Open-celled metallic foams with their specific structural properties are attractive candidates for a wide range of applications in the field of catalyst supports, process, and energy technologies. However, the material is so far not introduced as an engineering material and needs to be characterized for the respective applications. The metallic foams, especially in combination with cover plates, have a high potential for applications as light weight and functional materials. In this article, an industrial manufacturing process is described, which allows to produce a wide range of different qualities of foam with a variety of tailored alloys and pore sizes. The foam material can be stacked and co-sintered with top layers to high-strength sandwich structures. The mechanical properties evaluated in shear and compression tests are promising for couple of aircraft applications

Purpose: The identification of a robust immunohistochemical marker to predict the response to anti-angiogenic bevacizumab in ovarian cancer is of high clinical interest. VEGF-A, the molecular target of bevacizumab, is expressed as multiple isoforms with pro- or anti-angiogenic properties, of which VEGF-A165b is the most dominant anti-angiogenic isoform. The balance of VEGF-A isoforms is closely related to the angiogenic capacity of a tumor and may define its vulnerability to anti-angiogenic therapy. We investigated whether the expression of VEGF-A165b could be related to the effect of bevacizumab in advanced ovarian cancer patients. Experimental Design: Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues from 413 patients of the ICON7 multicenter phase III trial, treated with standard platinum-based chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab, were probed for VEGF-A165b expression by immunohistochemistry. Results: In patients with low VEGF-A165b expression, the addition of bevacizumab to standard platinum-based chemotherapy significantly improved progression-free (HR: 0.727, 95%CI=0.538 – 0.984; p=0.039) and overall survival (HR: 0.662, 95%CI=0.458 – 0.958; p=0.029). Multivariate analysis showed that the addition of bevacizumab in low VEGF-A165b expressing patients conferred significant improvements in progression-free survival (HR: 0.610, 95%CI=0.446 - 0.834; p=0.002) and overall survival (HR: 0.527, 95%CI=0.359 – 0.775; p=0.001), independently from established risk factors. Conclusions: We demonstrate for the first time that bevacizumab may differentially improve prognosis of advanced ovarian cancer patients with low expression of VEGF-A165b, an anti-angiogenic VEGF-A splice variant. We envision that this novel biomarker could be implemented into routine diagnostics and may have direct clinical implications for guiding bevacizumab-related treatment decisions in advanced ovarian cancer patients.