the thermal reaction between CeH2 and nano-aluminum at300℃.Then nano CeAl4-doped sodium alanate（NaAlH4）was synthesized by ball milling NaH/Al with 0.04CeAl4under hydrogen atmosphere at room temperature,and the catalytic efficiency of nanoscale CeAl4 for hydrogen storage of NaAlH4 was systematically investigated.It is shown that CeAl4 can effectively improve the dehydrogenation properties of sodium alanate system.The 0.04CeAl4-doped NaAlH4 system starts to release hydrogen below 80℃,completes dehydrogenation within 10 min at 170℃,and exhibits good cycling de/hydrogenation kinetics at relatively lower temperature（100-140℃）.Apparent activation energy of the dehydrogenation of NaAlH4 can be effectively reduced by addition of CeAl4,resulting in the decrease in desorption temperatures.Moreover,by analyzing the reaction kinetics of nano CeAl4-doped NaAlH4sample,both of the decomposition steps are conformed to a two-dimensional phase-boundary growth mechanism.The mechanistic investigations gained here can help to understand the de-/rehydrogenation behaviors of catalyzed complex metal hydride systems.

Progress and prospect of non-invasive detection techniques in the therapeutic evaluation of melasma

Melasma is a common,chronic,acquired,and refractory hyperpigmentation,the etiopathogenesis of which is multifactorial.[1,2]Current treatments include topical or systemic agents,chemical peels,laser-and light-based therapies,and traditional Chinese medicine.[3]At present,the therapeutic evaluation of melasma can be mainly summarized into four categories:(1)Patient self-assessments[4];(2)Scoring systems used by dermatologists[5];(3)Non-invasive detection techniques[6,7];(4)Histopathological and immunohistochemical assessments.[8]Providing a non-invasive,objective,and reproducible methodology to evaluate treatment efficacy in melasma has become the focus of many researchers.In the current review,the commonly used and the latest non-invasive detection techniques which have been applied in the therapeutic evaluation of melasma in recent years are discussed.