Expression of CK-19 and CEA mRNA in peripheral blood of gastric cancer patients

Aim: To investigate the clinical and pathological relevance of detection of circulating tumor cells (CTC) in the peripheral blood of gastric carcinoma patients before operation. Patients and Methods: Fifty patients with gastric adenocarcinoma were analysed prospectively. Patients were divided into two groups according to the extent of the tumor. Group I (unresectable) consisted of 22, and group II (resectable) consisted of 28 patients. Peripheral blood samples were collected pre-operatively from all 50 patients as well as from ten healthy controls and analyzed for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cytokeratin-19 (CK-19) messenger ribonucleic acids (mRNAs). Tumor localisation, stage, presence of signet cell formation, nodal metastases, serousal and lymphovascular invasion were recorded for all patients. Results: Expression of CK-19 was detected in 24 (48%), and CEA in 10 (20%) cases. Nine patients (40%) in group I and 15 (53.6%) in group II were positive for CK-19 expression. CEA expression was more frequent among group I patients (6 vs. 4 cases). There was no significant difference between the groups in the expression of CK-19 and CEA mRNA, tumor localisation, presence of signet formation, and presence and extent of nodal metastases. Patients with major vascular invasion (MVI) expressed significantly higher levels of CTC mRNA compared to those without MVI (p = 0.023 for CEA, and p = 0.009 for CK-19). The median 1 and 2-year survival was 9.5 and 10.5 months for group I, and 20 and 28.5 months for group II, respectively (p = 0.001). The mean survival was 6.7 months for patients with MVI, and 30.2 months for those without MVI (p = 0.0001). Conclusions: High levels of CTCs were observed in patients with MVI invasion, rather than other causes of unresectability. It can be suggested that expression of both CEA and CK-19 in the peripheral blood of gastric cancer patients are strong predictors of MVI and significantly worse survival rates. Copyright © Experimental Oncology, 2010

Optical Imaging of Tumor Response to Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment and Irradiation in an Orthotopic Mouse Model of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

PURPOSE: Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is used in the treatment of radiation-induced tissue injury but its effect on (residual) tumor tissue is indistinct and therefore investigated in this study. PROCEDURES: Orthotopic FaDu tumors were established in mice, and the response of the (irradiated) tumors to HBOT was monitored by bioluminescence imaging. Near infrared fluorescence imaging using AngioSense750 and Hypoxisense680 was applied to detect tumor vascular permeability and hypoxia. RESULTS: HBOT treatment resulted in accelerated growth of non-irradiated tumors, but mouse survival was improved. Tumor vascular leakiness and hypoxia were enhanced after HBOT, whereas histological characteristics, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition markers, and metastatic incidence were not influenced. CONCLUSIONS: Squamous cell carcinoma responds to HBOT with respect to tumor growth, vascular permeability, and hypoxia, which may have implications for its use in cancer patients. The ability to longitudinally analyze tumor characteristics highlights the versatility and potential of optical imaging methods in oncological research. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11307-015-0834-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

The effects of cold rolling and the subsequent heat treatments on the shape memory and the superelasticity characteristics of Cu73Al16Mn11 shape memory alloy

In the present study, the effect of thermo-mechanical treatments on the shape memory and the superelastic characteristics of Cu73Al16Mn11 (at%) shape memory alloy were investigated. 10%, 50% and 70% cold rolling and subsequent heat treatment processes were conducted to achieve strengthening via grain size refinement. 70% grain size reduction compared to the homogenized condition was obtained using 70% cold rolling and subsequent recrystallization heat treatment technique. Moreover, 10% cold rolling was applied to homogenized specimen to reveal the influence of the low percentage cold rolling reduction with no heat treatment on shape memory properties of Cu73Al16Mn11 (at%) alloy. Stress free transformation temperatures, monotonic tension and superelasticity behaviors of these samples were compared with those of the as-aged sample. Isobaric heating-cooling experiments were also conducted to see the dimensional stability of the samples as a function of applied stress. The 70% grain-refined sample exhibited better dimensional stability showing reduced residual strain levels upon thermal cycling under constant stress compared with the as-aged material. However, no improvement was achieved with grain size reduction in the superelasticity experiments. This distinctive observation was attributed to the difference in the magnitude of the stress levels achieved during two different types of experiments which were the isobaric heating-cooling and superelasticity tests. Intergranular fracture due to the stress concentration overcame the strengthening effect via grain refinement in the superelasticity tests at higher stress values. On the other hand, the strength of the material and resistance of material against plastic deformation upon phase transformation were increased as a result of the grain refinement at lower stress values in the isobaric heating-cooling experiments

Agent-based modeling of the demand-side flexibility

The paper presents an agent-based approach to model the flexibility of the demand-side. It uses Q-learning algorithm to model a behavior of a demand-side agent, so to investigate the elasticity of the demand to the change in price. Often, market simulation models assume that the demand elasticity is known, however due the lack of data this elasticity is not easy to determine. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the flexibility of the total system demand, and the shift in the consumption with the price, i.e. increase in the demand when the price is low, and a decrease in the demand when the price is high. The here presented model of a demand-side agent is incorporated into the market simulator with double-sided auctions, and is tested on the Slovenian market. However, this approach can be used to estimate flexibility in any system for which the forecasted demand data and generation offers are know

Shape memory behavior and tension–compression asymmetry of a FeNiCoAlTa single-crystalline shape memory alloy

A textured polycrystalline FeNiCoAlTa shape memory alloy was recently shown to possess large superelastic strain and stress levels. In this study, the shape memory behavior of a Fe-28Ni-17Co-11.5Al-2.5Ta (at.%) single-crystalline material oriented along the direction was studied, for the first time, by thermal cycling under constant stress levels in both tension and compression. When gamma' precipitates with an average size of 5 nm are introduced by an aging heat treatment, the single crystals show fully recoverable transformation strains up to 3.75% in tension and 2% in compression. The change in transformation temperatures for a unit change in applied stress level was higher in compression than in tension, in accord with the lower transformation strains in compression obtained both from theoretical calculations and experimental observations. However, in all specimens, the observed transformation strain levels were lower than theoretically predicted, possibly owing to significant volume fraction of non-transforming precipitates, incomplete martensite reorientation due to martensite variant interactions, and a slightly higher-than-expected martensite c/a ratio in the samples used in this study. The ramifications of relevant structural parameters and microstructural features on reaching theoretical transformation strain and high strength levels are also discussed. (C) 2012 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Expression of CK-19 and CEA MRNA in peripheral blood of gastric cancer patients

The aim of this paper is to investigate the clinical and pathological relevance of detection of circulating tumor cells (CTC) in the peripheral blood of gastric carcinoma patients before operation