Histomorphometric parameters characterizing cancellous bone in the distal radius can be derived from in vivo MR microimages and are predictive of vertebral deformity.

Obesity, defined as body mass index greater than 30, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality and a financial burden worldwide. Despite significant efforts in the past decade, very few drugs have been successfully developed for the treatment of obese patients. Biological differences between rodents and primates are a major hurdle for translation of anti-obesity strategies either discovered or developed in rodents into effective human therapeutics. Here, we evaluate the ligand-directed peptidomimetic CKGGRAKDC-GG-D(KLAKLAK)2 (henceforth termed adipotide) in obese Old World monkeys. Treatment with adipotide induced targeted apoptosis within blood vessels of white adipose tissue and resulted in rapid weight loss and improved insulin resistance in obese monkeys. Magnetic resonance imaging and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry confirmed a marked reduction in white adipose tissue. At experimentally determined optimal doses, monkeys from three different species displayed predictable and reversible changes in renal proximal tubule function. Together, these data in primates establish adipotide as a prototype in a new class of candidate drugs that may be useful for treating obesity in humans.

T riple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for about 10%-20% of all breast cancers, and it is negative for estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (1). Compared with other types of breast cancer, TNBC is considered more aggressive, with a higher recurrence rate and decreased overall survival (1,2). Within the TNBC group, pathologic complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NAST) is strongly correlated with improved disease-free survival and overall survival (3). Because only about 20%-50% of participants with TNBC will achieve pCR, early assessment of the treatment response is beneficial (4-6). For example, participants with predicted non-pCR may be directed toward more aggressive or potentially more effective novel therapies at an early stage.The effectiveness of NAST is most commonly assessed by the change in tumor size based on conventional breast imaging (eg, mammography, US) and clinical examination (7). The appropriateness criteria of the American

PURPOSE: Education and training on prostate brachytherapy for radiation oncology and medical physics residents in the United States is inadequate, resulting in fewer competent radiation oncology personnel to perform implants, and is a factor in the subsequent decline of an important, potentially curative cancer treatment modality for patients with cancer. The American Brachytherapy Society (ABS) leadership has recognized the need to establish a sustainable medical simulation low-dose-rate (LDR) and high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy workshop program that includes physicianephysicist teams to rapidly translate knowledge to establish high-quality brachytherapy programs. METHODS: The ABS, in partnership with industry and academia, has held three radiation oncology teamebased LDR/HDR workshops composed of physicianephysicist teams in Chicago in 2017, in Houston in 2018, and in Denver in 2019. The predefined key metric of success is the number of attendees who returned to their respective institutions and were actively performing brachytherapy within 6 months of the prostate brachytherapy workshop. RESULTS: Of the 111 physician/physicist teams participating in the Chicago, Houston, and Denver prostate brachytherapy workshops, 87 (78%) were actively performing prostate brachytherapy (51 [59%] HDR and 65 [75%] LDR). CONCLUSIONS: The ABS prostate brachytherapy LDR/HDR simulation workshop has provided a successful education and training structure for medical simulation of the critical procedural steps

Background and Purpose: TNBC is comprised of biologically aggressive tumors with diverse clinical behavior and response to chemotherapy. Prediction of disease response to NACT is critical to the development of personalized medicine in TNBC. We evaluated first-order radiomic features from quantitative ADC maps of the tumor and peritumoral region as discriminators of response to NACT in TNBC patients. Materials and Methods: This IRB-approved prospective study (ARTEMIS trial, NCT02276443) included 34 patients with biopsy proven stage I-III TNBC who underwent evaluation of treatment response by multi-parametric MRI. Patients had a baseline MRI (BL) and a second MRI after 4 cycles (C4) of their treatment. After completion of NACT, all patients underwent surgery and were classified as pathologic complete response (pCR) or non-pCR. Both MRI exams included T2W series, a dynamic contrast enhanced series (DCE), a conventional diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) series, and a reduced field of view (rFOV) DWI series. Tumor volumes were contoured by an experienced breast radiologist on ADC maps with reference to b1000 DWI images. Regions with necrosis or clip artifacts were excluded from the contour. Peritumoral regions were defined as a 5 mm rim of tissue surrounding the tumor based on DCE series, T2-weighted images with fat suppression and ADC maps. Thirteen first-order radiomic features, including mean, minimum, maximum, percentiles, kurtosis and skewness at a single measurement and the difference between BL and C4 were compared between pCR and non-pCR using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve and Wilcoxon rank sum test. Results: The kurtosis of tumor at C4 by conventional DWI was significantly higher in non-pCR than in pCR patients (AUC=0.785, p=0.0097). The change in kurtosis from BL to C4 by conventional DWI was also significantly higher in non-pCR than in pCR patients (AUC=0.73, p=0.043). The skewness of tumor at C4 by rFOV DWI scan was significantly lower in pCR than non-pCR patients (AUC=0.73, p=0.023). The 10th percentile of the peritumoral region’s ADC was significantly different between pCR and non-pCR (mean=1.19, SD is ± 0.27 10-3 mm2/s vs mean=1.34, SD ± 0.27 10-3 mm2/s respectively, AUC=0.70, p=0.048). The kurtosis and 25th percentile of the ADC of peritumoral region were borderline significantly different between pCR and non-pCR (AUC=0.69, p=0.067; AUC=0.69, p= 0.073 respectively). Conclusion: ADC first-order radiomic features from tumor and peritumoral region in TNBC may be useful for predicting treatment response to NACT. Larger study is necessary and is currently in progress to validate these findings. Citation Format: Beatriz E. Adrada, Abeer H. Abdelhafez, Benjamin C. Musall, Kenneth R. Hess, Jong Bum Son, Mark D. Pagel, Ken-Pin Hwang, Rosalind P. Candelaria, Lumarie Santiago, Gary J. Whitman, Huong Le-Petross, Tanya W. Moseley, Elsa Arribas, Deanna L. Lane, Marion E. Scoggins, David A. Spak, Jessica W.T. Leung, Senthil Damodaran, Bora Lim, Vicente Valeo, Jason B White, Alastair M. Thompson, Jennifer K. Litton, Stacy L. Moulder, Jingfei Ma, Wei T. Yang, Gaiane M Rauch. Quantitative apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) radiomics of tumor and peritumoral regions as potential predictors of treatment response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-02-03.

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