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  1. Article ; Online: Current Advancements and Future Perspectives of Immunotherapy in Breast Cancer Treatment

    Maria Vasileiou / Savvas Papageorgiou / Nam P. Nguyen

    Immuno, Vol 3, Iss 13, Pp 195-

    2023  Volume 216

    Abstract: Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women and is a leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. Despite the available treatment options, such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, endocrine therapy and molecular targeted therapy, ...

    Abstract Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women and is a leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. Despite the available treatment options, such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, endocrine therapy and molecular targeted therapy, breast cancer treatment remains a challenge. The advent of immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment of breast cancer as it utilizes the host’s immune system to directly target tumor cells. In this literature review, we aim to summarize the recent advancements made in using immunotherapy for treating breast cancer patients. We discuss the different types of existing immunotherapies for breast cancer, including targeted therapy using monoclonal antibodies against breast cancer specific antigens and the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors to elicit an immune response against cancer cells. Finally, we consider the development of breast cancer vaccines that train the immune system to specifically recognize cancer cells and the future perspectives of immunotherapy for breast cancer.
    Keywords breast cancer ; immunotherapy ; monoclonal antibodies ; immune checkpoint inhibitors ; vaccines ; cytokines ; Medicine ; R
    Subject code 616 ; 610
    Language English
    Publishing date 2023-05-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher MDPI AG
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  2. Article ; Online: Impact, efficiency, inequality, and injustice of urban air pollution

    Nam P Nguyen / Julian D Marshall

    Environmental Research Letters, Vol 13, Iss 2, p

    variability by emission location

    2018  Volume 024002

    Abstract: Reducing exposure to air pollution is an important goal for many local and national governments. Disparities in air pollution exposure by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic class are well documented; reducing these disparities is another important policy ...

    Abstract Reducing exposure to air pollution is an important goal for many local and national governments. Disparities in air pollution exposure by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic class are well documented; reducing these disparities is another important policy target. Meeting both goals requires tools to evaluate how emission reduction options affect average exposures and exposure disparities. Here, we consider the role of emission location in implementing control strategies, and investigate the effect of two practical, space-based approaches—low-emission zones and truck rerouting—on diesel particle levels in Southern California. We employ Eulerian grid modeling to explore the impact that emission location has on four outcomes important to policymakers: total pollution exposure, exposure efficiency (i.e. exposure impact per unit emission), exposure inequality (i.e. deviations from exposure being equally distributed across the population; unequal exposure among individuals), and exposure injustice (i.e. associations between exposure and demographic attributes such as race or ethnicity; unequal exposure among groups). Our results highlight potential trade-offs (e.g. an increase in equality but reduction in justice for interventions in some locations) as well as opportunities for ‘win-win’ solutions (locations for which emission reductions would reduce all four target outcomes). We find that a simple, straightforward approach—reducing emissions in neighborhoods with a high proportion of minority residents—may or may not yield the strongest benefits to environmental justice; the reason is that the straightforward approach fails to account for meteorology and where pollution travels after being emitted. In short, we demonstrate an approach that can be used to identify areas in which emissions reductions would have high efficiency and would also result in disproportionately large reductions to average exposure, exposure inequality, and exposure injustice. The approach presented here could be used to design and prioritize ...
    Keywords environmental justice ; environmental equality ; air pollution ; diesel ; particulate matter ; Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering ; TD1-1066 ; Environmental sciences ; GE1-350 ; Science ; Q ; Physics ; QC1-999
    Subject code 333
    Language English
    Publishing date 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher IOP Publishing
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  3. Article ; Online: Prone versus supine free-breathing for right-sided whole breast radiotherapy

    Odile Fargier-Bochaton / Xinzhuo Wang / Giovanna Dipasquale / Mohamed Laouiti / Melpomeni Kountouri / Olena Gorobets / Nam P. Nguyen / Raymond Miralbell / Vincent Vinh-Hung

    Scientific Reports, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 1-

    2022  Volume 16

    Abstract: Abstract Prone setup has been advocated to improve organ sparing in whole breast radiotherapy without impairing breast coverage. We evaluate the dosimetric advantage of prone setup for the right breast and look for predictors of the gain. Right breast ... ...

    Abstract Abstract Prone setup has been advocated to improve organ sparing in whole breast radiotherapy without impairing breast coverage. We evaluate the dosimetric advantage of prone setup for the right breast and look for predictors of the gain. Right breast cancer patients treated in 2010–2013 who had a dual supine and prone planning were retrospectively identified. A penalty score was computed from the mean absolute dose deviation to heart, lungs, breasts, and tumor bed for each patient's supine and prone plan. Dosimetric advantage of prone was assessed by the reduction of penalty score from supine to prone. The effect of patients' characteristics on the reduction of penalty was analyzed using robust linear regression. A total of 146 patients with right breast dual plans were identified. Prone compared to supine reduced the penalty score in 119 patients (81.5%). Lung doses were reduced by 70.8%, from 4.8 Gy supine to 1.4 Gy prone. Among patient's characteristics, the only significant predictors were the breast volumes, but no cutoff could identify when prone would be less advantageous than supine. Prone was associated with a dosimetric advantage in most patients. It sets a benchmark of achievable lung dose reduction. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02237469, HUGProne, September 11, 2014, retrospectively registered.
    Keywords Medicine ; R ; Science ; Q
    Subject code 616
    Language English
    Publishing date 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher Nature Portfolio
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  4. Article ; Online: Gini's mean difference and the long-term prognostic value of nodal quanta classes after pre-operative chemotherapy in advanced breast cancer

    Vincent Vinh-Hung / Hilde Van Parijs / Olena Gorobets / Christel Fontaine / Nam P. Nguyen / Bhumsuk Keam / Dung Minh Nguyen / Mark De Ridder

    Scientific Reports, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 1-

    2022  Volume 11

    Abstract: Abstract Gini's mean difference (GMD, mean absolute difference between any two distinct quantities) of the restricted mean survival times (RMSTs, expectation of life at a given time limit) has been proposed as a new metric where higher GMD indicates ... ...

    Abstract Abstract Gini's mean difference (GMD, mean absolute difference between any two distinct quantities) of the restricted mean survival times (RMSTs, expectation of life at a given time limit) has been proposed as a new metric where higher GMD indicates better prognostic value. GMD is applied to the RMSTs at 25 years time-horizon to evaluate the long-term overall survival of women with breast cancer who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy, comparing a classification based on the number (pN) versus a classification based on the ratio (LNRc) of positive nodes found at axillary surgery. A total of 233 patients treated in 1980–2009 with documented number of positive nodes (npos) and number of nodes examined (ntot) were identified. The numbers were categorized into pN0, npos = 0; pN1, npos = [1,3]; pN2, npos = [4,9]; pN3, npos ≥ 10. The ratios npnx = npos/ntot were categorized into Lnr0, npnx = 0; Lnr1, npnx = (0,0.20]; Lnr2, npnx = (0.20,0.65]; Lnr3, npnx > 0.65. The GMD for pN-classification was 5.5 (standard error: ± 0.9) years, not much improved over a simple node-negative vs. node-positive that showed a GMD of 5.0 (± 1.4) years. The GMD for LNRc-classification was larger, 6.7 (± 0.8) years. Among other conventional metrics, Cox-model LNRc's c-index was 0.668 vs. pN's c = 0.641, indicating commensurate superiority of LNRc-classification. The usability of GMD-RMSTs warrants further investigation.
    Keywords Medicine ; R ; Science ; Q
    Subject code 616
    Language English
    Publishing date 2022-02-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher Nature Portfolio
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  5. Article ; Online: Dynamic social community detection and its applications.

    Nam P Nguyen / Thang N Dinh / Yilin Shen / My T Thai

    PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 4, p e

    2014  Volume 91431

    Abstract: Community structure is one of the most commonly observed features of Online Social Networks (OSNs) in reality. The knowledge of this feature is of great advantage: it not only provides helpful insights into developing more efficient social-aware ... ...

    Abstract Community structure is one of the most commonly observed features of Online Social Networks (OSNs) in reality. The knowledge of this feature is of great advantage: it not only provides helpful insights into developing more efficient social-aware solutions but also promises a wide range of applications enabled by social and mobile networking, such as routing strategies in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) and worm containment in OSNs. Unfortunately, understanding this structure is very challenging, especially in dynamic social networks where social interactions are evolving rapidly. Our work focuses on the following questions: How can we efficiently identify communities in dynamic social networks? How can we adaptively update the network community structure based on its history instead of recomputing from scratch? To this end, we present Quick Community Adaptation (QCA), an adaptive modularity-based framework for not only discovering but also tracing the evolution of network communities in dynamic OSNs. QCA is very fast and efficient in the sense that it adaptively updates and discovers the new community structure based on its history together with the network changes only. This flexible approach makes QCA an ideal framework applicable for analyzing large-scale dynamic social networks due to its lightweight computing-resource requirement. To illustrate the effectiveness of our framework, we extensively test QCA on both synthesized and real-world social networks including Enron, arXiv e-print citation, and Facebook networks. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of QCA in real applications: (1) A social-aware message forwarding strategy in MANETs, and (2) worm propagation containment in OSNs. Competitive results in comparison with other methods reveal that social-based techniques employing QCA as a community detection core outperform current available methods.
    Keywords Medicine ; R ; Science ; Q
    Subject code 300
    Language English
    Publishing date 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  6. Article ; Online: Older Cancer Patients during the COVID-19 Epidemic

    Nam P. Nguyen / Vincent Vinh-Hung / Brigitta Baumert / Alice Zamagni / Meritxell Arenas / Micaela Motta / Pedro Carlos Lara / Arthur Sun Myint / Marta Bonet / Tiberiu Popescu / Te Vuong / Gokula Kumar Appalanaido / Lurdes Trigo / Ulf Karlsson / Juliette Thariat

    Cancers, Vol 12, Iss 1287, p

    Practice Proposal of the International Geriatric Radiotherapy Group

    2020  Volume 1287

    Abstract: The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic is unprecedented as it reached all countries in the world within a record short period of time. Even though COVID-19 infection may be just severe in any adults, older adults (65-year-old or older) may ... ...

    Abstract The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic is unprecedented as it reached all countries in the world within a record short period of time. Even though COVID-19 infection may be just severe in any adults, older adults (65-year-old or older) may experience a higher mortality rate. Among those affected, cancer patients may have a worse outcome compared to the general population because of their depressed immune status. As the health resources of most countries are limited, clinicians may face painful decisions about which patients to save if they require artificial ventilation. Cancer patients, especially the older ones, may be denied supportive care because of their shorter life expectancy. Thus, special considerations should be taken to prevent infection of older cancer patients and to provide them with adequate social support during their cancer treatment. The following proposal was reached: (1) Education of health care providers about the special needs of older cancer patients and their risks of infection. (2) Special consideration such as surgical masks and separate scheduling should be made to protect them from being infected. (3) Social services such as patient navigators should be provided to ensure adequate medical supply, food, and daily transportation to cancer centers. (4) Close monitoring through phone calls, telecommunication to ensure social distancing and psychological support from patient family to prevent anxiety and depression. (5) Shorter course of radiotherapy by use of hypofractionation where possible to decrease the needs for daily transportation and exposure to infection. (6) Enrollment of older cancer patients in clinical trials for potential antiviral medications if infection does occur. (7) Home health care telemedicine may be an effective strategy for older cancer patients with COVID-19 infection to avoid hospital admission when health care resources become restricted. (8) For selected patients, immunotherapy and targeted therapy may become the systemic therapy of choice for older cancer patients and need to be tested in clinical trials.
    Keywords older ; cancer patients ; epidemic ; corona virus 19 ; treatment ; Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology. Including cancer and carcinogens ; RC254-282 ; covid19
    Subject code 610
    Language English
    Publishing date 2020-05-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher MDPI AG
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  7. Article ; Online: What Would Be the Most Appropriate α/β Ratio in the Setting of Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Early Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

    Alexander Chi / Sijin Wen / Zhongxing Liao / Jack Fowler / Jiahong Xu / Nam P. Nguyen / James S. Welsh / Ritsuko Komaki

    BioMed Research International, Vol

    2013  Volume 2013

    Abstract: We hypothesize that the correlation between the radiation dose expressed as the biologically effective dose (BED) and the clinical endpoints will correlate better as the value of the α/β ratio is increased to >10 Gy, which theoretically minimizes the ... ...

    Abstract We hypothesize that the correlation between the radiation dose expressed as the biologically effective dose (BED) and the clinical endpoints will correlate better as the value of the α/β ratio is increased to >10 Gy, which theoretically minimizes the overestimation of the dose potency associated with the linear quadratic (LQ) formula in the setting of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A search was conducted in the PubMed electronic databases in August 2011. In the studies analyzed, increasing the α/β ratio is associated with an increase in the strength of the correlation between isocenter BED and local control, especially in the studies with median followup of ≥24 months, for which Spearman’s correlation coefficients of 0.74–0.76 were achieved for α/β of 20 Gy, 30 Gy, and 50 Gy (P= 0.007–0.008). A trend toward statistical significance was observed for the correlation of isocenter BED and the 2-year overall survival when an α/β of 20 Gy was used approached statistical significance (P=0.073). Our results suggest that an α/β>10 Gy may be more appropriate for the prediction of dose response in the setting of lung SBRT.
    Keywords Medicine ; R
    Subject code 616
    Language English
    Publishing date 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher Hindawi Limited
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  8. Article ; Online: Dosimetric selection for helical tomotherapy based stereotactic ablative radiotherapy for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer or lung metastases.

    Alexander Chi / Zhongxing Liao / Nam P Nguyen / Jiahong Xu / James S Welsh / Si Young Jang / Carol Howe / Ritsuko Komaki

    PLoS ONE, Vol 7, Iss 4, p e

    2012  Volume 35809

    Abstract: Background No selection criteria for helical tomotherapy (HT) based stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) to treat early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) or solitary lung metastases has been established. In this study, we investigate the ... ...

    Abstract Background No selection criteria for helical tomotherapy (HT) based stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) to treat early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) or solitary lung metastases has been established. In this study, we investigate the dosimetric selection criteria for HT based SABR delivering 70 Gy in 10 fractions to avoid severe toxicity in the treatment of centrally located lesions when adequate target dose coverage is desired. Materials and methods 78 HT-SABR plans for solitary lung lesions were created to prescribe 70 Gy in 10 fractions to the planning target volume (PTV). The PTV was set to have ≥95% PTV receiving 70 Gy in each case. The cases for which dose constraints for ≥1 OAR could not be met without compromising the target dose coverage were compared with cases for which all target and OAR dose constraints were met. Results There were 23 central lesions for which OAR dose constraints could not be met without compromising PTV dose coverage. Comparing to cases for which optimal HT-based SABR plans were generated, they were associated with larger tumor size (5.72±1.96 cm vs. 3.74±1.49 cm, p<0.0001), higher lung dose, increased number of immediately adjacent OARs ( 3.45±1.34 vs. 1.66±0.81, p<0.0001), and shorter distance to the closest OARs (GTV: 0.26±0.22 cm vs. 0.88±0.54 cm, p<0.0001; PTV 0.19±0.18 cm vs. 0.48±0.36 cm, p = 0.0001). Conclusion Delivery of 70 Gy in 10 fractions with HT to meet all the given OAR and PTV dose constraints are most likely when the following parameters are met: lung lesions ≤3.78 cm (11.98 cc), ≤2 immediately adjacent OARs which are ≥0.45 cm from the gross lesion and ≥0.21 cm from the PTV.
    Keywords Medicine ; R ; Science ; Q
    Subject code 616
    Language English
    Publishing date 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  9. Article ; Online: Feasibility of image-guided radiotherapy for elderly patients with locally advanced rectal cancer.

    Nam P Nguyen / Misty Ceizyk / Jacqueline Vock / Paul Vos / Alexander Chi / Vincent Vinh-Hung / Judy Pugh / Rihan Khan / Christina Truong / Gabby Albala / Angela Locke / Ulf Karlsson / Steve Gelumbauskas / Lexie Smith-Raymond

    PLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 8, p e

    2013  Volume 71250

    Abstract: PURPOSE: The study aims to assess the tolerance of elderly patients (70 years or older) with locally advanced rectal cancers to image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). A retrospective review of 13 elderly patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who ... ...

    Abstract PURPOSE: The study aims to assess the tolerance of elderly patients (70 years or older) with locally advanced rectal cancers to image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). A retrospective review of 13 elderly patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who underwent preoperative chemoradiation using IGRT was performed. Grade 3-4 acute toxicities, survival, and long-term complications were compared to 17 younger patients (<70 years) with the same disease stage. RESULTS: Grade 3-4 hematologic toxicities occurred in 7.6% and 0% (p = 0.4) and gastrointestinal toxicities, and, in 15.2% and 5% (p = 0.5), of elderly and younger patients, respectively. Surgery was aborted in three patients, two in the elderly group and one in the younger group. One patient in the elderly group died after surgery from cardiac arrhythmia. After a median follow-up of 34 months, five patients had died, two in the elderly and three in the younger group. The 3-year survival was 90.9% and 87.5% (p = 0.7) for the elderly and younger group respectively. Two patients in the younger group developed ischemic colitis and fecal incontinence. There was no statistically significant difference in acute and late toxicities as well as survival between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Elderly patients with locally advanced rectal cancers may tolerate preoperative chemoradiation with IGRT as well as younger patients. Further prospective studies should be performed to investigate the potential of IGRT for possible cure in elderly patients with locally advanced rectal cancer.
    Keywords Medicine ; R ; Science ; Q
    Subject code 610 ; 616
    Language English
    Publishing date 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  10. Article ; Online: Feasibility of Tomotherapy-based image-guided radiotherapy to reduce aspiration risk in patients with non-laryngeal and non-pharyngeal head and neck cancer.

    Nam P Nguyen / Lexie Smith-Raymond / Vincent Vinh-Hung / Paul Vos / Rick Davis / Anand Desai / Thomas Sroka / Dave Abraham / Shane P Krafft / Michelle Stevie / Homayoun Modarresifar / Beng-Hoey Jo / Misty Ceizyk

    PLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 3, p e

    2013  Volume 56290

    Abstract: PURPOSE: The study aims to assess the feasibility of Tomotherapy-based image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) to reduce the aspiration risk in patients with non-laryngeal and non-hypopharyngeal cancer. A retrospective review of 48 patients undergoing radiation ...

    Abstract PURPOSE: The study aims to assess the feasibility of Tomotherapy-based image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) to reduce the aspiration risk in patients with non-laryngeal and non-hypopharyngeal cancer. A retrospective review of 48 patients undergoing radiation for non-laryngeal and non-hypopharyngeal head and neck cancers was conducted. All patients had a modified barium swallow (MBS) prior to treatment, which was repeated one month following radiotherapy. Mean middle and inferior pharyngeal dose was recorded and correlated with the MBS results to determine aspiration risk. RESULTS: Mean pharyngeal dose was 23.2 Gy for the whole group. Two patients (4.2%) developed trace aspiration following radiotherapy which resolved with swallowing therapy. At a median follow-up of 19 months (1-48 months), all patients were able to resume normal oral feeding without aspiration. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: IGRT may reduce the aspiration risk by decreasing the mean pharyngeal dose in the presence of large cervical lymph nodes. Further prospective studies with IGRT should be performed in patients with non-laryngeal and non-hypopharyngeal head and neck cancers to verify this hypothesis.
    Keywords Medicine ; R ; Science ; Q
    Subject code 610 ; 616
    Language English
    Publishing date 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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