Objective:To evaluate the acute toxicities and related influencing factors of vertebral-body-sparing proton craniospinal irradiation (VBSpCSI) using pencil beam scanning (PBS) technology in pediatric patients, and to assess spinal growth and survival outcomes.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on 70 pediatric patients treated with PBS-based VBSpCSI at Hebei Yizhou Cancer Hospital between January 2020 and December 2022, and continued to follow up until November 2023. Acute toxicities were assessed, and linear regression analysis combined with receiver operating characteristic curve were employed to investigate the dose-effect relationship between vertebral dose and toxicities. Spinal growth after radiotherapy was evaluated by measuring the Cobb angle on follow-up MRI. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method.Results:The median age of patients at the time of irradiation was 6 years (range, 2-16 years). Two patients (3%) developed grade ≥3 gastrointestinal toxicities, while 7 patients (10%) experienced grade 1 radiation-induced esophagitis. The nadirs of white blood cell count (WBC), absolute neutrophil count (ANC), and absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) during treatment were significantly negatively correlated with vertebral V 5 Gy ( P=0.009, 0.006, 0.001) and vertebral V 20 Gy ( P=0.007, 0.011, <0.001). When vertebral V 5 Gy<86.5% and vertebral V 20 Gy<73.2%, the incidence of grade ≥3 myelosuppression was significantly reduced ( P<0.001, =0.001). Additionally, younger patient age (in months) and concurrent chemotherapy were also significantly associated with increased acute hematologic toxicity. Among 43 patients with MRI follow-up, no scoliosis, kyphosis, or chronic lumbosacral pain was observed. The 3-year OS and PFS rates were 95.7% and 86.4%, respectively. Conclusions:PBS-based VBSpCSI in pediatric patients demonstrates manageable acute toxicities, with a clear dose-effect relationship between vertebral V 5 Gy , V 20 Gy and hematologic toxicities, and the incidence of non-hematological toxicities remains low. No adverse effects on spinal growth or survival outcomes were observed in the short term.

Objective A Social Care Needs Assessment Tool for Terminal Patients at Home is constructed and tested for its reliability and validity.Methods In view of the Social Ecosystem Theoiy,based on the semi-structured interviews,participatory observation and literature analysis of the social care needs of terminal patients at home,a questionnaire item pool was formed.Through 3 rounds of Delphi expert consultations,the initial version of the tool was formed.From April to December 2023,a convenient sampling method was used to select 504 terminal patients from 22 hospitals in 5 provinces as the research subjects.The reliability and validity of the tool were tested.Result The constructed tool in this study contained 3 dimensions:micro,meso,macro,with a total of 34 items.Cronbach's α of the tool was 0.966 and split-half reliability was 0.877;I-CVI at the item level was 0.875～1.000 and S-CVI/Ave was 0.989;the exploratory factor analysis results showed that the factors load of each dimension were greater than 0.4;the results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the tool had good fitting degree.Conclusion The reliability and validity of the nursing-based social care needs assessment tool for terminal patients at home constructed in this study are good,and it can provide a valid tool for healthcare professionals to assess the home-based social care needs of terminal patients.

Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of regulating conception vessel and unblocking governor vessel electroacupuncture in the treatment of cancer-related fatigue(CRF)of middle-to-advanced stage cervical cancer,and to explore its effect on inflammatory factors.Methods A total of 122 patients with a definitive diagnosis of CRF of middle-to-advanced stage cervical cancer admitted to the wards and outpatient clinics of Cangzhou Central Hospital from August 2021 to August 2023 were selected for the study.The patients were randomly divided into the control group and the observation group according to the random number table method,with 61 cases in each group.The patients in both groups were given conventional symptomatic treatments such as gastric protection and anti-vomiting since the day of action of chemotherapy.The control group was treated with Dexamethasone Tablets,and the observation group was treated with regulating conception vessel and unblocking governor vessel electroacupuncture on the basis of the control group,the course of treatment covered 21 days.After three weeks of treatment,the clinical efficacy of the two groups was evaluated.The changes in the traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)syndrome scores,Piper's Fatigue Scale(PFS)scores,Karnofsky Performance Status(KPS)scores,and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General(FACT-G)scores of the patients in the two groups before and after treatment were observed.The changes in interleukin 6(IL-6),hypersensitive C-reactive protein(hs-CRP),tumor necrosis factor α(TNF-α),and T-lymphocyte subsets indicators[CD3+,CD4+,CD8+,CD4+/CD8+]were compared between the patients in the two groups before and after treatment.Results(1)The total effective rate was 95.08%(58/61)in the observation group and 77.05%(47/61)in the control group.The efficacy of the observation group was superior to that of the control group,the difference being statistically significant(P<0.05).(2)After treatment,the TCM syndrome scores of patients in the two groups were significantly improved(P<0.05),and the improvement in the observation group was significantly superior to that in the control group,the difference being statistically significant(P<0.05).(3)After treatment,the PFS scores of patients in the two groups were improved significantly(P<0.05),and the improvement in the observation group was significantly superior to that in the control group,the difference being statistically significant(P<0.05).(4)After treatment,the serum IL-6,hs-CRP,and TNF-α levels of patients in the two groups were significantly improved(P<0.05),and the improvement in the observation group was significantly superior to that in the control group,the difference being statistically significant(P<0.05).(5)After treatment,the CD3+,CD4+,CD8+,CD4+/CD8+of patients in the two groups were significantly improved(P<0.05),and the improvement in the observation group was significantly superior to that in the control group,the difference being statistically significant(P<0.05).(6)After treatment,the KPS scores and FACT-G scores of patients in the two groups were significantly improved(P<0.05),and the improvement in the observation group was significantly superior to that in the control group,the difference being statistically significant(P<0.05).Conclusion Regulating conception vessel and unblocking governor vessel electroacupuncture in the treatment of CRF of middle-to-advanced stage cervical cancer can effectively alleviate the fatigue of patients,inhibit the release of inflammatory factors,regulate the immune function,and improve the physical condition of patients,so as to improve the quality of life of patients.

Objective:To investigate the expression of protein kinase D2(PRKD2)in bladder cancer(BLCA)tissue using bioinformatics analysis method and its effect on the prognosis of BLCA patients,and to clarify the role of PRKD2 in the occurrence and development of BLCA.Methods:The data from 9 normal bladder samples,19 BLCA paracancerous samples,and 407 BLCA tumor samples were downloaded from the UCSC Cancer Genome Database.The Mann-Whitney U test was applied to analyze the difference in expression of PRKD2 mRNA in BLCA tumor and normal bladder tissues,and the Human Protein Atlas(HPA)database was used for proteomic validation.DESeq2 package in R software was applied to screen the differentially expressed genes(DEGs)in BLCA tissue in PRKD2 low-and high-expression groups.The co-expression heatmaps of PRKD2 were plotted using the ggplot2 package,Gene Ontology(GO)and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)were used for functional annotation analysis and pathway enrichment analysis of DEGs,and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis(GSEA)was used to obtain the gene sets that were significantly enriched for DEGs.The BLCA samples were divided into low-and high-expression groups according to the expression level of PRKD2,and the correlations between PRKD2 expression and immune cell infiltration in the BLCA patients were analyzed with GSVA package.The relationship between PRKD2 and prognosis of BLCA patients was further analyzed using the survival package and the survminer package.The PRKD2 gene mutations in BLCA tissue were analyzed using the cBioPortal database.The cystitis,bladder polyp and BLCA tissues were collected,and the expression levels of interleukin-17F(IL-17F)protein in BLCA and control tissues were detected using immunohistochemical staining technique.Results:PRKD2 was highly expressed in a variety of malignant tumors,and the expression levels of PRKD2 mRNA and protein in BLCA tissue were significantly increased compared with those in normal bladder tissue(P＜0.05).Single gene differential analysis of PRKD2 yielded a total of 1 058 DEGs,of which a total of 29 genes were up-regulated and 1 029 were down-regulated.The results of GO functional enrichment analysis showed that DEGs were mainly enriched in the biological process(BP),such as chemical stimuli involved in sensory perception,Cajal body,and endopeptidase inhibitor activity.The results of KEGG pathway analysis showed that DEGs were mainly enriched in the pathway of Staphylococcus aureus infection and the pathway of maturity onset diabetes of the young.GSEA analysis showed that DEGs were mainly enriched in the Notch signaling pathway,the retinoic acid-inducible gene-Ⅰ(RIG-Ⅰ)-like receptor signaling pathway,the cytoplasmic DNA screening pathway,the base excision repair signaling pathway,natural killer(NK)cell-mediated cytotoxicity signaling pathway and T cell receptor signaling pathway.The results of immune infiltration analysis indicated that the expression of PRKD2 was positively correlated with five types of cells,such as activated dendritic cells(aDC),NK CD56dim cells and central memory T cells(Tcm)(P＜0.05),and negatively correlated with three types of immune cells,including macrophages,effector memory T cells(Tem)and plasmacytoid dendritic cells(pDC)(P＜0.05).The clinical characteristic subgroup analysis results showed that the expression levels of PRKD2 mRNA in BLCA patients who were over 70 years old and developed lymphovascular invasion were decreased(P＜0.05);the overall survival(OS),disease-specific survival(DSS)and progression-free interval(PFI)in the BLCA patients with PRKD2 high expression were significantly longer than those with PRKD2 low expression(P＜0.05).The univariate and multivariate Cox analyses indicated that distant metastasis,primary therapy outcome and clinicopathologic stage were the important factors affecting BLCA prognosis.About 9％patients had PRKD2 gene mutations,including missense mutation,gene amplification,mRNA low or high expression,and multi-motif mutation.The immunohistochemistry results showed that the expression level of IL-17F protein in BLCA tissue was significantly higher than that in cystitis tissue(P＜0.05).Conclusion:The expression level of PRKD2 in BLCA tissue is obviously increased,which could up-regulate the expression of IL-17F protein,and the decrease of PRKD2 protein expression may be a potential factor for the poor prognosis of BLCA patients.

Objective:To evaluate the dosimetric characteristics of intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) and photon volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) in radiation therapy planning for patients with bilateral breast cancer after breast-conserving surgery.Methods:On the computed tomography localization images of 18 patients with bilateral breast cancer, target volumes and organs at risk were contoured to develop both IMPT and VMAT plans for each patient. Two IMPT plans were designed based on the clinical target volume (CTV) with robust optimization (RO-IMPT) and the planning target volume (PTV) without RO (NonRO-IMPT), respectively. The RO-IMPT, NonRO-IMPT, and VMAT plans were normalized such that the prescription dose could cover 95% of the target volume. The dosimetric parameters of target volumes and organs at risk were evaluated, and the dosimetric characteristics of the two techniques were compared.Results:In terms of target volumes, the RO-IMPT group showed significantly lower D1%, Dmean, and homogeneity index (HI) and a significantly higher D99% of the CTV than those of the PTV in the VMAT group ( t=-8.96, -8.21, -8.13, 4.96, P<0.05). The NonRO-IMPT group showed significantly lower D1%, Dmean, and HI and a significantly higher conformity index of the PTV than those of the PTV in the VMAT group ( t=-7.75, -6.25, -6.11, 7.53, P<0.05). In terms of organs at risk, the two IMPT groups showed significantly lower values than the VMAT group for the V5- V30 and Dmean of the whole lungs, V5- V40 and Dmean of the heart, D1% and Dmean of the left anterior descending coronary artery, D1% of the spinal cord, Dmean of normal tissues, and Dmean of the skin ( t= -28.47 to -3.25, P<0.05). There was no significant difference in any other evaluation indices ( P>0.05). Conclusions:Both IMPT and VMAT can meet the clinical requirements of radiotherapy plans following breast-conserving surgery for bilateral breast cancer. IMPT has apparent advantages over VMAT in protecting organs at risk.

Objective:To evaluate the dosimetric characteristics of intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) and photon volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) in radiation therapy planning for patients with bilateral breast cancer after breast-conserving surgery.Methods:On the computed tomography localization images of 18 patients with bilateral breast cancer, target volumes and organs at risk were contoured to develop both IMPT and VMAT plans for each patient. Two IMPT plans were designed based on the clinical target volume (CTV) with robust optimization (RO-IMPT) and the planning target volume (PTV) without RO (NonRO-IMPT), respectively. The RO-IMPT, NonRO-IMPT, and VMAT plans were normalized such that the prescription dose could cover 95% of the target volume. The dosimetric parameters of target volumes and organs at risk were evaluated, and the dosimetric characteristics of the two techniques were compared.Results:In terms of target volumes, the RO-IMPT group showed significantly lower D1%, Dmean, and homogeneity index (HI) and a significantly higher D99% of the CTV than those of the PTV in the VMAT group ( t=-8.96, -8.21, -8.13, 4.96, P<0.05). The NonRO-IMPT group showed significantly lower D1%, Dmean, and HI and a significantly higher conformity index of the PTV than those of the PTV in the VMAT group ( t=-7.75, -6.25, -6.11, 7.53, P<0.05). In terms of organs at risk, the two IMPT groups showed significantly lower values than the VMAT group for the V5- V30 and Dmean of the whole lungs, V5- V40 and Dmean of the heart, D1% and Dmean of the left anterior descending coronary artery, D1% of the spinal cord, Dmean of normal tissues, and Dmean of the skin ( t= -28.47 to -3.25, P<0.05). There was no significant difference in any other evaluation indices ( P>0.05). Conclusions:Both IMPT and VMAT can meet the clinical requirements of radiotherapy plans following breast-conserving surgery for bilateral breast cancer. IMPT has apparent advantages over VMAT in protecting organs at risk.

Objective A Social Care Needs Assessment Tool for Terminal Patients at Home is constructed and tested for its reliability and validity.Methods In view of the Social Ecosystem Theoiy,based on the semi-structured interviews,participatory observation and literature analysis of the social care needs of terminal patients at home,a questionnaire item pool was formed.Through 3 rounds of Delphi expert consultations,the initial version of the tool was formed.From April to December 2023,a convenient sampling method was used to select 504 terminal patients from 22 hospitals in 5 provinces as the research subjects.The reliability and validity of the tool were tested.Result The constructed tool in this study contained 3 dimensions:micro,meso,macro,with a total of 34 items.Cronbach's α of the tool was 0.966 and split-half reliability was 0.877;I-CVI at the item level was 0.875～1.000 and S-CVI/Ave was 0.989;the exploratory factor analysis results showed that the factors load of each dimension were greater than 0.4;the results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the tool had good fitting degree.Conclusion The reliability and validity of the nursing-based social care needs assessment tool for terminal patients at home constructed in this study are good,and it can provide a valid tool for healthcare professionals to assess the home-based social care needs of terminal patients.

Objective:To evaluate the acute toxicities and related influencing factors of vertebral-body-sparing proton craniospinal irradiation (VBSpCSI) using pencil beam scanning (PBS) technology in pediatric patients, and to assess spinal growth and survival outcomes.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on 70 pediatric patients treated with PBS-based VBSpCSI at Hebei Yizhou Cancer Hospital between January 2020 and December 2022, and continued to follow up until November 2023. Acute toxicities were assessed, and linear regression analysis combined with receiver operating characteristic curve were employed to investigate the dose-effect relationship between vertebral dose and toxicities. Spinal growth after radiotherapy was evaluated by measuring the Cobb angle on follow-up MRI. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method.Results:The median age of patients at the time of irradiation was 6 years (range, 2-16 years). Two patients (3%) developed grade ≥3 gastrointestinal toxicities, while 7 patients (10%) experienced grade 1 radiation-induced esophagitis. The nadirs of white blood cell count (WBC), absolute neutrophil count (ANC), and absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) during treatment were significantly negatively correlated with vertebral V 5 Gy ( P=0.009, 0.006, 0.001) and vertebral V 20 Gy ( P=0.007, 0.011, <0.001). When vertebral V 5 Gy<86.5% and vertebral V 20 Gy<73.2%, the incidence of grade ≥3 myelosuppression was significantly reduced ( P<0.001, =0.001). Additionally, younger patient age (in months) and concurrent chemotherapy were also significantly associated with increased acute hematologic toxicity. Among 43 patients with MRI follow-up, no scoliosis, kyphosis, or chronic lumbosacral pain was observed. The 3-year OS and PFS rates were 95.7% and 86.4%, respectively. Conclusions:PBS-based VBSpCSI in pediatric patients demonstrates manageable acute toxicities, with a clear dose-effect relationship between vertebral V 5 Gy , V 20 Gy and hematologic toxicities, and the incidence of non-hematological toxicities remains low. No adverse effects on spinal growth or survival outcomes were observed in the short term.

Objective:To discuss the differences in eosinophil(EOS)infiltration in cervical tissue and its relationship with cervical-related diseases,and to clarify the effect of EOS on the occurrence and development of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia(CIN)and cervical cancer.Methods:The clinical data of 256 patients with cervical diseases were collected and divided into cervical cancer group(n=46,including 26 cases of squamous cell carcinoma,15 cases of adenocarcinoma,and 5 cases of adenosquamous carcinoma),chronic cervicitis group(n=50),CIN stage Ⅰ group(n=50),CIN stage Ⅱ group(n=50),CIN stage Ⅲ group(n=30),and normal group(adjacent normal cervical tissue,n=30)based on their conditions.Colposcopy was used to observe the morphology of cervical tissue of the patients in various groups;thin-layer liquid-based cytology test(TCT)was used to observe the morphology of the cervical exfoliated cells in various groups;hybrid capture-chemiluminescence method was used to detect the human papillomavirus(HPV)infection in cervical tissue of the patients in various groups;HE staining was used to observe the pathomorphology of cervical tissue of the patients in various groups;Congo red staining was used to detect the numbers of EOS infiltration in cervical tissue of the patients in various groups;Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between the number of EOS infiltration and the malignancy degree of cervical cancer.Results:The cervical surface of the patients in normal group was smooth and pink,with uniformly distributed capillaries;the cervical surface of the patients in chronic cervicitis group showed red inflammatory changes,with some accompanied by Nabothian cysts and varying degrees of erosion and ulcers;the patients in CIN stage Ⅰ,CIN stage Ⅱ,and CIN stage Ⅲ groups showed epithelial ulcers,thickening,and irregular morphology,with mosaic and punctate vessels;the cervical surface of the patients in cervical cancer group showed raised areas with neoplasms and necrotic ulcers,and they were fragile and prone to bleeding.After acetic acid staining,no obvious changes of the patients in normal group were observed.The cervix of the patients in chronic cervicitis group showed slight white changes that lasted for a short time;in CIN stage Ⅰ,CIN stage Ⅱ,and CIN stage Ⅲ groups,irregular thin acetowhite epithelium with map-like borders was observed,with increasingly acetowhite reactions and larger areas as the stages advanced.The cervix of the patients in cervical cancer group showed thick acetowhite epithelium that lasted longer,with rigid and clear contours.After iodine staining,the cervix of the patients in normal group was brown,with uniform coloration;the cervix of the patients in chronic cervicitis group showed poor coloration in inflammatory lesion areas;the cervix of the patients in CIN stage Ⅰ group showed iodine coloration in metaplastic areas,while the cervix of the patients in CIN stage Ⅲ group showed poor coloration in larger lesion areas;the cervix of the patients in cervical cancer group showed irregular surfaces with cauliflower-like growth and no coloration after iodine staining,appearing orange-yellow or mustard yellow.The TCT observation results showed there were no heteromorphic cells and few inflammatory cells in cervical exfoliated cells of the patients in infiltration in normal group;there were numerous neutrophils and EOS in exfoliated cervical cells without heteromorphic cells in chronic cervicitis group.The heteromorphic binucleated cells with high nuclear-cytoplasmic ratios and deeply stained nuclei were observed in cervical exfoliated cells of the patients in CIN stage Ⅰ and CIN stage Ⅱ groups.More heteromorphic cells with high nuclear-cytoplasmic ratios and irregular nuclear membranes were showed in cervical exfoliated cells of the patients in CIN stage Ⅲ group.The cervical exfoliated cells of the patients in cervical cancer group showed large and prominent nucleoli,clustering into syncytial changes.Compared with normal group,the atypial of cervical exfoliated cells in CIN stage Ⅰ,CIN stage Ⅱ,CIN stage Ⅲ,and cervical cancer groups was increased.The hybrid capture-chemiluminescence results showed that compared with normal and chronic cervicitis groups,the numbers of HPV infection and TCT heteromorphic cells of the patients in CIN stage Ⅰ,CIN stage Ⅱ,and CIN stage Ⅲ groups were increased(P<0.05);compared with CIN stage Ⅰ,CIN stage Ⅱ,and CIN stage Ⅲ groups,the numbers of HPV infection and TCT heteromorphic cells of the patients in cervical cancer group were increased(P<0.05).The HE staining results showed normal cell morphology and structure in normal group,with infiltration of inflammation cells such as neutrophils,monocytes,macrophages,EOS,and lymphocytes;in chronic cervicitis group,the infiltration of inflammatory cells was increased;in CIN group,the cervical cells showed slightly larger nucleoli and heteromorphic cells,with inflammatory cells mainly distributing around the hetermomorphic cells;in cervical cancer group,the cervical cells showed large and deeply stained nucleoli with significant atypia,and the infiltration of inflammatory cells around the cancer cells was increased.Compared with normal group,the numbers of inflammatory cells and EOS infiltration in cervical tissue of the patients in chronic cervicitis group were increased(P<0.05),and the numbers of inflammatory cells and EOS infiltration of the patients in CIN group were increased(P<0.05);compared with chronic cervicitis group,the number of inflammatory cells and EOS infiltration of the patients in CIN group were decreased(P<0.05);compared with chronic cervicitis group and CIN group,the numbers of inflammatory cells and EOS infiltration of the patients in cervical cancer group were increased(P<0.05).The EOS in cervical cancer tissue was mainly distributed around the cancer nests;compared with CIN stage Ⅰ group,the numbers of EOS infiltration in CIN stage Ⅱ and CIN stage Ⅲ groups were increased(P<0.05);compared with CIN stage Ⅱ group,the number of EOS infiltration in CIN stage Ⅲ group was increased(P<0.05).The higher the malignancy degree of the tumor,the more EOS infiltration was observed,and the number of EOS infiltration was positively correlated with the invasion depth of cervical cancer(r=0.533 0,P<0.01).Conclusion:HPV infection and EOS infiltration play a role in promoting the and occurrence development of cervical precancerous lesions and cervical cancer.

Objective:To explore the feasibility of the clinical implementation of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans with 6MV photon on two Elekta Linacs (Versa HD and Synergy) after beam matching.Methods:The images of 12 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, central lung cancer and prostate cancer were randomly selected, and the IMRT and VMAT plans were designed. Two different dose tools of ionization chamber and three-dimensional detector ArcCheck were used to verify the individualized radiation treatment of 6MV photon beams on two Linacs and compare the differences.Results:The deviations between the doses of two Linacs (Versa HD and Synergy) measured by the ion chamber and treatment planning system were (0.32±1.32)% and (0.54±1.29)%. The differences of all plans were within the range of ±3%, and the deviations of the point dose between two Linacs were within the range of ±2% with no statistical significance (both P>0.05). The γ analysis of verification using ArcCheck showed that the passing rates of all plans under the 2mm/3% and 3mm/3% with 10% threshold conditions were over 95%, respectively. The average differences between two Linacs were 0.19%(2mm/3%) and 0.09%(3mm/3%). Conclusions:The results of performing IMRT/VMAT plans on two Linacs meet the clinical requirements and the differences between two Linacs are small. Hence, the same plans can be implemented interchangeably on different Linacs.