New Targeted Therapies and Combinations of Treatments for Cervical,Endometrial, and Ovarian Cancers: A Year in Review

This review of the meaningful data from 2021 on cervical, endometrial, and ovarian cancers aims to provide an update of the most clinically relevant studies presented at important oncologic congresses during the year (the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress and the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting). Despite the underlying existence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the last year has been notable in terms of research, with significant and promising advances in gynecological malignancies. Several major studies reporting the effects of innovative therapies for patients with cervical, endometrial, and ovarian cancers might change the medical practice in the future.     

Structure and Mechanical Behavior of Fully Substituted Acid Starch Esters

This study deals with the evolution of structural, thermal, and mechanical properties of a series of fully substituted fatty acid starch esters (FASEs) according to side chain length (from 2 (C2) up to 16 (C16) Carbons). FASEs with C2 to C12 side chains are fully amorphous with a glass transition temperature depending on chain length while in the case of FASE with C16 side chains, a part of side chains is able to crystallize. Thermomechanical behavior depends strongly on both the alkyl chain length and crystallinity of samples. In particular, for FASE-C16, the presence of crystals leads to a brittle behavior. During stretching, no macromolecular orientation is evidenced for short-chain FASEs (<C8), whereas, for long-chain starch ester from C8 to C16 length, an orientation of starch backbone in the drawing direction is observed.