Intuitive evaluation of contemporary management strategies in thymoma - the largest Indian experience.

Background: The aim was perusal of the treatment strategies, clinical outcomes and factors impacting these outcomes in thymoma. Materials and methods: A total of 119 patients diagnosed and treated cases of thymoma, at our hospital, were taken for analysis. Thirty-one patients were excluded due to inadequate medical records. Descriptive statistics were used to report demographic and clinical characteristics. Time period between diagnosis and death was defined as overall survival (OS). Multivariate analysis (MVA), using cox regression modelling, was done by including clinicopathological factors in a bid to identify prognostic factors influencing OS. SPSS version 26 was used for statistical analysis. Results: The mean age of the patients was 52.17 years and 39 (44.3%), 19 (21.6%), 17 (1.3%) and 13 (4.8%) patients presented with Masaoka stage II, IV, III and I, respectively. Surgery was done in 64 (72.7%) of the patients as a part of the treatment strategy. Radiotherapy was administered to a total of 57 patients with a median dose of 50.4 Gy. Early Masaoka stage at presentation and use of surgery in the treatment plan were statistically significant prognostic factors for a better overall survival on multivariate analysis. Conclusion: Judicious use of radiotherapy and chemotherapy in locally advanced cases may render them resectable. In a bid to gain good survival rates, aggressive multimodality treatment should be offered to the patients.

An institutional review of treatment outcomes in extraosseous Ewing's sarcoma- the largest Asian experience.

PURPOSE: To analyze the treatment strategies, outcomes and factors impacting these outcomes in extraosseous ewings sarcoma (EOES). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A search of the hospital database yielded a total of 109 EOES patients registered in last 10 years out of which 25 patients were excluded from analysis due to incomplete medical records. Demographic and clinical characteristics were reported using descriptive statistics. Overall survival (OS) was taken from the time of diagnosis to death. Patients who were alive or lost to follow up were censored from the survival analysis. A total of 12 clinical and treatment related variables were taken into univariate analysis and those showing significance or a trend towards significance were taken up for multivariate analysis. Further a cluster analysis was done in a quest to find a subgroup which would have a better survival outcome as compared to other clusters. SPSS version 23 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Chest wall (n=26), lower extremity (n=22) and paraspinal area (n=14) were the common sites involved. Localised swelling (n=43) was the most common presenting symptom and the median time to presentation was 2 months. Overall survival of the entire cohort at 5 years was 52 percent. Stage at presentation had a significant impact (P value<0.001) on estimated median OS (localised 70 months versus 36 months in metastatic stage). Cluster analysis showed that, patients with localised stage at presentation, good response to chemotherapy, negative resection margin and no adjuvant RT had a median survival of 69 months. CONCLUSION: Judicious use of trimodality treatment in EOES yields optimal results and it also adds significantly onto the scarce literature on this subtype of sarcoma.

Controlling Chain Conformations of High-k Fluoropolymer Dielectrics to Enhance Charge Mobilities in Rubrene Single-Crystal Field-Effect Transistors.

A novel photopatternable high-k fluoropolymer, poly(vinylidene fluoride-bromotrifluoroethylene) P(VDF-BTFE), with a dielectric constant (k) between 8 and 11 is demonstrated in thin-film transistors. Crosslinking P(VDF-BTFE) reduces energetic disorder at the dielectric-semiconductor interface by controlling the chain conformations of P(VDF-BTFE), thereby leading to approximately a threefold enhancement in the charge mobility of rubrene single-crystal field-effect transistors.