Induced antitumor immunity is a highly effective and longterm cure for cancer, particularly for metastatic tumors. Laser immunotherapy was developed to induce such an immunologic response. It involves intratumoral administration of a light-absorbing dye and a specially formulated immunoadjuvant, followed by noninvasive irradiation of a near-infrared laser. Treatment of DMBA-4 metastatic mammary tumors in rats with this approach has resulted in local control of primary tumors and eradication of untreated distant metastases. After laser immunotherapy, rats were resistant to tumor rechallenge and developed immunity, which could be adoptively transferred. To better understand the immunity induced in this tumor model, immunization using freezethaw DMBA-4 cell lysates was performed, followed by tumor challenge 21 days later. Tumor cell lysate immunization delayed the emergence of metastases but did not provide immunity against the tumor challenge. Also performed was surgical resection of primary tumors before the observation of metastatic tumors. Removal of primary tumors was unsuccessful at changing the course of tumor progression. Tumors re-emerged at the primary sites, and metastases developed at multiple remote sites. In contrast, tumor-bearing rats successfully treated by laser immunotherapy experienced tumor regression and eradication and developed strong resistance to repeated challenges by tumor cells of the same type. Our results show that laser immunotherapy could have potential for the treatment of metastatic tumors by inducing tumor-specific, long-lasting immunity.

Acoustic parameters can be used as indicators of treatment efficacy for laryngopharyngeal reflux disease.

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High temperature solders that will not be affected in the subsequent thermal treatment are required in the step soldering process of multi-chip module (MCM) packaging. High-Pb solder alloys such as 95Pb-5Sn (numbers are all in mass% unless specified otherwise) are currently being used for this purpose. However, the development of the Pb-free solder alloy for high temperature applications is needed due to environmental issues. The solder alloys of Bi-Ag, Sn-Sb and Au-Sb-Sn systems are considered as candidates in this study. Aided by thermodynamic calculations, several specific compositions have been chosen and they were investigated in terms of melting behavior, electrical resistivity, wetting angle and hardness. The Bi-Ag alloy exhibited poor electro-conductivity while the Sn-Sb system had low melting temperatures. The ternary Au-Sn-Sb solder alloy shows prospects for high temperature applications in spite of poor wetting properties.