Radiation therapy

AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of our study is to evaluate the difference in stricture rate between matched groups of Bricker and Wallace techniques for ureteroileal anastomosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis of patients undergoing urinary diversion (UD) with Bricker and Wallace ureteroileal anastomosis at two university hospitals. Two groups of Bricker and Wallace patients were matched in a 1:1 ratio based on the age, sex, body mass index (BMI), Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), preoperative hydronephrosis, prior radiation therapy or abdominal surgery, pathologic T and N stages and 30-days-Clavien grade complications≥III...

BACKGROUND: Recent data found a correlation between lymphopenia occurring early during craniospinal radiation therapy (RT) and risk of disease recurrence in newly diagnosed childhood medulloblastoma. However, the population included patients who received chemotherapy prior to or during RT. Here, we investigate the effect of lymphopenia during RT in patients with newly diagnosed pediatric medulloblastoma who were chemotherapy-naïve. PROCEDURE: We analyzed 79 patients with newly diagnosed medulloblastoma (ages 2-21 years) treated between 1997 and 2013 with craniospinal RT...

Cryotherapy is an ablative therapy that can be used to treat localized prostate cancer. In case of recurrence, treatment options are not well-defined, and their outcomes are unknown. We therefore collected all patients treated with radiotherapy after cryotherapy for prostate cancer recurrence in Nantes (France) between 2012 and 2019. We identified ten patients. After a median follow-up of 5 years, two patients presented late grade 3 toxicities; one patient presented a grade 3 rectal hemorrhage, and one had a grade 3 hematuria...

Objective: To investigate the value of transanal multipoint full-layer puncture biopsy (TMFP) in predicting pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy (nCRT) in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) and to establish a predictive model for providing clinical guidance regarding the treatment of LARC. Methods: In this multicenter, prospective, cohort study, we collected data on 110 LARC patients from four hospitals between April 2020 and March 2023: Beijing Chaoyang Hospital of Capital Medical University (50 patients), Beijing Friendship Hospital of Capital Medical University (41 patients), Qilu Hospital of Shandong University (16 patients), and Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University (three patients)...

Mesenchymal glioma stem cells (MES GSCs) are a subpopulation of cells in glioblastoma (GBM) that contribute to a worse prognosis owing to their highly aggressive nature and resistance to radiation therapy. Here, OCT4 is characterized as a criticial factor in sustaining the stemness phenotype of MES GSC. We find that OCT4 is expressed intensively in MES GSC and is intimately associated with poor prognosis, moreover, OCT4 depletion leads to diminished invasive capacity and impairment of the stem phenotype in MES GSC...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Given persistent racial disparities in breast cancer outcomes, this study explores racial differences in disease-specific mortality and surgical management among patients with microinvasive ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS-MI). METHODS: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program was queried for patients aged 18+ years with DCIS-MI between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2018. The study cohort was divided into non-Hispanic Black (NHB) and non-Hispanic White (NHW) patients...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The treatment landscape for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has evolved significantly since the introduction of immunotherapies. We here describe PD-L1 testing rates, treatment patterns, and real-world outcomes for PD-(L)1 inhibitors in Sweden. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were obtained from the Swedish National Lung Cancer Registry for patients with advanced NSCLC and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status (PS) 0-2 who initiated first-line -systemic treatment from 01 April 2017 to 30 June 2020...

BACKGROUND: Minibeam represents a preclinical spatially fractionated radiotherapy modality with great translational potential. The advantage lies in its high therapeutic index (compared to GRID and LATTICE) and ability to treat at greater depth (compared to microbeam). Proton minibeam radiotherapy (pMBRT) is a synergy of proton and minibeam. While the single-gantry proton facility has gained popularity due to its affordability and compact design, it often has limited beam time available for research purposes...

INTRODUCTION: Risk of cardiovascular disease is higher among men with prostate cancer than men without, and prostate cancer treatments (especially those that are hormonally based) are associated with increased cardiovascular risk. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An 11-member panel of urologic, medical, and radiation oncologists (along with a men's health specialist and an endocrinologist/preventive cardiologist) met to discuss current practices and challenges in the management of cardiovascular risk in prostate cancer patients who are taking androgen deprivation therapies (ADT) including LHRH analogues, alone and in combination with androgen-targeted therapies (ATTs)...

Dose conformity is an essential parameter used in radiotherapy and radiosurgery that measures the correspondence of the dose distribution derived from a Treatment Planning System (TPS) with the actual volume to be treated, the Planning Treatment Volume (PTV). The present work uses a method based on the expansion of dose distributions and PTVs by three-dimensional Zernike polynomials and further comparison of their moments to define a general criterion of dose conformity. To carry on this study, data coming from 20 patients comprising 80 datasets exported from the TPS, which included imaging data (PTVs) and dose distributions corresponding to different treatment modalities: three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy, intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), were used...

PURPOSES: This study aimed to develop and validate algorithms for automating intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) planning in breast cancer patients, with a focus on patient anatomical characteristics. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrospectively selected 400 breast cancer patients without lymph node involvement for automated treatment planning. Automation was achieved using the Eclipse Scripting Application Programming Interface (ESAPI) integrated into the Eclipse Treatment Planning System...

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions is rapidly changing the way radiation therapy tasks, traditionally relying on human skills, are approached by enabling fast automation. This evolution represents a paradigm shift in all aspects of the profession, particularly for treatment planning applications, opening up opportunities but also causing concerns for the future of the multidisciplinary team. In Australia, radiation therapists (RTs), largely responsible for both treatment planning and delivery, are discussing the impact of the introduction of AI and the potential developments in the future of their role...

The primary objective of the present study was to identify a subset of radiomic features extracted from primary tumor imaged by computed tomography of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer patients, which remain unaffected by variations in segmentation quality and in computed tomography image acquisition protocol. The robustness of these features to segmentation variations was assessed by analyzing the correlation of feature values extracted from lesion volumes delineated by two annotators. The robustness to variations in acquisition protocol was evaluated by examining the correlation of features extracted from high-dose and low-dose computed tomography scans, both of which were acquired for each patient as part of the stereotactic body radiotherapy planning process...

OBJECTIVE: Muscle-invasive bladder cancer is an aggressive disease. Yet, many patients, especially those with advanced age and multiple comorbidities, do not receive treatment with curative intent. We evaluated the disease course and health care burden of these patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Bi-center, retrospective analysis of patients diagnosed with muscle-invasive bladder cancer who did not undergo curative-intent treatment (radical cystectomy or trimodal therapy) between 2016 and 2021...

PURPOSE: To determine the efficacy of low-dose intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)/volumetric intensity-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) in the treatment of symptomatic choroidal hemangioma (CH). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-three consecutive patients with CH were retrospectively reviewed. All the patients underwent IMRT/VMAT as a unique treatment. Resolution of subretinal fluid (SRF), improvement of best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and reduction in tumor thickness were compared before and after radiotherapy...

Uveal Melanoma (UM) is a rare disease, yet it is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adult patients. Despite continuous advancements and research, the risk of metastasis remains high. It is possible to stratify patients according to their risk of metastases using a variety of known risk factors. Even though there is no gold standard for the prognostication of patients with uveal melanoma, it is becoming increasingly clear that combining histo-pathological, patient-related and molecular prognostic markers allows a more accurate prediction of the metastatic risk than by using one parameter...

BACKGROUND: Conditional survival (CS) takes into consideration the duration of survival post-surgery and can provide valuable additional insights. The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factors associated with reduced one-year postoperative conditional survival in patients diagnosed with stage III T3-T4 colon cancer and real-time prognosis prediction. Furthermore, we aim to develop pertinent nomograms and predictive models. METHODS: Clinical data and survival outcomes of patients diagnosed with stage III T3-T4 colon cancer were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, covering the period from 2010 to 2019...

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer are the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Although generally thought of as distinct diseases, the intersectional overlap between CVD and cancer is increasingly evident in both causal and mechanistic relationships. The field of cardio-oncology is largely focused on cardiotoxic effects of cancer therapies (e.g., chemotherapy, radiation). Further, the cumulative effects of cardiotoxic therapy exposure and the prevalence of CVD risk factors in cancer patients leads to long-term morbidity and poor quality of life in this patient population-even when patients are cancer-free...

BACKGROUND: Plane-parallel ionization chambers are the recommended secondary standard systems for clinical reference dosimetry of electrons. Dosimetry in high dose rate and dose-per-pulse (DPP) is challenging as ionization chambers are subject to ion recombination, especially when dose rate and/or DPP is increased beyond the range of conventional radiotherapy. The lack of universally accepted models for correction of ion recombination in UDHR is still an issue as it is, especially in FLASH-RT research, which is crucial in order to be able to accurately measure the dose for a wide range of dose rates and DPPs...

Studies of patients with castrate-resistant prostate cancer at high risk of developing overt metastases but with no current evidence of evaluable disease on computed tomography or bone scan non-metastatic castrate-resistant prostrate cancer have demonstrated increased metastasis-free survival and overall survival following treatment with the next-generation oral anti-androgen apalutamide (in addition to therapies that aim to lower testosterone to castrate levels) or luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone antagonist or surgical castration...