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Multimodal approaches are nowadays successfully applied in cancer therapy. Primary locally acting therapies such as radiotherapy (RT) and surgery are combined with systemic administration of chemotherapeutics. Nevertheless, the therapy of cancer is still a big challenge in medicine. The treatments often fail to induce long lasting anti-tumor responses. Tumor recurrences and metastases result. Immunotherapies are therefore ideal adjuncts to standard tumor therapies since they aim to activate the patient`s immune system against malignant cells even outside the primary treatment areas (abscopal effects). Especially cancer vaccines may have the potential both to train the immune system against cancer cells and to generate an immunological memory, resulting in long-lasting anti-tumor effects. However, despite promising results in phase I and II studies, most of the concepts finally failed. There are some critical aspects in development and application of cancer vaccines that may decide on their efficiency. The time point and frequency of medication, usage of an adequate immune adjuvant, the vaccine's immunogenic potential, and the tumor burden of the patient are crucial. Whole tumor cell vaccines have advantages compared to peptide-based ones since a variety of tumor antigens are present. The master requirements of cell-based, therapeutic tumor vaccines are the complete inactivation of the tumor cells and the increase of their immunogenicity. Since the latter is highly connected with the cell death modality, the inactivation procedure of the tumor cell material may significantly influence the vaccine's efficiency. We therefore also introduce high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) as an innovative inactivation technology for tumor cell based vaccines and outline that HHP efficiently inactivates tumor cells by enhancing their immunogenicity. Finally studies are presented proving that anti-tumor immune responses can be triggered by combining RT with selected immune therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the most frequent cancers in the world and the urological tumor that presents the highest mortality. The diagnostic and prognostic methods available at present for BC are expensive and highly invasive for the patient, so the pursue of biomarkers that may replace those methods has been ongoing for years with limited success. One of these potential biomarkers is cell-free DNA, which can be found in liquid biopsies such as urine and blood. The present review summarizes the most recent research findings in the study of cell-free DNA to diagnose BC and even monitor treatment. Bladder cancer (BC) is among the most frequent cancer types in the world and is the most lethal urological malignancy. Presently, diagnostic and follow-up methods for BC are expensive and invasive. Thus, the identification of novel predictive biomarkers for diagnosis, progression, and prognosis of BC is of paramount importance. To date, several studies have evidenced that cell-free DNA (cfDNA) found in liquid biopsies such as blood and urine may play a role in the particular scenario of urologic tumors, and its analysis may improve BC diagnosis report about cancer progression or even evaluate the effectiveness of a specific treatment or anticipate whether a treatment would be useful for a specific patient depending on the tumor characteristics. In the present review, we have summarized the up-to-date studies evaluating the value of cfDNA as potential diagnostic, prognostic, or monitoring biomarker for BC in several biofluids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most lethal brain tumor. Combining hyperthermia with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy improves survival of GBM patients. For radio frequency (RF)-induced hyperthermia, the RF signals' power and phase need to be supervised to achieve a precise formation of the power deposition focal point, accurate thermal dose control, and safety management. Patient position during treatment also needs to be monitored to ensure the efficiency of the treatment and to avoid adverse effects in healthy tissue. This work demonstrates the development, implementation, evaluation, validation, and application of a multi-channel RF supervision module that meets the technical requirements of hyperthermia and provides a cost-effective solution for broad-band RF signal supervision and patient monitoring. It is a key component for a hyperthermia hardware system and facilitates future thermal magnetic resonance applications that integrate RF-induced heating, in vivo temperature mapping, and anatomic and functional imaging in a single RF applicator. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most lethal and common brain tumor. Combining hyperthermia with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy improves the survival of GBM patients. Thermal magnetic resonance (ThermalMR) is a hyperthermia variant that exploits radio frequency (RF)-induced heating to examine the role of temperature in biological systems and disease. The RF signals' power and phase need to be supervised to manage the formation of the energy focal point, accurate thermal dose control, and safety. Patient position during treatment also needs to be monitored to ensure the efficacy of the treatment and avoid damages to healthy tissue. This work reports on a multi-channel RF signal supervision module that is capable of monitoring and regulating RF signals and detecting patient motion. System characterization was performed for a broad range of frequencies. Monte-Carlo simulations were performed to examine the impact of power and phase errors on hyperthermia performance. The supervision module's utility was demonstrated in characterizing RF power amplifiers and being a key part of a feedback control loop regulating RF signals in heating experiments. Electromagnetic field simulations were conducted to calculate the impact of patient displacement during treatment. The supervision module was experimentally tested for detecting patient motion to a submillimeter level. To conclude, this work presents a cost-effective RF supervision module that is a key component for a hyperthermia hardware system and forms a technological basis for future ThermalMR applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of external beam three-dimensional (3D) conformal accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) for selected patients with early breast cancer.Patients and Methods: Between 2011 and 2016, 72 patients were recruited for this prospective phase 2 trial. Patients were eligible for APBI if they had histologically confirmed breast cancer or pure ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a tumor diameter ≤3 cm, clear resection margins ≥2 mm, no axillary lymph node involvement, no distant metastases, tumor bed clips, and were aged ≥50 years. Patients were excluded if mammography showed a multicentric invasive growth pattern, or if they had residual diffuse microcalcifications postoperatively, an extensive intraductal component, or vessel invasion. Patients received 3D conformal external beam APBI with a total dose of 38 Gy in 10 fractions in 1-2 weeks. The trial had been registered at the German Clinical Trials Register, DRKS-ID: DRKS00004417.Results: Median follow-up was 25.5 months (range 1-61 months). Local control was maintained in 71 of 72 patients. The 3‑year local recurrence rate was 2.1% (95% confidence interval, CI: 0-6.1%). Early toxicity (grade 1 radiodermatitis) was seen in 34.7% (25/72). Late side effects ≥ grade 3 did not occur. Cosmetic results were rated as excellent/good in 96.7% (59/61).Conclusion: APBI with external beam radiotherapy techniques is feasible with low toxicity and, according to the results of the present and other studies, on the way to becoming a standard treatment option for a selected subgroup of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]