1.Proctor's Reporting Guideline for Implementation Strategies: Interpretation, Application, and Challenges
Jiangyun CHEN ; Jinghan LIU ; Youping ZHUANG ; Xueying CHEN ; Siyuan LIU ; Xiaoshan CHEN ; Yeqing ZHAN ; Dongmei ZHONG ; Huadan HUANG ; Dong XU
Medical Journal of Peking Union Medical College Hospital 2026;17(1):263-273
The Proctor's reporting guideline for implementation strategies represents a landmark framework in the field of implementation science, aiming to address the issue of inconsistent reporting in implementation research by standardizing the naming, definition, and operationalization of implementation strategies, thereby enhancing the credibility and utility of research findings. This paper provides an in-depth interpretation of the core connotations of this reporting guideline and illustrates its application in developing interview outlines and specifying implementation strategies, using a brief smoking cessation intervention project as a case study. Through this reporting guideline, abstract recommendations for implementation are systematically transformed into clear, multidimensional operational guides, significantly improving the transparency of strategy connotations and the replicability of actual execution. Meanwhile, the case study highlights the flexibility of the guideline, which allows researchers to adapt the content and format of strategies based on local resources and cultural contexts, thus enhancing practical adaptability while maintaining scientific rigor. However, the application of Proctor's reporting guideline still faces challenges, primarily manifested in the potential confusion surrounding the constructs of temporality and dose in practice, as well as the challenges that the inherent flexibility of the guideline may pose to the assessment of fidelity and effectiveness. Despite these limitations, the reporting guideline remains a vital tool for implementation research; future efforts should focus on optimizing its application—through refining operational guidelines, standardizing flexible adaptations, and involving stakeholders—to better guide implementation studies and continuously promote high-quality development in the field.
2.Exploration on Approach to Differentiating and Treating Hashimoto's Thyroiditis Based on the View of Regulation of Both Mind and Body
Xiaomei ZHONG ; Jinghan XU ; Lanyue ZHANG ; Xuemin WU
Journal of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2025;42(7):1792-1797
Hashimoto's thyroiditis(HT)is an autoimmune thyroid disease characterized by diffuse enlargement of thyroid gland and elevated thyroid autoantibodies.HT is closely related to emotional factors,conveyance and dispersion function of the liver,and the qi movement of the five zang organs.This paper explores the approach to the differentiation and treatment of HT based on Professor Yang Shuyu's view of regulation of both mind and body.In the view of regulation of both mind and body,the regulation of mind is to harmonize emotions,and the regulation of body refers to the conveyance and dispersion function of zang-fu organs.Based on the view of regulation of both mind and body,the pathological changes of HT are characterized by the disordered conveyance and dispersion of qi movement,and the stable phase,hyperthyroid phase,and hypothyroid phase of HT correspond to obstructed conveyance and dispersion,excessive conveyance and dispersion,and insufficient conveyance and dispersion,respectively.The emotional disorders caused by the failure of mind regulation exist throughout the disease course.Therefore,the treatment of HT can be conducted by using the therapies of unblocking,suppressing,and tonifying separately for stable phase,hyperthyroid phase,and hypothyroid phase to address the root cause,and then the conveyance and dispersion of visceral qi movement are restored.Besides,the therapeutic method of resolution is used to alleviate symptoms by removing goiter and dissipating nodules.Simultaneously,emotional regulation therapy is incorporated to achieve a comprehensive efficacy for harmonizing physique-spirit and mind-body through the regulation of emotions,conveyance and dispersion of qi movement,and visceral functions.The view of regulation of both mind and body provides new methods and approaches for traditional Chinese medicine management of HT.
3.Heart-sparing strategy for breast cancer radiotherapy based on nnU-Net: regional optimization and automatic segmentation
Jinghan HUANG ; Maidina BATUER ; Chuanghui ZHOU ; Zhi ZHANG ; Limei DENG ; Yuan XU ; Junyuan ZHONG ; Linghong ZHOU ; Xia LI ; Genggeng QIN
Chinese Journal of Radiation Oncology 2025;34(4):355-362
Objective:To investigate the feasibility and optimal expansion width of replacing the left anterior descending coronary artery (LADCA) with the region of heart sparing (RHS) to reduce cardiac radiation dose during breast cancer radiotherapy.Methods:Retrospective analysis was conducted on data from 88 patients with left-sided breast cancer who underwent radiotherapy at 2 centers: Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University (50 cases for the training set, 15 cases for the internal test set) and Ganzhou Hospital of Nanfang Hospital (23 cases for the external test set) from March 2022 to January 2024. All patients had left-sided invasive ductal carcinoma with axillary lymph node metastasis, and had undergone modified radical mastectomy and chemotherapy. Based on simulation CT images, 2 radiation oncologists delineated the LADCA and 8 RHSs. The RHSs were delineated by expanding the LADCA contour by 0.5 cm increments, totaling 8 expansions. The RHS widths were defined as 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0 cm. The nnU-Net model was trained for 3D automatic segmentation of the LADCA and RHSs. Model performance was evaluated using the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), relative volume error (RVE), sensitivity, specificity, and 95% Hausdorff distance (HD95). Additionally, the minimum, maximum, and average relative dose variations (RDV) as well as V5% and V20% indicators were calculated for the LADCA and each RHS. Correlation analysis was performed using the least squares regression, with the slope and coefficient of determination ( R2) employed to evaluate the accuracy of the model fitting, the relationship between the LADCA and RHS, and the degree of their correlation, thereby assessing the substitutive effect of the RHS for the LADCA. Results:The DSC for the LADCA was 0.415, while the DSCs for RHS widths of 0.5 cm and 4.0 cm were 0.718 and 0.835, respectively. Overall, the automatic segmentation performance improved with increasing RHS width. The DSC, RVE, sensitivity, specificity, and HD95 for the external test set were largely consistent with those of the internal test set, demonstrating the model's good robustness across different datasets. All RDVmin values were negative, while RDVmax and RDVmean showed a positive correlation with RHS width. RDVmean increased from 39.01% to 75.89% as the RHS width increased. In the correlation analysis, the slopes for RHS widths of 1.5 cm and 2.0 cm were 0.95 and 1.05, respectively, with R2 values and coefficients of variation of 0.79 and 0.73, and 21.11% and 24.03%, respectively. Conclusions:The automatic segmentation model trained on nnU-Net can accurately segment RHSs. Based on geometric and dosimetric indicators, a 1.5 cm-wide RHS is the most suitable substitute for the LADCA, effectively limiting the radiation dose to the LADCA without compromising target dose coverage.
4.Deep learning-based dynamic generation of uterine geometry for cervical cancer radiotherapy
Batuer MAIDINA ; Jinghan HUANG ; Chuanghui ZHOU ; Junyuan ZHONG ; Lei YANG ; Linghong ZHOU ; Xia LI ; Genggeng QIN
Chinese Journal of Radiation Oncology 2025;34(6):585-593
Objective:To propose a semi-supervised learning method for dynamic generation of organ geometric contours, leveraging bladder volume variations and its relative position to the uterus to accurately generate uterine contours in cervical cancer radiotherapy.Methods:A total of 120 sets of pelvic planning CT images (including both full and empty bladder scans) from 60 patients with cervical cancer treated at the Department of Radiation Oncology, Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University between January and December 2023 were retrospectively collected. A conditional generative adversarial network (CGAN) based on a squeeze-and-excitation channel attention mechanism was proposed to accurately generate uterine geometric contours under varying bladder filling states. By emphasizing the critical spatial relationships between the bladder and uterus, the model learned the relative anatomical positions of pelvic organs and their motion correlations. The generative performance was quantitatively evaluated using the average Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), intersection over union (IoU), and the 95 th percentile Hausdorff distance (HD95), and was compared with GAN model, CGAN model, and Pix2Pix model. Pairwise comparisons were perfomed by paired-sample t-test. Results:The proposed SE-CGAN model achieved the best performance on the test set, with DSC of 0.83±0.09, IoU of 0.71±0.05, HD95 of (6.74±1.23) mm, improving DSC by 7.5%, 4.9%, and 3.6% compared to the GAN, CGAN, and Pix2Pix models, respectively (all P<0.001), and reducing the mean HD95 by 32.9%-45.3%. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences between SE-CGAN model and the other 3 baseline models, whereas no significant difference was observed between CGAN model and Pix2Pix model. The visualization results further demonstrated that the GAN model produced uterine contours deviated greatly from the real shape, and the edge was fuzzy; CGAN and Pix2Pix model achieved better overlap but lacked of precision in boundary reconstruction. In contrast, the contours generated by SE-CGAN model closely matched the ground truth with clearly defined edges, indicating superior reconstruction accuracy. Conclusions:In this study, we propose a generative adversarial network method that establishes a dynamic modulation mechanism by which the bladder state influences the uterine geometric contour, enabling accurate generation of the uterine contours from the bladder contours of any given localization CT scan. This approach effectively addresses the uncertainty in radiotherapy target delineation caused by pelvic organ motion.
5.Glioma cell-secreted Prg4 induces the expression of macrophage Dicer,a key reg-ulatory molecule for macrophage alternative activation
Shuyi LI ; Jinghan ZHONG ; Yuqi LIU ; Min LUO ; Yifang PING ; Xiuwu BIAN
Chinese Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pathology 2025;41(9):1134-1141,1148
Purpose To explore the key molecules mechanisms underlying the selective activation of macrophage and the regulation of Dicer expression induced by glioblastoma(GBM)cells,as well as its prognostic significance.Methods Glioblastoma conditional medium(GCM)was fractionated by molecular weight using ultrafiltration.Specif-ic molecular weight components of GCM that upregulate Dicer expression in mouse bone marrow derived macrophages(BMDMs)were identified.Secreted proteins were identified by mass spectrometry(MS).The correlation between candidate proteins and GBM prognosis was analyzed using the TCGA and CGGA database.In vitro experiments of the candidate proteins on Dicer expression in BMDMs were further carried out.Results GCM components with a molecu-lar weight of>50 kDa significantly upregulated Dicer expression in BMDMs.MS identified five key secreted proteins:Prg4,Psap,Hexa,Aebp1,and Itih2.High expression of Prg4 was significantly positively correlated with poor progno-sis in GBM patients(P<0.001)and was associated with the expression of selective macrophage activation markers.Recombinant Prg4 protein stimulated BMDMs and induced Dicer expression in mouse BMDMs.Conclusion This study reveals that glioma cells induce Dicer expression in macrophages by secreting Prg4,providing a theoretical basis for GBM therapeutic strategies targeting the Prg4-Dicer axis.
6.Glioma cell-secreted Prg4 induces the expression of macrophage Dicer,a key reg-ulatory molecule for macrophage alternative activation
Shuyi LI ; Jinghan ZHONG ; Yuqi LIU ; Min LUO ; Yifang PING ; Xiuwu BIAN
Chinese Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pathology 2025;41(9):1134-1141,1148
Purpose To explore the key molecules mechanisms underlying the selective activation of macrophage and the regulation of Dicer expression induced by glioblastoma(GBM)cells,as well as its prognostic significance.Methods Glioblastoma conditional medium(GCM)was fractionated by molecular weight using ultrafiltration.Specif-ic molecular weight components of GCM that upregulate Dicer expression in mouse bone marrow derived macrophages(BMDMs)were identified.Secreted proteins were identified by mass spectrometry(MS).The correlation between candidate proteins and GBM prognosis was analyzed using the TCGA and CGGA database.In vitro experiments of the candidate proteins on Dicer expression in BMDMs were further carried out.Results GCM components with a molecu-lar weight of>50 kDa significantly upregulated Dicer expression in BMDMs.MS identified five key secreted proteins:Prg4,Psap,Hexa,Aebp1,and Itih2.High expression of Prg4 was significantly positively correlated with poor progno-sis in GBM patients(P<0.001)and was associated with the expression of selective macrophage activation markers.Recombinant Prg4 protein stimulated BMDMs and induced Dicer expression in mouse BMDMs.Conclusion This study reveals that glioma cells induce Dicer expression in macrophages by secreting Prg4,providing a theoretical basis for GBM therapeutic strategies targeting the Prg4-Dicer axis.
7.Heart-sparing strategy for breast cancer radiotherapy based on nnU-Net: regional optimization and automatic segmentation
Jinghan HUANG ; Maidina BATUER ; Chuanghui ZHOU ; Zhi ZHANG ; Limei DENG ; Yuan XU ; Junyuan ZHONG ; Linghong ZHOU ; Xia LI ; Genggeng QIN
Chinese Journal of Radiation Oncology 2025;34(4):355-362
Objective:To investigate the feasibility and optimal expansion width of replacing the left anterior descending coronary artery (LADCA) with the region of heart sparing (RHS) to reduce cardiac radiation dose during breast cancer radiotherapy.Methods:Retrospective analysis was conducted on data from 88 patients with left-sided breast cancer who underwent radiotherapy at 2 centers: Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University (50 cases for the training set, 15 cases for the internal test set) and Ganzhou Hospital of Nanfang Hospital (23 cases for the external test set) from March 2022 to January 2024. All patients had left-sided invasive ductal carcinoma with axillary lymph node metastasis, and had undergone modified radical mastectomy and chemotherapy. Based on simulation CT images, 2 radiation oncologists delineated the LADCA and 8 RHSs. The RHSs were delineated by expanding the LADCA contour by 0.5 cm increments, totaling 8 expansions. The RHS widths were defined as 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0 cm. The nnU-Net model was trained for 3D automatic segmentation of the LADCA and RHSs. Model performance was evaluated using the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), relative volume error (RVE), sensitivity, specificity, and 95% Hausdorff distance (HD95). Additionally, the minimum, maximum, and average relative dose variations (RDV) as well as V5% and V20% indicators were calculated for the LADCA and each RHS. Correlation analysis was performed using the least squares regression, with the slope and coefficient of determination ( R2) employed to evaluate the accuracy of the model fitting, the relationship between the LADCA and RHS, and the degree of their correlation, thereby assessing the substitutive effect of the RHS for the LADCA. Results:The DSC for the LADCA was 0.415, while the DSCs for RHS widths of 0.5 cm and 4.0 cm were 0.718 and 0.835, respectively. Overall, the automatic segmentation performance improved with increasing RHS width. The DSC, RVE, sensitivity, specificity, and HD95 for the external test set were largely consistent with those of the internal test set, demonstrating the model's good robustness across different datasets. All RDVmin values were negative, while RDVmax and RDVmean showed a positive correlation with RHS width. RDVmean increased from 39.01% to 75.89% as the RHS width increased. In the correlation analysis, the slopes for RHS widths of 1.5 cm and 2.0 cm were 0.95 and 1.05, respectively, with R2 values and coefficients of variation of 0.79 and 0.73, and 21.11% and 24.03%, respectively. Conclusions:The automatic segmentation model trained on nnU-Net can accurately segment RHSs. Based on geometric and dosimetric indicators, a 1.5 cm-wide RHS is the most suitable substitute for the LADCA, effectively limiting the radiation dose to the LADCA without compromising target dose coverage.
8.Deep learning-based dynamic generation of uterine geometry for cervical cancer radiotherapy
Batuer MAIDINA ; Jinghan HUANG ; Chuanghui ZHOU ; Junyuan ZHONG ; Lei YANG ; Linghong ZHOU ; Xia LI ; Genggeng QIN
Chinese Journal of Radiation Oncology 2025;34(6):585-593
Objective:To propose a semi-supervised learning method for dynamic generation of organ geometric contours, leveraging bladder volume variations and its relative position to the uterus to accurately generate uterine contours in cervical cancer radiotherapy.Methods:A total of 120 sets of pelvic planning CT images (including both full and empty bladder scans) from 60 patients with cervical cancer treated at the Department of Radiation Oncology, Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University between January and December 2023 were retrospectively collected. A conditional generative adversarial network (CGAN) based on a squeeze-and-excitation channel attention mechanism was proposed to accurately generate uterine geometric contours under varying bladder filling states. By emphasizing the critical spatial relationships between the bladder and uterus, the model learned the relative anatomical positions of pelvic organs and their motion correlations. The generative performance was quantitatively evaluated using the average Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), intersection over union (IoU), and the 95 th percentile Hausdorff distance (HD95), and was compared with GAN model, CGAN model, and Pix2Pix model. Pairwise comparisons were perfomed by paired-sample t-test. Results:The proposed SE-CGAN model achieved the best performance on the test set, with DSC of 0.83±0.09, IoU of 0.71±0.05, HD95 of (6.74±1.23) mm, improving DSC by 7.5%, 4.9%, and 3.6% compared to the GAN, CGAN, and Pix2Pix models, respectively (all P<0.001), and reducing the mean HD95 by 32.9%-45.3%. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences between SE-CGAN model and the other 3 baseline models, whereas no significant difference was observed between CGAN model and Pix2Pix model. The visualization results further demonstrated that the GAN model produced uterine contours deviated greatly from the real shape, and the edge was fuzzy; CGAN and Pix2Pix model achieved better overlap but lacked of precision in boundary reconstruction. In contrast, the contours generated by SE-CGAN model closely matched the ground truth with clearly defined edges, indicating superior reconstruction accuracy. Conclusions:In this study, we propose a generative adversarial network method that establishes a dynamic modulation mechanism by which the bladder state influences the uterine geometric contour, enabling accurate generation of the uterine contours from the bladder contours of any given localization CT scan. This approach effectively addresses the uncertainty in radiotherapy target delineation caused by pelvic organ motion.

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