Cancer Science & Therapy

As it is well known, improving in treatment planning of brachytherapy is very important. In this research, we have introduced a method for this purpose. We have applied the genetic algorithm to find the proper locations and activities of a 125I brachytherapy seeds to deliver a desired dose to the border of the tumor in two dimensional surfaces. The initial positions of the seeds have been identified, and then by using a MATLAB code based on the genetic algorithm, we obtained the best locations and the activities of the seeds. This optimization method has been applied for some shape of the tumors. The results show that the desired dose to the border of a square, ellipsoid and general form of tumors is matched very well.

According to the results this technique can be used to optimize treatment plan of brachytherapy usefully. We plan to extend this method for three dimensional situations.

The present study aimed to investigate anti-proliferative and apoptotic effects of quercetin on human leukemia cells and effects of quercetin-induced cell death on a novel gene Up-regulated gene 4/upregulator of cell proliferation ( URG4/URGCP ), in leukemia cells. URG4/URGCP expression is determined by using RT-PCR. IC 50 of quercetin was determined as 25 microM in CCRF-CEM, HL–60 and K562 cells. In IC 50 dose group, URG4/URGCP expression was decreased 99% in HL-60 cells, 90% in CCRF-CEM cells, and 52% (24 hour) - 99% (72 hour) in K-562 cells. URG4/URGCP may play important roles in the development of leukemia, and might be a useful molecular marker for predicting the prognosis of leukemia via quercetin treatment.