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Purpose Very few childhood cancer survivor studies have been devoted to thyroid adenomas. We assessed the role of chemotherapy and the radiation dose to the thyroid in the risk of thyroid adenoma after childhood cancer. Methods and Materials A cohort of 3254 2-year survivors of a solid childhood cancer treated in 5 French centers before 1986 was established. The dose received by the isthmus and the 2 lobes of the thyroid gland during each course of radiation therapy was estimated after reconstruction of the actual radiation therapy conditions in which each child was treated as well as the dose received at other anatomical sites of interest. Results After a median follow-up of 25 years, 71 patients had developed a thyroid adenoma. The risk strongly increased with the radiation dose to the thyroid up to a few Gray, plateaued, and declined for high doses. Chemotherapy slightly increased the risk when administered alone but also lowered the slope of the dose-response curve for the radiation dose to the thyroid. Overall, for doses up to a few Gray, the excess relative risk of thyroid adenoma per Gray was 2.8 (90% CI: 1.2-6.9), but it was 5.5 (90% CI: 1.9-25.9) in patients who had not received chemotherapy or who had received only 1 drug, and 1.1 (90% CI: 0.4-3.4) in the children who had received more than 1 drug ( P =.06, for the difference). The excess relative risk per Gray was also higher for younger children at the time of radiation therapy than for their older counterparts and was higher before attaining 40 years of age than subsequently. Conclusions The overall pattern of thyroid adenoma after radiation therapy for a childhood cancer appears to be similar to that observed for thyroid carcinoma.

Purpose: Cancers of the digestive system constitute a major risk for childhood cancer survivors treated with radiotherapy once they reach adulthood. The aim of this study was to determine therapy-related risk factors for the development of a second malignancy in the digestive organs (SMDO) after a childhood cancer. Methods and Materials: Among 4,568 2-year survivors of a childhood solid cancer diagnosed before 17 years of age at eight French and British centers, and among 25,120 patients diagnosed as having a malignant neoplasm before the age of 20 years, whose data were extracted from the Nordic Cancer Registries, we matched 58 case patients (41 men and 17 women) of SMDO and 167 controls, in their respective cohort, for sex, age at first cancer, calendar year of occurrence of the first cancer, and duration of follow-up. The radiation dose received at the site of each second malignancy and at the corresponding site of its matched control was estimated. Results: The risk of developing a SMDO was 9.7-fold higher in relation to the general populations in France and the United Kingdom. In the case-control study, a strong dose-response relationship was estimated, compared with that in survivors who had not received radiotherapy; the odds ratio was 5.2 (95% CI, 1.7-16.0) for local radiation doses between 10 and 29 Gy and 9.6 (95% CI, 2.6-35.2) for doses equal to or greater than 30 Gy. Chemotherapy was also found to increase the risk of developing SMDO. Conclusions: This study confirms that childhood cancer treatments strongly increase the risk of SMDO, which occur only after a very long latency period. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. (Less)

In the study of protein dynamics by (13)C or (15)N relaxation measurements different models from the Lipari-Szabo formalism are used in order to determine the motion parameters. The global rotational correlation time tau(R) of the molecule must be estimated prior to the analysis. In this Communication, the authors propose a new approach in determining an accurate value for tau(R) in order to realize the best fit of R(2) for the whole sequence of the protein, regardless of the different type of motions atoms may experience. The method first determines the highly structured regions of the sequence. For each corresponding site, the Lipari-Szabo parameters are calculated for R(1) and NOE, using an arbitrary value for tau(R). The chi(2) for R(2), summed over the selected sites, shows a clear minimum, as a function of tau(R). This minimum is used to better estimate a proper value for tau(R).