Architecting oxidized alginate methacrylate hydrogels with tunable characteristics by altering the sequence of the cross-linking steps, methacrylation reaction time, and polymer concentration.

In this study, biodegradable oxidized methacrylated alginate (OMA) hydrogels with controllable mechanical properties were engineered. An ionic and photo cross-linking combination was employed to fabricate dual cross-linked hydrogels. By altering the degree of methacrylation and polymer concentration, hydrogels with an elastic modulus of 4.85 ± 0.13 to 21.02 ± 0.91 kPa, controllable swelling, and degradation kinetics, and cross-link density in the range of 1.0 × 10-5 to 6.5 × 10-5 mol/cm3 were obtained. Moreover, evaluating the effect of cross-linking sequence on the hydrogels' mechanical properties demonstrated that in comparison to the hydrogels fabricated by ionic cross-linking followed by photo-polymerization, hydrogels produced by photo-polymerization followed by ionic cross-linking retain a stiffer gel network with more compact structure. Cytocompatibility examination was performed via MTT assay against L929 fibroblasts, and all the hydrogel samples demonstrated high cell viability (>80%). The findings demonstrate the significant effect of the sequence of cross-linking as a novel tool to tune the OMA hydrogel's final properties which can serve as a useful platform for tissue engineering applications.

Front-line paclitaxel-vinorelbine versus paclitaxel-carboplatin in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: a randomized phase III trial.

PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial of advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was designed to compare a standard treatment such as carboplatin (CRP)-paclitaxel (PCT) with a new combination, vinorelbine (VRL)-PCT-two agents acting in microtubules. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Three hundred and sixty patients (stage IIIa, IIIb and IV) were included and evaluated for response rate, survival and toxicity. Arm A patients were treated with the control combination of CRP 6 AUC and PCT 175 mg/m(2) repeated every 3 weeks for six cycles, and arm B with the investigational combination of VRL 25 mg/m(2) and PCT 135 mg/m(2) repeated every 2 weeks for nine cycles. The patients were well balanced with respect to gender, disease stage and performance status. Arm A received 849 cycles (mean 4.59 per patient) and arm B 951 cycles (mean 5.39 per patient). RESULTS: Complete and partial response rates were 45.95% and 42.86% for arms A and B, respectively. Median survival was 11 and 10 months, 1-year survival 42.7% and 37.85% and 2-year survival 10.12% and 19% for arms A and B, respectively. Toxicity was similar in all patients, except for neutropenia, which was significantly greater in arm B. CONCLUSIONS: PCT combined with VRL produces similar (non-significant) response rates, survival and toxicity (except for neutropenia, as noted above) to standard CRP-PCT treatment in untreated advanced-stage NSCLC.