Emerging clinical evidence revealed that postoperative adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) could improve the clinical outcome for resected head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in high-risk patients. The irradiation targets and doses should be determined by the primary tumor site, clinical stage, pathology reports, and the evaluation of postoperative imaging. Adjuvant concurrent CRT with cisplatin is the current standard treatment for high-risk postoperative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients. However, the effect of concurrent CRT with other chemotherapeutic agents and (or) epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibody in these patients is inconclusive. Human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal cancer has the unique biological characteristics, and the indications and treatment models of postoperative adjuvant CRT for these patients are still unclear. Further study is needed.

Microenviroment hypoxia is one of the common phenomenon in cancer,studies have indiacat-ed that hypoxia induces genetic instability via activating many DNA danlage-repair signal pathways,which asso-ciates with tumor invasion and resistance and chemi-radiotherapy resistivity.Here,we overview three main DNA damage-repair pathways:mismatch repair,homologous recombination and non-homologous end joining,and how hypoxia influences their mechanisms.

Patients with ataxia-telangiectasia ( A-T) syndrome were charachaterized by profound hypersensitivity to ionizing radiation in clinic. Many studies have shown that this hypersensitivity possibly attributed to ATM gene whose critical compartment was ATM kinase. So inhibitors of the ATM kinase such as caffeine, pentoxifylline, methyl xanthines and 7-hydroxystaurosporine (UCN-01) were developed and have achieved a few encouraging results in basic and clinical stuides.

(0.05)). Multivariate analysis revealed that adjuvant radiotherapy and histology of tumor significantly affected the prognosis(P=(0.045) and P=(0.009), respectively). Whereas loco-regional control was only significantly affected by adjuvant radiotherapy(P=(0.000)). CONCLUSION: Adjuvant radiotherapy and histology of tumor are the important prognostic factors in the rectal cancer patients after treatment with multimodality therapy based on surgery.

Objective To investigate whether chromosome induced aberrations scored with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) predict the radiosensitivity of human tumor cell lines. Methods Three human cell lines with different radiosensitivities(nasopharyngeal cell line CNE, lung adenocarcinoma cell line SPC, and breast adenocarcinoma cell line MCF 7) were used for clonogenic assay. Cells were irradiated with a dose of 1～8?Gy. Radiation induced aberration in a single chromosome (number 8) was measured at 24?h after irradiation of 2, 4 and 6?Gy.Results Radiation induced aberration in chromosome 8 reflected the radiosensitivity in CNE, SPC and MCF 7 cells 24 h after irradiation. It was associated with survival fraction at 2?Gy (r=0.96). Conclusion These results suggest that the radiation induced chromosome aberrations in interphase measured by FISH be a considerable promise for prediction of radiosensitivity in tumor cells.

Objective To evaluate the prognosis for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of cervical lymph node metastases from an unknown primary site who had different clinical stages and were irradiated to different fields. Methods The clinical date of 60 patients with cervical lymph node metastatic squamous cell carcinoma from an unknown primary site(no including patients with supraclavicular node metastases) were retrospectively analyzed. Results The overall 5-year survival rates(OSR) was 68.5%, the OSR of patients with N 1,N 2 and N 3 stage were 100%, 68.0% and 40.9% respectively(? 2=7.29,P=0.026). The OSR of patients with one lateral neck, whole neck and large fields irradiation were 66.5%, 74.5% and 54.6% respectively(? 2=1.38,P =0.501). The Cox proportional hazard model showed that clinical stages of cervical lymph node had an significant effect in patients survival(P=0.032). The 5-year local control rates(LCR) 65.6%, the LCR of patients with N 1,N 2 and N 3 stage were 100%, 63.2% and 34.6% respectively(? 2=5.51, P=0.064). The LCR of patients with one lateral neck, whole neck and large fields irradiation were 87.6%, 51.0% and 72.7% respectively(? 2=2.55, P =0.279). The 5-year subsequent appearance rates of occult primary cancer(SAR) was 21.2%, the SAR of patients irradiated by small(one lateral neck or whole neck) and large fields were 23.3% and 12.5% respectively(? 2=0.52, P =0.469). Conclusions The clinical stages of cervical lymph node is an important prognostic factor for survival and the local control rates has a decreasing trend as the stage increases. The subsequent appearance rates of occult primary cancer of patients irradiated by small fields has a higher trend than its of patients irradiated by large fields, but the control rates and survival rates have no significant difference in different fields irradiated.

Fibroblasts ; pathology ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; pathology

Objective To evaluate the outcome , side effects and prognosis of prostate carcinoma treated with external radiotherapy. Methods From 1990 to 1999, a total of 45 prostate carcinoma patients were treated. Four cases were lost during follow up. Forty one patients underwent orchiectomy before radiation therapy , 29 received orchiectomy combined with hormone treatment. All patients received conventional radiation therapy with a median dose of 68.3 ?Gy (50.4 75.9?Gy), 1.8 2.0?Gy per fraction, five fractions weekly. Results The median follow up duration was 28 months (1 111 months). The overall 5 year survival was 76.4% and the 5 year disease specific survival was 76.5%. In terms of acute GI side effects, the frequencies of Grade Ⅰ, Ⅱ or Ⅲ reactions were 53.5%, 7.0% and 9.3% while Grade Ⅰ or Ⅱ , acute GU side effects were 41.9% and 4.7%, respectively. For the long term deleterious effects,Grade Ⅰ or Ⅱ in GI late complications were 16.7% and 7.1% and the GU late morbidities of Grade Ⅰ,Ⅱ or Ⅲ were 23.8%, 4.8% and 2.4%, respectively. Regional lymph node metastasis was closely correlated with both overall survival (P= 0.002 ) and disease specific survival (P= 0.002 ). Multivariate analysis revealed, only regional lymph node metastasis was of prognostic value to predict the overall survival and disease specific survival. Conclusion The outcome of radiation therapy for patients with T 2 T 4 prostate carcinoma is satisfactory with the side effects tolerable to most patients.

Objective To define the correlation between mutation of DNA-LigaseⅣ gene and radiosensitivity.Methods Nasopharyngeal squamous carcinoma cell line (CNE), lung adenocarcinoma cell line (SPC-A1) and breast adenocarcinoma cell line(MCF-7) after irradiation were assessed with specific biological parameters. Polymerase chain reaction, cloning and sequencing techniques were used to determine the sequence of DNA-LigaseⅣ gene in these three cell lines. Then the impact of homologous change and mutation on hydrophicity-hydrophobicity of genic products was analyzed.Results The surviving fractions derived from irradiation were different with more radiosensitivity in the CNE cell line than in the others. In three cell lines, the homology of LigaseⅣ gene were: 99.95%,99.99%,99.98%, respectively. Some mutations including transversion and transition were detected and led to alterations in the hydrophicity-hydrophobicity function of products. Higher radiosensitivity of CNE was associated with amino-acid substitutions: 313aa His→Arg,538aa Gly→Arg,579aa Lys→Arg and 585aa Asn→Ser.Conclusion These results suggest that LigaseⅣp play an important role in the ligation of DNA double strand breaks and certain mutations bring about changes in radiosensitivity.

Objective To investigate the change in mRNA expression of hypoxia inducible factor 1? HIF 1? and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) genes in the highly differentiated nasopharyngeal squamous carcinoma (CNE) cell line during hypoxia reoxygenation.Methods CNE cells were cultured in normoxic, continuous 8 hour hypoxia ,16 hour hypoxia and 16 hour hypoxia 4 hour reoxygenation conditions respectively. Expressions of HIF 1? and VEGF genes were assessed by the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) technique. Results The mRNA expression of HIF 1? gene was kept constant in the different culture conditions,whereas the mRNA expression of VEGF gene increased significantly after 8 or 16 hour hypoxia and decreased after reoxygenation for 4 hours. Conclusions Hypoxia is able to induce the mRNA expression of VEGF gene in the CNE cell, but is unable to do so in HIF 1? mRNA expression. These findings suggest that VEGF upregulation induced by hypoxia be independent HIF 1a transcription.