Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology
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The aim of this study is to evaluate the acute and late complications in patients who have received HDR implant boost using inverse planning, and to determine dose volume correlations. ⋯ Inverse-planned HDR brachytherapy is a viable option to deliver higher dose to the prostate as a boost without increasing GU or rectal complication. Further HDR dose escalation to the prostate is feasible.
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Radiation-induced tissue fibrosis is a common adverse effect of curative treatment for pelvic cancer. Pilot studies testing alpha-tocopherol and pentoxifylline provide evidence of clinical regression of superficial radiation fibrosis after radiotherapy. ⋯ Despite only seeing four a priori defined responders in this pilot study testing dl-alpha tocopheryl acetate plus pentoxifylline in patients suffering complications of pelvic radiotherapy, changes in LENT SOMA scores suggest beneficial effects. However, we are not convinced that these effects are real, since no significant changes in symptoms and functional status were recorded by detailed prospective patient self-assessments.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study
20 Gy versus 44 Gy supplemental beam radiation with Pd-103 prostate brachytherapy: preliminary biochemical outcomes from a prospective randomized multi-center trial.
While favorable results are achieved with combined modality irradiation, there has never been a rigorous study of the need for supplemental beam. The study reported here compares clinical outcomes with substantially different external beam radiation doses. Similar to classic randomized Wilm's tumor studies from the 1980s, the intention of the trial design was to decrementally test the need for beam radiation. ⋯ The randomized data presented here suggests that the likelihood of biochemical cure is similar with standard (44 Gy) or lower dose (20 Gy) supplemental beam radiation. Since the biological effect of 20 Gy external beam radiation is likely to be small, we interpret these preliminary results to suggest that supplemental beam radiation is unnecessary, in the setting of a high degree of prostate coverage by the brachytherapy prescription dose. With closure of this study, we have begun treating intermediate and high risk patients on a prospective randomized comparison of Pd-103 with 20 versus 0 Gy supplemental beam radiation.
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To compare treatment planning methods in high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy of prostate cancer. In particular, to assess quantitatively the dosimetric superiority, if any, of the anatomy-based dwell position (ABDP) and inverse optimization (IO) over the conventional cylindrical dwell position (CDP), geometric optimization (GO), and dose-point optimization (DO) in terms of the determination of dwell positions and dwell times. ⋯ In the CT-based treatment planning for prostate HDR brachytherapy, ABDP is useful to achieve a high conformity, which leads to a reduction of the doses to the bladder, rectum, and surrounding normal tissue. IO is useful to lower the urethral dose without sacrificing conformity. IO(ABDP) is recommended on the basis of the current study. However, this conclusion has been drawn from the idealized hypothetical settings, and some possibility remains that this conclusion is not always applicable to the real implants.
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Many patients with localised prostate cancer present with symptoms of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and require neoadjuvant hormone therapy to shrink the gland before brachytherapy. The impact of this hormone therapy has been evaluated in 667 patients treated with Iodine seed monotherapy. ⋯ Overall hormone therapy had no significant effect on outcome. The apparent lower D90 in hormone treated patients may be related to a change in volume between pre-implant and post-implant dosimetry.