67HIGHLIGHTS 2020

Slowing down of dynamics and orientational order preceding crystallization in hard-sphere systems, F. Lehmkühler (a,b), B. Hankiewicz (c), M.A. Schroer (d), L. Müller (a), B. Ruta (e,f), D. Sheyfer (a,b), M. Sprung (a), K. Tono (g), T. Katayama (g,h), M. Yabashi (g,h), T. Ishikawa (h), C. Gutt (i) and G. Grübel (a,b), Sci. Adv. 6, eabc5916

(2020); https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc5916. (a) Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg (Germany) (b) The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, Hamburg (Germany) (c) Hamburg University, Hamburg (Germany) (d) EMBL Hamburg outstation c/o DESY,

Hamburg (Germany) (e) Univ. Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Villeurbanne (France) (f) ESRF (g) JASRI, Hyogo (Japan) (h) RIKEN Spring-8 Center, Hyogo (Japan) (i) University of Siegen, Siegen (Germany)

[1] H. Tanaka et al., Nat. Rev. Phys. 1, 333-348 (2019). [2] P. Wochner et al., PNAS 106, 11511-11514 (2009). [3] F. Lehmkühler et al., J. Appl. Cryst. 47, 1315-1323 (2014). [4] H. Tong et al. Nat. Commun. 10, 5596 (2019).

MICROBEAM RADIATION THERAPY BOOST FOR THE TREATMENT OF GLIOBLASTOMA

To improve the treatment of high-grade glioma such as glioblastoma, the deadliest cancer of the central nervous system, the potential effect of Microbeam Radiation Therapy (MRT) in combination with conventional radiotherapy has been investigated. A significant improvement in tumour control and survival in rats bearing high-grade glioma was seen after using MRT as a boost after conventional radiation therapy.

PRINCIPAL PUBLICATION AND AUTHORS

REFERENCES

Fig. 52: a) Amplitude of S(q) at qnn compared to at next-neighbour (nn) and medium- range (mr) distances. b) Correlation of relaxation time and orientational order. The line follows the model of supercooled liquids [4].

order with the dynamics, a correlation between the increase in local order and the slowing down of the sample is found over a wide q range (Figure 52b), matching recent predictions from simulations [4]. Dynamics slow down first at the next-neighbour distance, while a higher particle concentration, and thus higher degree of local order, are needed at the medium range of about 500 nm. Furthermore, continuously increases for the out-of-equilibrium glassy samples, while their relaxation time stays constant. These results indicate that the degree of local order increases before the dynamics slows down in the vicinity of the colloidal glass transition.

In conclusion, the XCCA method offers increased sensitivity to structural changes compared to conventional scattering methods and allows the verification of predictions from state- of-the-art simulation and theory. Moreover, with the advent of the next-generation X-ray sources, XCCA and XPCS studies can be applied over increased time- and length scales and can be extended to many different liquids.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is both the most common and most aggressive malignant tumour originating in the brain. Despite advances in healthcare and technology, patients with GBM have a grim prognosis. The current standard treatment includes surgery with maximum-safe resection, followed by adjuvant chemo- and

radiotherapy. The radiation protocol consists of 30 to 35 fractions of 1.8-2 Gy (58-60 Gy total dose) given over 6-7 weeks [1]. Despite this heavy therapeutic treatment, the mean survival time remains as low as 15 months after diagnosis.