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Background: Hypofractionated three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) is a treatment option for patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are medically unable to tolerate surgery and who are not amenable to treatment with stereotactic body radiotherapy. This study assessed the efficacy and safety of 3D-CRT as a monotherapy in patients with localized stage T2 or T3 NSCLC.Methods: This retrospective study consisted of 29 patients (20 males) aged 56-89 years (median, 76 years) with histologically confirmed NSCLC who underwent 3D-CRT between 2005 and 2014.Results: The median duration of patient observation was 17.0 months (range, 1.0-64.0 months). Complete and partial responses occurred in 13.8 and 44.8 % of patients, respectively, and the overall response rate was 58.2 %. Meanwhile, the 1- and 3-year survival rates were 65.8 and 33.8 %, respectively. In T2 NSCLC, the median survival time (MST) was 12 months, and the 1- and 3-year survival rates were 62.4 and 21.4 %, respectively. In T3 NSCLC, the MST was 17 months, and the 1- and 3-year survival rates were 72.9 and 48.6 %, respectively. Severe toxicities (Common Terminology Criteria Grade 3) were not observed. The mean biologically effective dose required to improve local control exceeded 80 Gy (range, 67.2-96.0 Gy).Conclusion: These findings support a role for 3D-CRT as a treatment option for patients who refuse or could not tolerate surgical therapy with early-stage NSCLC. Although this was a small, retrospective study, it may form the basis for future, larger controlled studies on 3D-CRT as a monotherapy for NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate retrospectively the clinical performance of the Bicarbon valve (Sorin Biomedica Cardio, Saluggia, Italy) implanted at our center in Japan. Methods: Between January 1997 and December 2011, 415 patients in our institution were implanted with the Bicarbon valve. Nine of these recipients were excluded from the study because they had already undergone valve implantation and received a Bicarbon valve in a different position. The remaining patients were analyzed for evaluation of the postoperative clinical outcomes. Of the 406 patients (mean age 60.2 ± 11.7 years), 179 underwent aortic valve replacement (AVR), 149 mitral valve replacement (MVR), and 78 both aortic and mitral valve replacement (DVR). Results: There were 10 early deaths (2.5 %: 4 in the AVR group and 6 in the MVR group). Three hundred eighty-nine patients were followed up (95.8 % completeness of follow-up) with a mean follow-up of 6.6 ± 4.2 years overall (AVR 6.8 ± 4.2, MVR, 6.7 ± 4.4, and DVR 5.7 ± 3.4 years) and a cumulative follow-up of 2661 patient-years (1214, 1001, and 446 patient-years for AVR, MVR, and DVR, respectively). Ninety-nine patients died (3.7 % per patient-year: 22 valve-related and 77 valve-unrelated deaths). Survival at 10 years was 74.1 ± 4.0 % in the AVR group, 73.7 ± 4.2 % in the MVR group, and 61.0 ± 7.9 % in the DVR group. The linearized incidence of thromboembolic complications, bleeding complications, prosthetic valve endocarditis, paravalvular leaks, and sudden death in all patients was 0.5 %, 0.5 %, 0.2 %, 0.2 %, and 0.4 % per patient-year, respectively. The incidence of valve-related complications and reoperation was 1.6 % and 0.4 %, respectively. No other valve-related complications were observed. Conclusions: The Bicarbon prosthetic heart valve has shown excellent clinical results and is associated with a low incidence of valve-related complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elemental analysis of materials is fundamentally important to science and technology. Many elemental analysis methods have been developed, but three-dimensional nondestructive elemental analysis of bulk materials has remained elusive. Recently, our project team, dreamX (damageless and regioselective elemental analysis with muonic X-rays), developed a nondestructive depth-profiling elemental analysis method after a decade of research. This new method utilizes a new type of probe; a negative muon particle and high-energy muonic X-rays emitted after the muon stops in a material. We performed elemental depth profiling on an old Japanese gold coin (Tempo-Koban) using a low-momentum negative muon beam and successfully determined that the Au concentration in the coin gradually decreased with depth over a micrometer length scale. We believe that this method will be a promising tool for the elemental analysis of valuable samples, such as archeological artifacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate retrospectively the clinical performance of the Bicarbon valve (Sorin Biomedica Cardio, Saluggia, Italy) implanted at our center in Japan. Methods: Between January 1997 and December 2011, 415 patients in our institution were implanted with the Bicarbon valve. Nine of these recipients were excluded from the study because they had already undergone valve implantation and received a Bicarbon valve in a different position. The remaining patients were analyzed for evaluation of the postoperative clinical outcomes. Of the 406 patients (mean age 60.2 ± 11.7 years), 179 underwent aortic valve replacement (AVR), 149 mitral valve replacement (MVR), and 78 both aortic and mitral valve replacement (DVR). Results: There were 10 early deaths (2.5 %: 4 in the AVR group and 6 in the MVR group). Three hundred eighty-nine patients were followed up (95.8 % completeness of follow-up) with a mean follow-up of 6.6 ± 4.2 years overall (AVR 6.8 ± 4.2, MVR, 6.7 ± 4.4, and DVR 5.7 ± 3.4 years) and a cumulative follow-up of 2661 patient-years (1214, 1001, and 446 patient-years for AVR, MVR, and DVR, respectively). Ninety-nine patients died (3.7 % per patient-year: 22 valve-related and 77 valve-unrelated deaths). Survival at 10 years was 74.1 ± 4.0 % in the AVR group, 73.7 ± 4.2 % in the MVR group, and 61.0 ± 7.9 % in the DVR group. The linearized incidence of thromboembolic complications, bleeding complications, prosthetic valve endocarditis, paravalvular leaks, and sudden death in all patients was 0.5 %, 0.5 %, 0.2 %, 0.2 %, and 0.4 % per patient-year, respectively. The incidence of valve-related complications and reoperation was 1.6 % and 0.4 %, respectively. No other valve-related complications were observed. Conclusions: The Bicarbon prosthetic heart valve has shown excellent clinical results and is associated with a low incidence of valve-related complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]