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Physiologic concentrations of inorganic phosphate accelerate fructosamine synthesis.

The effect of physiologic concentrations of inorganic phosphate (Pi) on fructosamine (FRA) synthesis was studied. After 75 g oral glucose administration (OGTT), 'delta FRA/24 h', defined as delta FRA after incubating serum or other specimens at 37 degrees C for 24 h after adding 1000 mg/dl glucose, was significantly decreased in parallel to the decrease of plasma Pi concentrations. 'The FRA index', defined as the FRA value divided by the corresponding glucose concentration, both at fasting, correlated significantly with plasma Pi concentrations. In vitro incubation of serum total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), gamma-globulin (GLB), free lysine (Lys), and free valine (Val) with glucose at different concentrations of Pi showed a Pi-dependent increase of FRA synthesis throughout 48 h of incubation. The accelerating effect of 5 mg/dl Pi on FRA synthesis from TP, ALB, GLB, Lys, and Val at pH 7.4 was, respectively, as great as 48, 20, 24, 13 or 25% of those without Pi. Increase of pH from 6 to 10 logarithmically increased delta FRA/24 h in contrast to a logarithmic decrease of the accelerating effect of Pi on delta FRA/24 h. These data show that physiologic concentrations of Pi accelerate protein glycation by accelerating dehydrogenation during the Amadori rearrangement through the negative charge of Pi. Because this accelerating effect of physiologic Pi presumably exists in vivo, Pi concentration must be taken into account as an accelerating factor for FRA synthesis in evaluating diabetic control, and further studies must be carried out to elucidate whether hyperphosphatemia accelerates glycation-induced diabetic complications.

Adult↗

Accelerated repopulation: friend or foe? Exploiting changes in tumor growth characteristics to improve the "efficiency" of radiotherapy.

Accelerated repopulation (rapid multiplication of surviving clonogens) during a course of radiation therapy may contribute to local failure. This possibility has prompted accelerated treatment programs in an attempt to reduce overall treatment time, thereby minimizing the impact of repopulation. However, accelerated dose delivery at the start of treatment may not be advantageous since many of the tumor cells are likely to be hypoxic (non-cycling cells) and therefore relatively radioresistant. Conversely, accelerated treatment is likely to be most helpful later in treatment when the tumor has shrunk and accelerated repopulation of clonogens is a dominant factor. A series of calculations are presented that stimulate changes in tumor size, clonogen number, clonogen repopulation, and growth fraction during a course of fractionated radiation treatments for an idealized 2 cm diameter spherical tumor. The efficiency of each fraction of radiation is calculated for different radiation fractionation schemes. Efficiency is defined as the change in Log clonogen number (reflecting cell death due to radiation minus repopulation that has occurred during the interval between fractions) per Gy. These calculations suggest that relatively low total daily doses (approximately 2 Gy) are most efficient early in treatment. Higher daily doses are less efficient since the growth fraction is relatively low at the start of treatment. Later in treatment, as the tumor shrinks and the growth fraction approaches 1, accelerated repopulation becomes a major problem and higher total daily doses are more efficient. At this point, accelerated hyperfractionation should be used to increase the daily dose without exposing normal tissues to high fraction sizes. Thus, changes in tumor growth characteristics are exploited and dose delivery can be optimized by escalating daily irradiation doses during a course of fractionated irradiation. Strict interpretation of these conclusions must be tempered by the various assumptions and uncertainties included in this model. The concept of efficiency is useful since it reflects the competing effects of clonogen repopulation and radiation induced clonogen sterilization.

Cell Division↗

Carbogen and nicotinamide as radiosensitizers in a murine mammary carcinoma using conventional and accelerated radiotherapy.

PURPOSE: To compare the radiosensitivity of mouse tumors treated in air with conventional and accelerated radiotherapy with that of tumors treated in carbogen alone or carbogen combined with nicotinamide. METHODS AND MATERIALS: CaNT mammary tumors were irradiated with either 30 x-ray fractions in 6 weeks or 40 fractions in 26 days in air, carbogen alone, or carbogen combined with 120 mg/kg of nicotinamide (NAM), the latter given intraperitonealy 30 min before each fraction. The response to treatment was assessed using local control, weight loss, and metastasis-free survival. RESULTS: Both carbogen and carbogen plus nicotinamide significantly increased tumor radiosensitivity; enhancement ratios (ERs) in the 6-week regimen were similar to those seen in the accelerated schedule. The majority of the effect was achieved by carbogen alone but the addition of NAM further enhanced tumor radiosensitization (ERs of 1.5 and 1.4 for carbogen in the conventional and accelerated schedule, respectively, were significantly lower than ERs of 1.7 and 1.6 obtained with carbogen plus nicotinamide; p < or = 0.005). Treatment protraction significantly increased radioresistance, especially when tumors were treated under air. An extra 1.5 Gy per day was required in air to counterbalance proliferation; in carbogen alone and carbogen plus nicotinamide a dose loss of 0.9 and 0.6 Gy per day was observed, respectively. Compared with treatments in air alone delivered in 6 weeks, acceleration of treatment combined with carbogen and nicotinamide gave the greatest increase in tumor radiosensitization (ER = 1.9). No toxic side effects and no detrimental changes in body weight were encountered when the sensitizers were administered 30 times (one fraction per day) or 40 times (two fractions per day). In both regimens, the incidence of metastases in mice treated with carbogen or carbogen plus nicotinamide was similar to that seen in animals treated in air. There was, however, a nonsignificant trend of a higher proportion of mice with metastasis in the accelerated schedule compared with the 6-week schedule. CONCLUSIONS: In both conventional and accelerated experimental radiotherapy, carbogen alone or combined with a small clinically relevant dose of NAM were well tolerated, achieved large and significant increases in radiosensitization, and did not affect the incidence of metastases. The sparing of damage, resulting from extending the overall treatment time, was less when the sensitizers were administered than when irradiations were performed in air. The study suggests that clinical radiotherapy regimens, which aim to reduce hypoxic and/or tumor clonogen proliferation, would benefit from the use of carbogen, especially if the gas is combined with nicotinamide and treatment acceleration.

Animals↗

Upper body accelerations during walking in healthy young and elderly men.

The purpose of the present study was to assess whether any differences existed in the upper body accelerations of young and elderly subjects during natural speed walking. Head and trunk accelerations in eight young subjects (aged 23+/-4 years) and eight healthy elderly subjects (aged 74+/-3 years) were measured during level walking on a 20 m walkway using a pair of tri-axial accelerometers. Heel contact and toe-off events were determined using a footswitch system embedded in the innersole of the right shoe. Gait measures assessed included; stride, stance and swing durations, cadence, gait velocity, step length and 3D head and trunk accelerations. All acceleration variables were normalised to walking speed before statistical analysis. The main findings of this study were: (1) the peak positive anterior-posterior (AP) trunk acceleration associated with push-off was significantly lower for elderly subjects, (2) the peak negative AP head and trunk accelerations following heel contact was significantly higher for elderly subjects, and (3) the time delay between trunk and head accelerations experienced in the AP direction was significantly lower for the elderly compared to the young group. Together, these results suggest that elderly subjects exhibit different patterns of upper body motion in the direction of travel compared to younger subjects. These differences are probably motivated by the need to maximise dynamic stability during critical parts of the gait cycle.

Adult↗

Developmental timing of index trauma exposure and accelerated epigenetic aging in United States military veterans.

Trauma exposure has been linked to accelerated GrimAge, an epigenetic biomarker of premature morbidity and mortality. Building on this evidence, the present study examined whether the type and timing of index trauma exposure are differentially associated with accelerated GrimAge. Participants were 873 European American male United States military Veterans from the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study. We investigated associations between self-reported age at index trauma, index trauma type (interpersonal violence, non-interpersonal trauma, or loss/instability/other), and accelerated GrimAge, operationalized as GrimAge exceeding chronological age by five or more years. Results revealed that interpersonal violence was associated with three-fold greater odds of accelerated GrimAge compared to other trauma types. Age at index trauma was not independently associated with accelerated GrimAge. However, we observed a significant interaction between trauma type and its developmental timing, even after adjusting for index trauma recency, cumulative trauma burden, and other potential confounders. Specifically, Veterans who were older at the time of exposure to interpersonal violence or trauma involving loss or instability had higher odds of accelerated GrimAge. In contrast, exposure to non-interpersonal trauma was more strongly associated with accelerated GrimAge when it occurred at younger ages. These results indicate that trauma type and timing jointly influence epigenetic aging in Veterans, highlighting the need for tailored interventions that address specific trauma characteristics to reduce associated long-term health risks in this population.

Humans↗

Modulation of accelerated repopulation in mouse skin during daily irradiation.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The timing of acceleration of repopulation in the epidermis during daily irradiation is related to the development of skin erythema and epidermal hypoplasia. Therefore, the relationship between impairment of the epidermal barrier function, the dermal inflammatory response and epidermal hypoplasia with the acceleration of repopulation was investigated. MATERIALS AND PURPOSE: Skin fields of approximately 1 cm2 on the thighs of TUC mice were given five daily fractions of 3 Gy in each week followed by top-up doses at the end of the first, the second, or the third week to determine residual epidermal tolerance and to calculate repopulation rates in weeks 1, 2, or 3. Systemic modulation of repopulation was attempted by daily indomethacine during fractionated irradiation whereas tape stripping or UV-B exposure before the start of fractionated irradiation attempted local modulation. In parallel experiments, the water permeability coefficient of the epidermis was determined ex vivo by studying transepidermal transport of tritiated water. RESULTS: Without modulation, no repopulation was found in the first week of daily fractionation but repopulation compensated 30% of the dose given in week two and 70% of the dose given in week three. Only tape stripping before the start of fractionated irradiation accelerated repopulation in week one. UV-B had no effect on repopulation although it stimulated proliferation as much as tape stripping. Indomethacin did not suppress acceleration of repopulation. A significant increase in transepidermal water loss was found but only after repopulation had already accelerated. CONCLUSIONS: Acceleration of repopulation in mouse epidermis during daily-fractionated irradiation is not related to the simultaneous development of an inflammatory response. Also, the loss of the epidermal barrier function is not involved in the development of the acceleration response, which rather seems to be triggered directly by the decreased cellularity of the epidermis.

Animals↗

Protein folding in the cell: on the mechanisms of its acceleration.

The mechanisms responsible for protein folding in the cell can be divided in two groups. The ones in the first group would be those preventing the aggregation of unfolded polypeptide chains or of incompletely folded proteins, as well as the mechanisms which provide for the energy-consuming unfolding of incorrectly folded structures, giving them a chance to begin a new folding cycle. Mechanisms of this type do not affect the rate of folding (it occurs spontaneously), yet considerably increase the efficiency of the entire process. By contrast, the mechanisms belonging to second group actually accelerate protein folding by exerting a direct influence on the rate-limiting steps of the overall reaction. Although not a conventional one, such a classification helps define the topic of this review. Its main purpose is to discuss the ability of chaperonins (and that of some chaperones) to interact directly with substrate proteins in the course of their folding and thus accelerate the rate-limiting steps of that process. (Mechanisms of protein folding acceleration produced by the action of enzymes, e.g., peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerase and protein disulfide isomerase, are not considered in this review.) Specific cases demonstrating an accelerated folding of some proteins encapsulated in the bacterial chaperonin GroEL cavity are considered, and the conditions favoring such acceleration are examined. Experimental data supporting the notion that the structure and functional properties of GroEL are not optimal for an effective folding of many of its substrate proteins is discussed. The current status of research on the mechanism behind the active participation of different subunits of eucaryotic cytosol chaperonin (CCT) in the final steps of the folding of actin and tubulin is reviewed. Particular attention is devoted to steric chaperones, which dramatically accelerate the formation of the native structure of their substrate proteins by stabilizing certain folding intermediates. The structural foundations underlying the effect of the subtilisin pro-domain on the folding of the mature enzyme are considered. The prospects of future studies into the mechanisms responsible for accelerating protein folding in the cell are commented upon.

Cells↗

Improving the acceptability of high-dose radiotherapy by reducing the duration of treatment: accelerated radiotherapy in high-grade glioma.

Radiotherapy, although clearly beneficial in patients with high-grade glioma, is largely palliative, and a protracted course of treatment may not be the most appropriate approach in the context of limited survival. We therefore assessed the feasibility, toxicity and survival results of a short accelerated radiotherapy regimen given twice daily over a period of 3 weeks. A total of 116 patients with high-grade glioma were treated with radiotherapy in a prospective study using an accelerated fractionation regimen. The total dose of 55 Gy was given in 32-36 fractions of 1.72-1.53 Gy, twice daily 5 days a week, with a minimum 6 h interval between fractions. Toxicity was assessed using Karnofsky performance status scale and in the later part of the study with the Barthel index. Survival data were compared with a control group treated with 60 Gy in 30 daily fractions in a previous MRC study, matched for known prognostic factors. The median survival of 116 patients treated with accelerated radiotherapy was 10 months. Survival comparison of accelerated patients with matched controls treated with conventional fractionation demonstrated a hazard ratio of 1.13 (95% confidence interval 0.85-1.51; P = 0.39). Early treatment toxicity was acceptable, with only seven patients developing transient decrease in performance status. The accelerated radiotherapy regimen was logistically feasible and acceptable to patients, carers and staff. Treatment time was reduced without apparent increase in early toxicity and there was no loss of survival benefit. The effectiveness and convenience of a short accelerated regimen makes this a suitable alternative to a 6 week course of radiotherapy in patients with high-grade glioma. However, a full randomised trial comparing conventional and accelerated radiotherapy may be required as proof of equivalence.

Actuarial Analysis↗

A laser-plasma accelerator producing monoenergetic electron beams.

Particle accelerators are used in a wide variety of fields, ranging from medicine and biology to high-energy physics. The accelerating fields in conventional accelerators are limited to a few tens of MeV m(-1), owing to material breakdown at the walls of the structure. Thus, the production of energetic particle beams currently requires large-scale accelerators and expensive infrastructures. Laser-plasma accelerators have been proposed as a next generation of compact accelerators because of the huge electric fields they can sustain (>100 GeV m(-1)). However, it has been difficult to use them efficiently for applications because they have produced poor-quality particle beams with large energy spreads, owing to a randomization of electrons in phase space. Here we demonstrate that this randomization can be suppressed and that the quality of the electron beams can be dramatically enhanced. Within a length of 3 mm, the laser drives a plasma bubble that traps and accelerates plasma electrons. The resulting electron beam is extremely collimated and quasi-monoenergetic, with a high charge of 0.5 nC at 170 MeV.

Journal Article↗

ACCELERATION OF RENAL GLUCONEOGENESIS BY KETONE BODIES AND FATTY ACIDS.

1. Acetoacetate or short-chain fatty acids (acetate, butyrate, propionate, n-hexanoate, n-octanoate) accelerate the rate of glucose formation from lactate, fumarate and other precursors in slices of kidney cortex (rat, rabbit, sheep). The cause of this acceleration has been investigated. 2. There are two different mechanisms of acceleration. At low concentrations of glucogenic precursors the acceleration is mainly due to a ;sparing' action. The substances which accelerate are oxidizable and serve as fuel of respiration in place of the glucogenic precursor. This is indicated by the fact that the ratio lactate used/glucose formed falls in the presence of the accelerators and approaches the value 2. 3. At high concentrations of lactate the acceleration appears to be mainly due to the activation of pyruvate carboxylase by acetyl-coenzyme A. The evidence in support of this is summarized. The results indicate that the activation of pyruvate carboxylase by acyl-coenzyme A discovered by Utter & Keech (1963) in purified enzyme preparations also occurs in crude tissue homogenates and can play a part in the control of oxaloacetate synthesis and gluconeogenesis.

Acetates↗

Identification of the epidermal growth factor-like domains of thrombomodulin essential for the acceleration of thrombin-mediated inactivation of single-chain urokinase-type plasminogen activator.

Single-chain urokinase-type plasminogen activator (scu-PA) can be cleaved by thrombin into a virtually inactive form called thrombin-cleaved two-chain urokinase-type plasminogen activator (tcu-PA/T), a process accelerated by thrombomodulin, which contains six epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like domains. In this study, we identified the EGF-like domains of thrombomodulin required for the acceleration of the inactivation of scu-PA by thrombin using various forms of thrombomodulin (TM). scu-PA was treated with thrombin in the absence and presence of full-length rabbit TM (containing EGF1-6), recombinant TM comprising all of the extracellular domains including EGF1-6 (TMLEO) and recombinant TM comprising EGF4-6 plus the interconnecting region between EGF3 and EGF4 (TMEi4-6), and the tcu-PA/T generated was quantitated in each case. Rabbit TM accelerated the inactivation of scu-PA approximately 35-fold, while both recombinant forms accelerated it only threefold due to the absence of a critical chondroitin sulfate moiety. Subsequently, TME5-6 was prepared by cyanogen bromide digestion of TMEi4-6. TME5-6 bound to thrombin but did not accelerate the activation of protein C. In contrast, the inactivation of scu-PA by thrombin was accelerated to the same extent as that induced by TMLEO and TMEi4-6. This study demonstrates that, in addition to the chondroitin sulfate moiety, only EGF-like domains 5 and 6 are essential for the acceleration of the inactivation of scu-PA by thrombin. This differs from the domains that are critical for activation of protein C (EGF-like domains i4-6) and thrombin activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (EGF-like domains 3-6).

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor accelerates nitric oxide donor-induced apoptosis of cultured cortical neurons.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is known to have important functions in neuronal survival, differentiation, and plasticity. In addition to its role as a survival-promoting factor, BDNF reportedly can enhance neuronal cell death in some cases, for example, the death caused by excitotoxicity or glucose deprivation. The cellular mechanism of the death-enhancing effect of BDNF remains unknown, in contrast to that of its survival-promoting effect. In this work, we found that BDNF markedly accelerated the nitric oxide (NO) donor-induced death of cultured embryonic cortical neurons. BDNF increased the number of cells with nuclear condensation and DNA fragmentation 24 h after treatment with the NO donor, but it did not change the number of those cells 36 h after the treatment. The BDNF-accelerated death of cortical neurons was inhibited by the addition of actinomycin D or cycloheximide. These results suggest that BDNF can accelerate apoptotic cell death elicited by NO donor. TrkB-IgG and K252a blocked the BDNF-induced acceleration of the death, indicating that the death-accelerating effect by BDNF is mediated by TrkB. In addition, the BDNF-accelerated apoptosis was inhibited by the addition of SB202190 and SB203580, specific inhibitors of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and U0126, a specific inhibitor of MAPK/ERK kinase 1, indicating that the activation of both p38 MAPK and ERK is involved in the signaling cascade of the BDNF-accelerated, NO donor-induced apoptosis.

Animals↗

Strategies to overcome accelerated repopulation and hypoxia--what have we learned from clinical trials?

Accelerated repopulation and tumor hypoxia are significant causes of treatment failure following radiotherapy for locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Accelerated fractionation schedules were designed to counter accelerated repopulation. Review of the randomized trials of accelerated fractionation reveals that the best results have been obtained with regimens that deliver the full conventional dose with a modest degree of acceleration by use of either a concomitant boost or 6 days/week treatment. However, the role of accelerated fractionation when chemoradiation is used has not been established. Although tumor hypoxia is an established adverse prognostic factor in head and neck cancer treated with radiotherapy, progress has been hampered by the lack of a widely available and reproducible method of hypoxia detection and by the limitations of previous treatments designed to overcome hypoxia. The advent of noninvasive hypoxic imaging with positron emission tomography (PET), and new treatment approaches, such as accelerated radiotherapy with carbogen and nicotinamide (ARCON) and hypoxic cytotoxins, has led to renewed optimism that hypoxia can be overcome or exploited to improve the outcomes in locally advanced head and neck cancer.

Cell Hypoxia↗

Induction of radioresistance to accelerated carbon-ion beams in recipient cells by nitric oxide excreted from irradiated donor cells of human glioblastoma.

PURPOSE: To investigate whether nitric oxide excreted from cells irradiated with accelerated carbon-ion beams modulates cellular radiosensitivity against irradiation in human glioblastoma A-172 and T98G cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Western-blot analysis of inducible nitric oxide synthase, hsp72 and p53, the concentration assay of nitrite in medium and cell survival assay after irradiation with accelerated carbon-ion beams were performed. RESULTS: The accumulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase was caused by accelerated carbon-ion beam irradiation of T98G cells but not of A-172 cells. The accumulation of hsp72 and p53 was observed in A-172 cells after exposure to the conditioned medium of the T98G cells irradiated with accelerated carbon-ion beams, and the accumulation was abolished by the addition of an inhibitor for inducible nitric oxide synthase to the medium. The radiosensitivity of A-172 cells was reduced in the conditioned medium of the T98G cells irradiated with accelerated carbon-ion beams compared with conventional fresh growth medium, and the reduction of radiosensitivity was abolished by the addition of an inducible nitric oxide synthase inhibitor to the conditioned medium. CONCLUSIONS: Nitric oxide excreted from the irradiated donor cells with accelerated carbon-ion beams could modulate the radiosensitivity of recipient cells. These findings indicate the importance of an intercellular signal transduction pathway initiated by nitric oxide in the cellular response to accelerated heavy ions.

Blotting, Western↗

Recording accelerator monitor units during electronic portal imaging: application to collimator position verification during IMRT.

The application of multiple portal image acquisition to collimator position verification during dynamic multileaf collimation (DMLC) using a commercial camera-based electronic portal imaging device (EPID) (Theraview, Cablon Medical BV, Leusden, The Netherlands) mounted on an Elekta SL15i accelerator (Elekta Oncology Systems, Crawley, UK) is described. This is achieved using a custom-built dose acquisition system optically interfaced to both the camera control unit of the EPID and the monitor unit (MU) channel of the accelerator. The method uses the beam blanking camera control signal to trigger the dose acquisition system to read the cumulative accelerator MUs at the beginning and end of each period of image formation. A maximum delay of 15 ms has been estimated for recording of accelerator MUs in the current system. The camera interface was observed to have no effect on the operation of the EPID during normal clinical use and could therefore be left permanently in situ. Use of the system for collimator position verification of a test case is presented. The technique described uses a specific camera-based EPID and accelerator, although the general principle of using an EPID control signal to trigger recording of accelerator MUs may be applicable to other EPIDs/accelerators with suitable knowledge of the accelerator dosimetry system.

Calibration↗

Simultaneity of foetal heart rate acceleration and foetal trunk movement determined by foetal magnetocardiogram actocardiography.

We describe a new method of actocardiography, foetal magnetocardiogram (fMCG) actocardiography, which is based on the high sensitivity of the fMCG to foetal trunk movements. We demonstrate the efficacy of the method by applying it to assess the simultaneity of onset of foetal heart rate (FHR) acceleration and foetal trunk movement. The analysis was restricted to events for which the onset of FHR accelerations and foetal movements could be determined accurately, i.e. when FHR was stable and near the average quiescent level just prior to the acceleration. We found that FHR accelerations coincided with or preceded foetal movements nearly all the time. This supports the hypothesis of coordinated control of FHR accelerations and foetal movements more strongly than prior studies, based on other techniques. We also found that beat-to-beat FHR variability often decreased at or near the start of FHR accelerations and that this occurrence was an accurate marker of foetal movement onset, even when foetal movement onset lagged FHR accelerations.

Adolescent↗

Comparison of accelerated hyperfractionated radiotherapy and conventional radiotherapy for supratentorial malignant glioma.

Between 1988 and 1993, 71 patients with glioblastoma or anaplastic astrocytoma were treated either with accelerated hyperfractionation radiotherapy (1.5 Gy twice daily to a total dose of 69 Gy, n = 35) or with conventional fractionation radiotherapy (1.8 Gy daily to 64.8 Gy, n = 36). Two patients in each group did not complete radiotherapy, leaving 67 evaluable. All patients received the chemotherapeutic regime ACNU intraarterially (50 mg/m2) or intravenously (100 mg/m2) prior to and after radiotherapy. Between 1990 and 1992, 19 patients also received intravenous interferon-beta (3 x 10(6) U, three times weekly) during radiotherapy. The median survival time was 14.5 months for the accelerated hyperfractionation group and 14 months for the conventional fractionation group. The median time to progression was 12 months for the accelerated hyperfractionation group and 9.5 months for the conventional fractionation group. There was no significant difference in either survival (P = 0.89) or progression-free survival (P = 0.25) between the accelerated hyperfractionation and conventional fractionation groups. Interferon therapy was associated with poorer survival. Brain necrosis developed in four out of 10 patients receiving accelerated hyperfractionation radiotherapy plus interferon-beta, but in none of nine patients receiving conventional fractionation radiotherapy plus interferon (P = 0.033). In conclusion, our study failed to demonstrate any possible benefit of accelerated hyperfractionation radiotherapy for malignant glioma. The incidence of brain necrosis may be increased by combining accelerated hyperfractionation radiotherapy and interferon-beta.

Adult↗

Accelerated approval of oncology products: a decade of experience.

We review the regulatory history of the accelerated approval process and summarize the U.S. Food and Drug Administration experience with accelerated approvals in oncology. The accelerated approval regulations, promulgated in 1992, allow approval of drugs for serious or life-threatening diseases on the basis of a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit, such as survival or symptom benefit, pending completion of studies designed to confirm clinical benefit, referred to as phase 4 commitments, which are required to be conducted with due diligence. From 1992 to 2004, 22 applications involving anticancer drugs or biologics were approved. Of these 22 applications, accelerated approval was granted to 15 on the basis of findings from studies without an active comparator (i.e., single-arm studies or studies comparing two dose levels) and to the remaining seven on the basis of one or more randomized studies. Of the 22 approved applications, six (i.e., applications for dexrazoxane, irinotecan, capecitabine, docetaxel, imatinib mesylate, and oxaliplatin) have had one or more indications converted to regular approval. This review reports information that was presented at an Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee meeting held in March 2003; it also presents a discussion of accelerated approval study designs, the study populations evaluated in the accelerated approval and confirmatory settings, and the integration of accelerated approval into a comprehensive drug development plan.

Antineoplastic Agents↗