The first Middle East and North Africa expert consensus recommendations for the management of advanced colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is ranked as the third most prevalent and the second deadliest cancer worldwide. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the number of CRC cases increased over the past decades and will nearly double by 2030. The lack of clear MENA guidelines for the management of patients with CRC represents a step backwards in the fight against this burden. Therefore a panel of 24 MENA experts in the field of gastrointestinal oncology developed, using a Delphi process, the first consensus recommendations for the management of patients with advanced CRC. Forty-seven different statements were formulated in the areas of epidemiology, screening, biomarkers and treatment. These recommendations will guide, standardize and unify the management of this cancer in the MENA region.

Evaluating the safety and effectiveness of PegaGen® (pegfilgrastim) for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia: a post-marketing surveillance study.

PURPOSE: Phase IV clinical trials are required to evaluate the real-world safety and effectiveness of drugs. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of once-per-cycle administration of PegaGen® (pegfilgrastim, CinnaGen, Iran) in cancer patients. METHODS: In this open-label, multicenter, prospective, real-world, post-marketing surveillance study, patients with any type of cancer receiving chemotherapy regimens with a high risk of febrile neutropenia (FN) were included if they were prescribed pegfilgrastim for FN prophylaxis. The primary objective of this study was to assess the safety and the secondary objective was to assess the effectiveness of pegfilgrastim in the prevention of FN in cancer patients. RESULTS: A total of 654 patients (51.73 ± 15.12 years of age) were enrolled and 3615 cycles of pegfilgrastim injections were recorded. The most common malignancies among the study patients were breast cancer (n = 192, 29.36%), lymphoma (n = 131, 20.03%), and gastric cancer (n = 65, 9.94%). The median (Q1, Q3) number of pegfilgrastim cycles per patient was 6 (4, 7). A single 6 mg dose was injected in 99.17% of the cycles. A total number of 816 adverse events (AEs) were reported in 246 patients (37.62%). Bone pain was recorded in 141 patients (21.56%) and in 440 cycles (12.17%). Among all patients, 45 patients (6.88%) experienced FN 51 times, and FN frequency was 1.4% among cycles. Moreover, 14 (2.14%) patients were hospitalized following FN. Antibiotics were administered to 24 patients (3.67%) for FN treatment. CONCLUSION: The results from this post-marketing surveillance study support the safety and effectiveness of PegaGen® used for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced FN in patients with various types of cancer and treatment regimens. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT04460079.

Rectification, transport properties of doped defective graphene nanoribbon junctions.

The transport properties and rectification behavior of junctions which contain armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) with double vacancy defects or nitrogen-doped in three different sizes of 9, 10 and 12 atoms are studied. The non-equilibrium Green function method and density functional based tight-binding approach are used for different computations. The double vacancy (DV) defects are along the direction of current pathways of graphene devices. We calculated transmission probability, density of states, the current-voltage curves, rectification ratio, and electrodes band structures. We found that I-V graph has nonlinear characteristic and displays rectification behavior. Devices which posses the size of 9 atoms show significant sign of rectification in contrast to other cases (10, 12 atoms). But the current value is more important for the device of 12 atoms size. Moreover, it is shown that extra energy bands are created by the DV defects and nitrogen (N) doped atoms. These bands of DV defects and N-doped cause the Fermi level to shift upwards and can change the behavior (n-type semiconductor, or metal-like) of devices of 9, 10 and 12 AGNRs. Also, various orbital distributions of MPSH (molecularly projected self-consistent Hamiltonian) states in the DV-9AGNR device are investigated.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled investigation of BCc1 nanomedicine effect on survival and quality of life in metastatic and non-metastatic gastric cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Currently, the main goal of cancer research is to increase longevity of patients suffering malignant cancers. The promising results of BCc1 in vitro and vivo experiments made us look into the effect of BCc1 nanomedicine on patients with cancer in a clinical trial. METHODS: The present investigation was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel, and multicenter study in which 123 patients (30-to-85-year-old men and women) with metastatic and non-metastatic gastric cancer, in two separate groups of BCc1 nanomedicine or placebo, were selected using a permuted block randomization method. For metastatic and non-metastatic patients, a daily dose of 3000 and 1500 mg was prescribed, respectively. Overall survival (OS) as the primary endpoint and quality of life (measured using QLQ-STO22) and adverse effects as the secondary endpoints were studied. RESULTS: In metastatic patients, the median OS was significantly higher in BCc1 nanomedicine (174 days [95% confidence interval (CI) 82.37-265.62]) than in placebo (62 days [95% CI 0-153.42]); hazard ratio (HR): 0.5 [95% CI 0.25-0.98; p = 0.046]. In non-metastatic patients, the median OS was significantly higher in BCc1 nanomedicine (529 days [95% CI 393.245-664.75]) than in placebo (345 days [95% CI 134.85-555.14]); HR: 0.324 [95% CI 0.97-1.07; p = 0.066]. The QLQ-STO22 assessment showed a mean difference improvement of 3.25 and 2.29 (p value > 0.05) in BCc1 nanomedicine and a mean difference deterioration of - 4.42 and - 3 (p-value < 0.05) in placebo with metastatic and non-metastatic patients, respectively. No adverse effects were observed. CONCLUSION: The findings of this trial has provided evidence for the potential capacity of BCc1 nanomedicine for treatment of cancer. Trial registration IRCTID, IRCT2017101935423N1. Registered on 19 October 2017, http://www.irct.ir/ IRCT2017101935423N1.

Multi-Party Quantum Summation Based on Quantum Teleportation.

We present a secure multi-party quantum summation protocol based on quantum teleportation, in which a malicious, but non-collusive, third party (TP) helps compute the summation. In our protocol, TP is in charge of entanglement distribution and Bell states are shared between participants. Users encode the qubits in their hand according to their private bits and perform Bell-state measurements. After obtaining participants' measurement results, TP can figure out the summation. The participants do not need to send their encoded states to others, and the protocol is therefore congenitally free from Trojan horse attacks. In addition, our protocol can be made secure against loss errors, because the entanglement distribution occurs only once at the beginning of our protocol. We show that our protocol is secure against attacks by the participants as well as the outsiders.

A trusted node-free eight-user metropolitan quantum communication network.

Quantum communication is rapidly gaining popularity due to its high security and technological maturity. However, most implementations are limited to just two communicating parties (users). Quantum communication networks aim to connect a multitude of users. Here, we present a fully connected quantum communication network on a city-wide scale without active switching or trusted nodes. We demonstrate simultaneous and secure connections between all 28 pairings of eight users. Our novel network topology is easily scalable to many users, allows traffic management features, and minimizes the infrastructure as well as the user hardware needed.

Wavelength Assignment in Hybrid Quantum-Classical Networks.

Optimal wavelength assignment in dense-wavelength-division-multiplexing (DWDM) systems that integrate both quantum and classical channels is studied. In such systems, weak quantum key distribution (QKD) signals travel alongside intense classical signals on the same fiber, where the former can be masked by the background noise induced by the latter. Here, we investigate how optimal wavelength assignment can mitigate this problem. We consider different DWDM structures and various sources of crosstalk and propose several near-optimal wavelength assignment methods that maximize the total secret key rate of the QKD channels. Our numerical results show that the optimum wavelength assignment pattern is commonly consisted of several interspersed quantum and classical bands. Using our proposed techniques, the total secret key rate of quantum channels can substantially be improved, as compared to conventional assignment methods, in the noise dominated regimes. Alternatively, we can maximize the number of QKD users supported under certain key rate constraints.

Thermophoresis and dust devils on the planet Mars.

In the Martian atmosphere dust is abundant and is continuously replenished by the entrainment of materials and sediments from the surface of the planet. The sediment concentrations are particularly high and noticeable in whirlwinds, also known as dust devils. Assuming the thermophoresis force as the main driver of dust particles lifting from the surface, the dust process of the Martian atmosphere and its naturally formed dust devils are investigated for the northern polar region of the planet. Our simulated convective boundary layer shows that it may be unlikely that visible dust devils are formed only due to thermophoresis effects and some other lifting mechanisms are required.