Temperature measurements in a capacitive system of deep loco-regional hyperthermia.

Hyperthermia has been shown to be a medically useful procedure applicable for different indications. For the connection between clinical effects and heat, it is important to understand the actual temperatures achieved in the tissue. There are limited temperature data available when using capacitive hyperthermia devices even though this is worldwide the most widespread method for loco-regional heating. Hence, this study examines temperature measurements using capacitive heating. Bioequivalent phantoms were used for the measurements, which, however, do not consider perfusion in live tissue. In general, the required temperature impact for an effective cancer therapy should need an increase of 0.2°C/min, which has been achieved. In the described tests on the non-perfused dummy, on average, the temperature increases by approximately 2°C in the first 12 min. The temperature difference relative to the starting temperature was 10-12°C within a therapy time of 60 min (rising from the initial room temperature between 20-24°C and 32-34°C). The average deviation with three individual measurements each on different days in a specified localization was 2°C. The minimum temperature difference was 4.2°C, and the maximum value was reached in the liver with 10.5°C. These values were achieved with a moderate energy input of 60-150 watts, with much higher performance outputs still available. These results show that the tested capacitive device is capable of achieving quick temperature increase with a sufficient impact into the depth of a body.

Successful treatment of c-kit-positive metastatic Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma (ACC) with a combination of curcumin plus imatinib: A case report.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) is an aggressive malignant neoplasm of the secretory glands. Conventional chemotherapy has poor effectiveness against metastatic ACC. Thus, a novel effective therapy is needed against metastatic ACC. A majority of ACCs (up to 94%) express c-kit. Imatinib is monoclonal antibody with specific activity against c-kit but has not been found to be effective in treating patients with ACC in which c-kit is overexpressed and activated. The NF-κB and mTOR pathways have been shown that ubiquitously and concurrently activated, indicating that the inhibition of these pathways may represent a novel treatment approach for patients with ACC. Curcumin has been shown to inhibit NF-κB and NF-κB-related pathways. 43-year-old patient was diagnosed ACC from submandibular salivary gland. After complete resection of tumor adjuvant radiotherapy was initiated. Seven years later multiple lung metastases were detected and ACC was confirmed by re-biopsy. First-line chemotherapy failed. NF-κB and c-kit were overexpressed in the metastatic specimens. Therefore, we treated the patient with metastatic chemoresistant ACC with imatinib 400mg/day and intravenous curcumin 225mg/m(2) twice a week plus oral bioavailable curcumin Arantal(®) 2×84mg/day. At 24 months, we observed near complete anatomic and complete metabolic response. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a patient with a c-kit-positive ACC that is successfully treated with the combination of imatinib and curcumin in an integrative approach.

Influence of brain tumors on the MR spectra of healthy brain tissue.

The neurochemical environment of nontumorous white matter tissue was investigated in 135 single voxel spectra of "healthy" white matter regions of 43 tumor patients and 129 spectra of 52 healthy subjects. Spectra were acquired with short TE and TR values. With the data of tumor patients, it was examined whether differences were caused by the tumor itself or aggressive tumor therapies as confounding factors. Comparing the spectra of both classes, an excellent differentiation was possible based on the metabolite peak of N-acetylaspartate (P ≈ 0) and myoinositol (P < 0.03). The area under curve of the receiver operating characteristic was calculated as 0.86 and 0.62, respectively. With linear discriminant analysis using combinations of integrals, a prediction was possible, whether a spectrum belonged to the patient or the healthy subject class with an overall accuracy above 80%. The confounding factors could be ruled out as source of the differences. The results show strong evidence for an influence of malignant growth on the biochemical environment of nontumorous white matter tissue. Because of the T(1) weighting, the measured differences between both classes were most likely concentration changes interfered by T(1) effects. The underlying processes will be subject of future studies.