Quantitative radiobiological models can be used to assess the optimum clinical outcome from sophisticated therapeutic modalities by calculating tumor control probability (TCP) and normal tissue complication probability (NTCP). In this study two 3D-CRT and an IMRT treatment plans were developed with an initial prescription dose of 60 Gy in 2 Gy/fraction to prostate. Sensitivity of TCP and Compli...

Recognition of the role of hepatic drug transporters in elimination of xenobiotics continues to grow. Hepatic uptake transporters, such as hepatic isoforms of the organic anion-transporting polypeptide (Oatp) family as well as the bile acid transporter Na(+)-taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (Ntcp) have been studied extensively both at the mRNA and protein expression levels in adults. How...

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is known to down-regulate expression of drug-detoxifying proteins such as cytochromes P450 (P450s) in human hepatocytes. The present study was designed to determine whether HGF may also impair expression of uptake and efflux drug transporters, which constitute important determinants of the liver detoxification pathway, such as P450s. Exposure of primary human hepa...

Gender differences in the hepatic transport of organic anions is well established. Although uptake of many organic anions is greater in females, sodium-dependent taurocholate uptake is greater in hepatocytes from male rats. We examined the hypothesis that endogenous estrogens alter the number of sinusoidal bile acid transporters and/or decrease membrane lipid fluidity. The initial sodium-depend...

Radiobiological metrics such as tumor control probability (TCP) and normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) help in assessing the quality of brachytherapy plans. Application of such metrics in clinics as well as research is still inadequate. This study presents the implementation of two indigenously designed plan evaluation modules: Brachy_TCP and Brachy_NTCP. Evaluation tools were constr...

A novel risk model has recently been proposed for the occurrence of late contrast-enhancing brain lesions (CEBLs) after proton irradiation low-grade glioma (LGG) patients. It predicts a strong dependence on dose-weighted linear-energy transfer (LETd effect) and an increased radiosensitivity ventricular proximity, 4-mm fringe surrounding system (VP4mm effect). On this basis, we investigated (A) ...

Background and purposeHead neck cancer (HNC) patients treated with radiotherapy often suffer from radiation-induced toxicities. Normal Tissue Complication Probability (NTCP) modeling can be used to determine the probability develop these toxicities based on patient, tumor, treatment dose characteristics. Since currently NTCP models are developed using supervised methods that discard unlabeled p...

BACKGROUND The risk of radio-induced gastrointestinal (GI) complications is affected by several factors other than the dose to the rectum such as patient characteristics, hormonal or antihypertensive therapy, and acute rectal toxicity. Purpose of this work is to study clinical and dosimetric parameters impacting on late GI toxicity after prostate external beam radiotherapy (RT) and to establish...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate whether machine learning with dosiomic, radiomic, and demographic features allows for xerostomia risk assessment more precise than normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) models based on the mean radiation dose to parotid glands. Material and methods A cohort of 153 head-and-neck cancer patients was used to model xerostomia at 0-6 mont...

Entry of hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis D viruses (HDV) into a host cell represents the initial step of infection. This process requires multiple steps, including the low-affinity attachment of the virus to the cell surface, followed by high-affinity attachment to specific receptor(s), and subsequent endocytosis-mediated internalization. Within the viral envelope, the preS1 region is involved ...