Salvage or Adjuvant Radiation Therapy: Counseling Patients on the Benefits

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew E. Nielsen ◽  
Bruce J. Trock ◽  
Patrick C. Walsh

Recent developments in the urologic oncology literature suggest that residual local disease—as opposed to the presence of occult metastases at surgery—may characterize a more substantial component of the natural history of the recurrence and progression of initially clinically localized prostate cancer than previously appreciated. These important studies have illuminated the extent to which postoperative radiotherapy (RT) may provide benefit to patients with adverse pathologic features (extraprostatic extension, seminal vesicle invasion, or positive surgical margins) or biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy. Nevertheless, the question of whether all patients with the aforementioned adverse features should undergo immediate adjuvant RT versus initial observation with more selective—but early—salvage RT in the event of biochemical failure remains the subject of heated controversy. This article reviews salient recent studies in this field to address important questions relevant to counseling patients on the use of postprostatectomy RT. Discussion points include data supporting benefit (efficacy), questions of generalizability of benefit (effectiveness) and risks, and important questions for further study.

Author(s):  
Wodziński Marcin

This chapter reviews some recent studies on the Jews of Silesia. The history of the Jews in Silesia became an abandoned field for nearly two decades. Isolated, if sometimes very interesting, studies appeared (including works by Stefi Jersch-Wenzel and Karol Jonca), but they did not maintain the continuity of research, and it could certainly not be said that there was any systematic interest in the subject. But with the renaissance of Judaic studies in Germany and Poland in the second half of the 1980s came a revival of interest in Silesian Jewry. Two conferences on the history of the Jewish community in Silesia, organized almost simultaneously, can be regarded as a symbolic double threshold: the first took place at the Institute of History at Wrocław University in June 1988, the second, a year later in Berlin.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 20160828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry W. Brook ◽  
John Alroy

Extinction is a key feature of the evolutionary history of life, and assessments of extinction risk are essential for the effective protection of biodiversity. The goal in assembling this special issue of Biology Letters was to highlight problems and questions at the research frontier of extinction biology, with an emphasis on recent developments in the methodology of inferring the patterns and processes of extinction from a background of often noisy and sparse data. In selecting topics, we sought to illustrate how extinction is not simply a self-evident phenomenon, but the subject of a dynamic and quantitatively rigorous field of natural science, with practical applications to conservation.


Bakerian Lectures dealing with astronomical topics have occurred roughly every ten years during this century. They have therefore something of the character of reports on progress and one need read no further back than Hoyle’s ‘Review of recent developments in cosmology’ (Hoyle 1968) and Ryle’s ‘The nature of the cosmic radio sources’ (Ryle 1958) to discover the background against which are to be seen the dramatic changes of the ensuing period. It stretches from the conception of X-ray astronomy through its birth, with the discovery of the first non-solar source (Giacconi et al . 1962), to its maturity with the availability of satellites to provide long exposures. Nor is it any accident that the root κóσμoς is prominent in the titles of recent lectures for while those of Jeans, Eddington, Milne and Blacket were concerned with our Galaxy, the drama is now truly cosmic. Cosmic X-ray astronomy grew out of the study of the Sun and for this reason its founding father is Herbert Friedman. Giacconi describes well the early history of the subject (Giacconi & Gursky 1974) and tells how, in June 1962, having been interested in the idea by Rossi in September 1959, he and his colleagues detected flux coming neither from the Sun nor from the Moon. Friedman had discussed as early as 1956 ‘how his group obtained puzzling results, which might have been due to celestial X-ray fluxes’, and reported this at the I. A. U. meeting in Moscow in 1958. Stimulated by our solar studies with the Skylark rocket, similar thinking was taking place under the auspices of this Society. Mention of this was made at a conference in the United States in June 1961 (Boyd 1962) but a meeting of the Astronomy Working Group of the British National Committee on Space Research (N. C. S. P./34, 1959 a ) had discussed, in May 1959, the possibility, of mounting ‘Directive X-ray counters’ on the proposed U. K. -I satellite. The minute read ‘Current theories suggested that there may be objects in the sky with strong X-ray emission although inconspicuous visually. A search for these is a matter of great interest and importance.’ It is noteworthy that Hoyle, who had discussed Friedman’s speculations with him, was present at the meeting.


2007 ◽  
Vol 93 (5) ◽  
pp. 445-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Greco ◽  
Simona Castiglioni ◽  
Andrei Fodor ◽  
Ottavio De Cobelli ◽  
Nadia Longaretti ◽  
...  

Aims and Background To determine whether there is a benefit for biochemical control with adjuvant radiation therapy to the surgical bed following radical prostatectomy in patients with seminal vesicle invasion and pathologically negative pelvic lymph nodes (pT3b-pT4 pN0). Methods We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of radical prostatectomy patients treated between 1995 and 2002. A total of 66 patients with seminal vesicle invasion were identified: 45 of these patients received adjuvant radiation therapy and 21 were observed. Radiation therapy was initiated within 4 months of prostatectomy. Median dose was 66 Gy (range, 60–70 Gy). Median follow-up from the day of surgery was 40.6 months (mean, 41.5; range, 12–99). Biochemical recurrence was defined as the first value ≥0.2 ng/ml. Results At two years, the proportion of patients free from biochemical recurrence was 80% in patients who received adjuvant radiation therapy versus 54% for those not given radiation therapy (P = 0.036). Actuarial biochemical recurrence at 5 years was 59% vs 41% for the radiation therapy and no radiation therapy groups, respectively. On univariate Cox regression model, the hazard of biochemical failure was also associated with a detectable (≥0.2 ng/ml) postsurgical prostate-specific antigen (P = 0.02) prior to radiation therapy. Pathological T stage (pT3b vs pT4), Gleason score, primary Gleason pattern and positive surgical margins were not significantly associated with biochemical recurrence. The hazard of biochemical failure was around 85% lower in the radiation therapy group than in the observation group (P = 0.002). Conclusions Data from the present series suggest that adjuvant radiation therapy for patients with seminal vesicle invasion and undetectable (≤0.2 ng/ml) postoperative prostate-specific antigen significantly reduces the likelihood of biochemical failure.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (7_suppl) ◽  
pp. 168-168
Author(s):  
Robert Benjamin Den ◽  
Kasra Yousefi ◽  
Edouard John Trabulsi ◽  
Firas Abdollah ◽  
Voleak Choeurng ◽  
...  

168 Background: The optimal timing of postoperative radiotherapy following radical prostatectomy (post-RP RT) is unclear. We hypothesized that a genomic classifier (GC) would provide prognostic and predictive insight into the development of clinical metastases in men receiving post-RP RT and inform decision-making. Methods: GC scores were calculated from 188 patients with pT3 or margin positive PCa, who received post-RP RT at Thomas Jefferson University and Mayo Clinic, between 1990 and 2009. The primary endpoint was clinical metastasis. Prognostic accuracy of the models were tested using c-index and decision curve analysis. Cox regression tested the relationship between GC and metastasis. Results: The cumulative incidence of metastasis at 5 years post-RT was 0%, 9%, and 29% for low, average, and high GC scores, respectively (p=0.002). In multivariable analysis, GC and pre-RP PSA were independent predictors of metastasis (both p<0.01). Within the low GC score (<0.4), there were no differences in the cumulative incidence of metastasis comparing those who received adjuvant or salvage RT (p=0.79). However, for patients with higher GC scores (≥0.4) cumulative incidence of metastasis at 5-year was 6% vs. 23% for patients treated with adjuvant vs. salvage RT (p<0.01). Conclusions: In patients treated with post-RP RT, GC is prognostic for the development of clinical metastasis beyond routine clinical/pathologic features. Though preliminary, patients with low GC are best treated with salvage radiation, while those with high GC benefit from adjuvant therapy. These findings provide the first rationale selection of timing of post-RP RT.


2012 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 896-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baorong Wang

Directionality is one of the most interesting recent developments in translation studies in the West. The scene, however, is rather different in China with a long history of inverse translation. This article aims to outline translation practices in China and Chinese thinking on directionality while providing a few pointers for further research. Part one surveys major translation projects that were carried out or are being carried out and how Chinese translation scholars thought/think about directionality. The survey covers nineteen centuries from the 2nd century A.D. through the present time, albeit most of the data are devoted to the periods from the turn of the 20th century. It is found that although inverse translation is an age-old practice in China, the issue of directionality began to be seriously considered and debated only in the early 1980s, and that there has been increased attention to the topic in recent years. Part two briefly reviews the current status of research and concludes that directionality is an under-researched area in Chinese translation studies. The article ends with some suggestions for further research on the subject in the Chinese context, drawing on the latest research conducted in the West.


2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-482
Author(s):  
Carlos Ragazzo ◽  
Fernanda Freitas

This article discusses the challenges of legislative systematization and inter-institutional coordination that have emerged as a result of the anti-corruption movement in Brazil in recent years. We contextualize the forthcoming discussion by presenting a brief history of Brazil’s normative framework on the subject, including elements that have proven important for combating corruption in the country. Later, we demonstrate that the formation of this national context on corruption has resulted in deficient legislative systematization, which causes difficulties in the application of the existing laws and rules. Moreover, it has hampered inter-institutional coordination, thus retarding processes, increasing the demands to the courts, elevating the insecurity of those who are subject to the institutions’ actions, and so on. In conclusion, although recent developments initiated by Brazil’s government and other ancillary institutions have attempted to address these issues, a deficiency is likely to exist in the foreseeable future, especially in terms of the proposed legislative agenda under discussion.


2012 ◽  
Vol 187 (4S) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Boorjian ◽  
Matthew Tollefson ◽  
Laureano Rangel ◽  
Eric Bergstralh ◽  
R. Jeffrey Karnes

Author(s):  
Ian Smith ◽  
Aaron Baker ◽  
Owen Warnock

This book focuses on employment law, which has been the subject of as rapid a transformation as can have happened to any legal subject in recent times, and is certainly one of the most difficult areas of law in which to keep up to date. In some ways employment law is a curious mixture of ancient and modern, for much old law lies behind or at the basis of new statutory law and in some cases the old law continues to exist alongside the new. The subject is, however, unrecognizable from what it was only 40 years ago, with the enormous increase in statute law and the ever-increasing volume of case law on the modern statutes. Thus, the intending student must be able to exercise the lawyer’s skill in dealing with both extensive case law and major statutes, sometimes of astounding complexity. As well as setting out the history of this area of law, this chapter covers important background features of procedure and the enforcement of the law through tribunals, including recent developments such as ACAS early conciliation, the fiasco over tribunal fees, and possible future reforms to the system of adjudication.


This Oxford Handbook is a comprehensive and authoritative study of the modern law on the use of force. Over 50 experts in the field offer a detailed analysis, and to an extent a restatement, of the law in this area. The Handbook reviews the status of the law on the use of force and assesses what changes, if any, have occurred as a result of recent developments. It offers cutting-edge and up-to-date scholarship on all major aspects of the prohibition of the use of force. Part I reviews the history of the subject and its recent challenges, and addresses the major conceptual approaches. Part II covers collective security, in particular the law and practice of the UN organs, and of regional organizations and arrangements. Part III considers the substance of the prohibition of the use of force and the right to self-defence and associated doctrines. Part IV is devoted to armed action undertaken on behalf of peoples and populations, including self-determination conflicts, resistance to armed occupation, and forcible humanitarian and pro-democratic action. The possibility of the revival of classical, expansive justifications for the use of force is addressed in Part V, followed by Part VI which considers new security challenges and the emerging law in relation to them. Part VII ties the key arguments developed in the book into a substantive conclusion. The Handbook is essential reading for scholars and students of international law and the use of force, and legal advisers to both governments and NGOs.


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