Purpose: To assess the effect of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) on enhancing radiation doses in brachytherapy and evaluate their potential as radiosensitizers. Methods: A Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to determine the radiation dose enhancement factor (DEF) of GNPs in brachytherapy using Iridium-192 (¹⁹²Ir) or Iodine-125 (¹²⁵I). The simulations compared the depth-dose curves of ¹⁹²Ir and ¹²⁵I in both water and tissue phantoms. A spherical tumor model with a radius of 3.5 cm surrounded by normal tissue was used for DEF calculation.The radioactive source was positioned at the center of the tumor and the DEF was calculated for GNP concentrations of 7, 18, and 30 mg/g present only in the tumor tissue. Results: The differences in depth doses between the water and tissue phantoms were more noticeable for ¹⁹²Ir than for ¹²⁵I. For ¹⁹²Ir, the DEF of the GNPs ranged from 1.6 to 2.8, depending on the concentration of GNP. For ¹²⁵I, the DEF was less than 1. Conclusions GNPs were confirmed to enhance the radiation dose in brachytherapy when using 192 Ir.

Naturally occurring compounds have widely been applied to treat diverse pharmacological effects, including asthma, allergic diseases, antioxidants, inflammation, antibiotics, and cancer. Recent research has revealed the essential role of the thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) in regulating inflammatory responses at mucosal barriers and maintaining immune homeostasis. Asthma, inflammation, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are allergic disorders in which TSLP plays a significant role. Although TSLP’s role in type 2 immune responses has undergone comprehensive investigation, its involvement in inflammatory diseases and cancer has also been found to be expanding. However, investigating how to block the TSLP pathway using natural products has been limited. This paper summarizes the roles of various medicinal plants and their chemical components that effectively inhibit the TSLP pathway. In addition, we also highlight the contributions of several plant-derived compounds to treat allergic diseases via targeting TSLP. This review intends to offer innovative concepts to scientists investigating the use of naturally produced compounds and extracts for the treatment of allergic illnesses.

Purpose: To assess the effect of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) on enhancing radiation doses in brachytherapy and evaluate their potential as radiosensitizers. Methods: A Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to determine the radiation dose enhancement factor (DEF) of GNPs in brachytherapy using Iridium-192 (¹⁹²Ir) or Iodine-125 (¹²⁵I). The simulations compared the depth-dose curves of ¹⁹²Ir and ¹²⁵I in both water and tissue phantoms. A spherical tumor model with a radius of 3.5 cm surrounded by normal tissue was used for DEF calculation.The radioactive source was positioned at the center of the tumor and the DEF was calculated for GNP concentrations of 7, 18, and 30 mg/g present only in the tumor tissue. Results: The differences in depth doses between the water and tissue phantoms were more noticeable for ¹⁹²Ir than for ¹²⁵I. For ¹⁹²Ir, the DEF of the GNPs ranged from 1.6 to 2.8, depending on the concentration of GNP. For ¹²⁵I, the DEF was less than 1. Conclusions GNPs were confirmed to enhance the radiation dose in brachytherapy when using 192 Ir.

Purpose: To assess the effect of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) on enhancing radiation doses in brachytherapy and evaluate their potential as radiosensitizers. Methods: A Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to determine the radiation dose enhancement factor (DEF) of GNPs in brachytherapy using Iridium-192 (¹⁹²Ir) or Iodine-125 (¹²⁵I). The simulations compared the depth-dose curves of ¹⁹²Ir and ¹²⁵I in both water and tissue phantoms. A spherical tumor model with a radius of 3.5 cm surrounded by normal tissue was used for DEF calculation.The radioactive source was positioned at the center of the tumor and the DEF was calculated for GNP concentrations of 7, 18, and 30 mg/g present only in the tumor tissue. Results: The differences in depth doses between the water and tissue phantoms were more noticeable for ¹⁹²Ir than for ¹²⁵I. For ¹⁹²Ir, the DEF of the GNPs ranged from 1.6 to 2.8, depending on the concentration of GNP. For ¹²⁵I, the DEF was less than 1. Conclusions GNPs were confirmed to enhance the radiation dose in brachytherapy when using 192 Ir.

Naturally occurring compounds have widely been applied to treat diverse pharmacological effects, including asthma, allergic diseases, antioxidants, inflammation, antibiotics, and cancer. Recent research has revealed the essential role of the thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) in regulating inflammatory responses at mucosal barriers and maintaining immune homeostasis. Asthma, inflammation, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are allergic disorders in which TSLP plays a significant role. Although TSLP’s role in type 2 immune responses has undergone comprehensive investigation, its involvement in inflammatory diseases and cancer has also been found to be expanding. However, investigating how to block the TSLP pathway using natural products has been limited. This paper summarizes the roles of various medicinal plants and their chemical components that effectively inhibit the TSLP pathway. In addition, we also highlight the contributions of several plant-derived compounds to treat allergic diseases via targeting TSLP. This review intends to offer innovative concepts to scientists investigating the use of naturally produced compounds and extracts for the treatment of allergic illnesses.

Purpose: To assess the effect of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) on enhancing radiation doses in brachytherapy and evaluate their potential as radiosensitizers. Methods: A Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to determine the radiation dose enhancement factor (DEF) of GNPs in brachytherapy using Iridium-192 (¹⁹²Ir) or Iodine-125 (¹²⁵I). The simulations compared the depth-dose curves of ¹⁹²Ir and ¹²⁵I in both water and tissue phantoms. A spherical tumor model with a radius of 3.5 cm surrounded by normal tissue was used for DEF calculation.The radioactive source was positioned at the center of the tumor and the DEF was calculated for GNP concentrations of 7, 18, and 30 mg/g present only in the tumor tissue. Results: The differences in depth doses between the water and tissue phantoms were more noticeable for ¹⁹²Ir than for ¹²⁵I. For ¹⁹²Ir, the DEF of the GNPs ranged from 1.6 to 2.8, depending on the concentration of GNP. For ¹²⁵I, the DEF was less than 1. Conclusions GNPs were confirmed to enhance the radiation dose in brachytherapy when using 192 Ir.

Naturally occurring compounds have widely been applied to treat diverse pharmacological effects, including asthma, allergic diseases, antioxidants, inflammation, antibiotics, and cancer. Recent research has revealed the essential role of the thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) in regulating inflammatory responses at mucosal barriers and maintaining immune homeostasis. Asthma, inflammation, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are allergic disorders in which TSLP plays a significant role. Although TSLP’s role in type 2 immune responses has undergone comprehensive investigation, its involvement in inflammatory diseases and cancer has also been found to be expanding. However, investigating how to block the TSLP pathway using natural products has been limited. This paper summarizes the roles of various medicinal plants and their chemical components that effectively inhibit the TSLP pathway. In addition, we also highlight the contributions of several plant-derived compounds to treat allergic diseases via targeting TSLP. This review intends to offer innovative concepts to scientists investigating the use of naturally produced compounds and extracts for the treatment of allergic illnesses.

Purpose: To assess the effect of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) on enhancing radiation doses in brachytherapy and evaluate their potential as radiosensitizers. Methods: A Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to determine the radiation dose enhancement factor (DEF) of GNPs in brachytherapy using Iridium-192 (¹⁹²Ir) or Iodine-125 (¹²⁵I). The simulations compared the depth-dose curves of ¹⁹²Ir and ¹²⁵I in both water and tissue phantoms. A spherical tumor model with a radius of 3.5 cm surrounded by normal tissue was used for DEF calculation.The radioactive source was positioned at the center of the tumor and the DEF was calculated for GNP concentrations of 7, 18, and 30 mg/g present only in the tumor tissue. Results: The differences in depth doses between the water and tissue phantoms were more noticeable for ¹⁹²Ir than for ¹²⁵I. For ¹⁹²Ir, the DEF of the GNPs ranged from 1.6 to 2.8, depending on the concentration of GNP. For ¹²⁵I, the DEF was less than 1. Conclusions GNPs were confirmed to enhance the radiation dose in brachytherapy when using 192 Ir.

Purpose: This study aimed to compare the failure patterns before and after the introduction of immunotherapy and to determine the role of thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) in extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) treatment. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 294 patients with ES-SCLC, of which 62.2% underwent chemotherapy alone, 13.3% underwent chemotherapy followed by consolidative TRT (TRT group), and 24.5% underwent chemotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI group). We performed propensity-score matching (PSM) to compare each treatment group. Results: The median follow-up duration was 10.4 months. At the first relapse, in the cohort showing objective response, the proportion of cases showing intrathoracic progression was significantly lower in the TRT group (37.8%) than in the chemotherapy-alone (77.2%, p < 0.001) and the ICI (60.3%, p=0.03) groups. Furthermore, in the subgroup analysis, TRT showed benefits related to intrathoracic progression-free survival (PFS) in comparison with ICI in patients with less than two involved extrathoracic sites (p=0.008) or without liver metastasis (p=0.02) or pleural metastasis (p=0.005) at diagnosis. After PSM, the TRT group showed significantly better intrathoracic PFS than both chemotherapy-alone and ICI groups (p < 0.001 and p=0.04, respectively), but showed no significant benefit in terms of PFS and overall survival in comparison with the ICI group (p=0.17 and p=0.31, respectively). Conclusion In ES-SCLC, intrathoracic progression was the most dominant failure pattern after immunotherapy. In the era of chemoimmunotherapy, consolidative TRT can still be considered a useful treatment strategy for locoregional control.

Purpose: Recently, we developed allele-discriminating priming system (ADPS) technology. This method increases the sensitivity of conventional quantitative polymerase chain reaction up to 100 folds, with limit of detection, 0.01%, with reinforced specificity. This prospective study aimed to develop and validate the accuracy of ADPS epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) Mutation Test Kit using clinical specimens. Materials and Methods: In total 189 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor tissues resected from patients with non–small cell lung cancer were used to perform a comparative evaluation of the ADPS EGFR Mutation Test Kit versus the cobas EGFR Mutation Test v2, which is the current gold standard. When the two methods had inconsistent results, next-generation sequencing–based CancerSCAN was utilized as a referee. Results: The overall agreement of the two methods was 97.4% (93.9%-99.1%); the positive percent agreement, 95.0% (88.7%-98.4%); and the negative percent agreement, 100.0% (95.9%-100.0%). EGFR mutations were detected at a frequency of 50.3% using the ADPS EGFR Mutation Test Kit and 52.9% using the cobas EGFR Mutation Test v2. There were 10 discrepant mutation calls between the two methods. CancerSCAN reproduced eight ADPS results. In two cases, mutant allele fraction was ultra-low at 0.02% and 0.06%, which are significantly below the limit of detection of the cobas assay and CancerSCAN. Based on the EGFR genotyping by ADPS, the treatment options could be switched in five patients. Conclusion The highly sensitive and specific ADPS EGFR Mutation Test Kit would be useful in detecting the patients who have lung cancer with EGFR mutation, and can benefit from the EGFR targeted therapy.