Assessment of acute bowel function after radiotherapy for prostate cancer: Is it accurate enough?

Background and purpose. Pelvic radiotherapy for prostate cancer can be associated with bowel toxicity, which may have a significant impact on quality of life. Our aim was to assess the adequacy of the tools currently used to assess bowel symptoms after radiotherapy, including physician and patient reported outcomes. This sub-study on acute toxicity was part of a prospective trial assessing long-term bowel dysfunction. Materials and methods. Between February 2013 and July 2015, 75 patients with prostate cancer who received radiotherapy completed the LENT/SOMA and the EPIC questionnaires baseline and 2 weeks after the treatment. The Bristol stool scale and two additional questions on faecal urgency were added. Physicians assessed toxicity using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v.4.0. Agreement between patients and clinicians was assessed using the Cohen's κ coefficient. Results. Acute toxicity during radiotherapy was very low. The pattern of overall bowel bother was similar before and after treatment. Faecal urgency significantly increased after radiotherapy compared to baseline but was only detected by the additional questions and not by the physicians or the patient-reported outcomes (PRO) questionnaires. Correlation between physician and PRO was poor for most symptoms. Conclusion. Bowel symptoms such as urgency may remain undetected by usual tools to assess toxicity after radiotherapy. Assessment of bowel toxicity should be reappraised in order to identify those patients who may have symptoms with an impact on their quality of life

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Assessment of acute bowel function after radiotherapy for prostate cancer: Is it accurate enough?

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Pelvic radiotherapy for prostate cancer can be associated with bowel toxicity, which may have a significant impact on quality of life. Our aim was to assess the adequacy of the tools currently used to assess bowel symptoms after radiotherapy, including physician and patient reported outcomes. This sub-study on acute toxicity was part of a prospective trial assessing long-term bowel dysfunction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between February 2013 and July 2015, 75 patients with prostate cancer who received radiotherapy completed the LENT/SOMA and the EPIC questionnaires baseline and 2 weeks after the treatment. The Bristol stool scale and two additional questions on faecal urgency were added. Physicians assessed toxicity using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v.4.0. Agreement between patients and clinicians was assessed using the Cohen's κ coefficient. RESULTS: Acute toxicity during radiotherapy was very low. The pattern of overall bowel bother was similar before and after treatment. Faecal urgency significantly increased after radiotherapy compared to baseline but was only detected by the additional questions and not by the physicians or the patient-reported outcomes (PRO) questionnaires. Correlation between physician and PRO was poor for most symptoms. CONCLUSION: Bowel symptoms such as urgency may remain undetected by usual tools to assess toxicity after radiotherapy. Assessment of bowel toxicity should be reappraised in order to identify those patients who may have symptoms with an impact on their quality of life.

Condition dependence of male and female genital structures in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus (Coleoptera: Bruchidae).

Theory predicts that costly secondary sexual traits will evolve heightened condition dependence, and many studies have reported strong condition dependence of signal and weapon traits in a variety of species. However, although genital structures often play key roles in intersexual interactions and appear to be subject to sexual or sexually antagonistic selection, few studies have examined the condition dependence of genital structures, especially in both sexes simultaneously. We investigated the responses of male and female genital structures to manipulation of larval diet quality (new versus once-used mung beans) in the bruchid seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. We quantified effects on mean relative size and static allometry of the male aedeagus, aedeagal spines, flap and paramere and the female reproductive tract and bursal spines. None of the male traits showed a significant effect of diet quality. In females, we found that longer bursal spines (relative to body size) were expressed on low-quality diet. Although the function of bursal spines is poorly understood, we suggest that greater bursal spine length in low-condition females may represent a sexually antagonistic adaptation. Overall, we found no evidence that genital traits in C. maculatus are expressed to a greater extent when nutrients are more abundant. This suggests that, even though some genital traits appear to function as secondary sexual traits, genital traits do not exhibit heightened condition dependence in this species. We discuss possible reasons for this finding.

Genotype-by-genotype specificity remains robust to average temperature variation in an aphid/endosymbiont/parasitoid system.

Genotype-by-genotype interactions demonstrate the existence of variation upon which selection acts in host-parasite systems at respective resistance and infection loci. These interactions can potentially be modified by environmental factors, which would entail that different genotypes are selected under different environmental conditions. In the current study, we checked for a G × G × E interaction in the context of average temperature and the genotypes of asexual lines of the endoparasitoid wasp Lysiphlebus fabarum and isolates of Hamiltonella defensa, a protective secondary endosymbiont of the wasp's host, the black bean aphid Aphis fabae. We exposed genetically identical aphids harbouring different isolates of H. defensa to three asexual lines of the parasitoid and measured parasitism success under three different temperatures (15, 22 and 29 °C). Although there was clear evidence for increased susceptibility to parasitoids at the highest average temperature and a strong G × G interaction between the host's symbionts and the parasitoids, no modifying effect of temperature, that is, no significant G × G × E interaction, was detected. This robustness of the observed specificity suggests that the relative fitness of different parasitoid genotypes on hosts protected by particular symbionts remains uncomplicated by spatial or temporal variation in temperature, which should facilitate biological control strategies.