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Many future particle colliders require beam crabbing to recover geometric luminosity loss from the nonzero crossing angle at the interaction point (IP). A first demonstration experiment of crabbing with hadron beams was successfully carried out with high energy protons. This breakthrough result is fundamental to achieve the physics goals of the high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) and the future circular collider (FCC). The expected peak luminosity gain (related to collision rate) is 65% for HL-LHC and even greater for the FCC. Novel beam physics experiments with proton beams in CERN’s Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) were performed to demonstrate several critical aspects for the operation of crab cavities in the future HL-LHC including transparency with a pair of cavities, a full characterization of the cavity impedance with high beam currents, controlled emittance growth from crab cavity induced rf noise.

A new type of fast luminosity separation scans (“emittance scans”) was introduced at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2015. The scans were performed systematically in every fill with full-intensity beams in physics production conditions at the interaction point (IP) of the compact muon solenoid (CMS) experiment. They provide both transverse emittance and closed orbit measurements at a bunch-by-bunch level. The precise measurement of beam-beam closed orbit differences allowed a direct, quantitative observation of long-range beam-beam PACMAN effects, which agrees well with numerical simulations from an improved version of the TRAIN code.

The NETTER-1 study has proven peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) to be one of the most effective therapeutic options for metastatic neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), improving progression-free survival and overall survival. However, PRRT response assessment is challenging and no consensus on methods and timing has yet been reached among experts in the field. This issue is owed to the suboptimal sensitivity and specificity of clinical biomarkers, limitations of morphological response criteria in slowly growing tumors and necrotic changes after therapy, a lack of standardized parameters and timing of functional imaging and the heterogeneity of PRRT protocols in the literature. The aim of this article is to review the most relevant current approaches for PRRT efficacy prediction and response assessment criteria in order to provide an overview of suitable tools for safe and efficacious PRRT.

The worldwide incidence of pulmonary carcinoids is increasing, but little is known about their molecular characteristics. Here, Alcala and colleagues present a multi-omics analysis of these tumours, revealing distinct molecular and prognostic subgroups.

Amyloidosis comprises a spectrum of disorders characterized by the extracellular deposition of amorphous material, originating from an abnormal serum protein. The typing of amyloid into its many variants represents a pivotal step for a correct patient management. Several methods are currently used, including mass spectrometry, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, and immunogold labeling. The aim of the present study was to investigate the accuracy and reliability of immunohistochemistry by means of a recently developed amyloid antibody panel applicable on fixed paraffin-embedded tissues in an automated platform. Patients with clinically and pathologically proven amyloidosis were divided into two cohorts: a pilot one, which included selected amyloidosis cases from 2009 to 2018, and a retrospective one (comprising all consecutive amyloidosis cases analyzed between November 2018 and May 2020). The above-referred panel of antibodies for amyloid classification was tested in all cases using an automated immunohistochemistry platform. When fresh-frozen material was available, immunofluorescence was also performed. Among 130 patients, a total of 143 samples from different organs was investigated. They corresponded to 51 patients from the pilot cohort and 79 ones from the retrospective cohort. In 82 cases (63%), fresh-frozen tissue was tested by immunofluorescence, serving to define amyloid subtype only in 30 of them (36.6%). On the contrary, the automated immunohistochemistry procedure using the above-referred new antibodies allowed to establish the amyloid type in all 130 cases (100%). These included: ALλ (n = 60, 46.2%), ATTR (n = 29, 22.3%), AA (n = 19, 14.6%), ALκ (n = 18, 13.8%), ALys (n = 2, 1.5%), and Aβ2M amyloidosis (n = 2, 1.5%). The present immunohistochemistry antibody panel represents a sensitive, reliable, fast, and low-cost method for amyloid typing. Since immunohistochemistry is available in most pathology laboratories, it may become the new gold standard for amyloidosis classification, either used alone or combined with mass spectrometry in selected cases.