Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology
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To investigate the relation between acute toxicity and irradiated volume in the organs at risk during three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy for prostate cancer. ⋯ 3D-CRT radiation therapy to 70 Gy for prostate cancer was well tolerated. Only two of the 132 patients in the cohort experienced acute bladder toxicity Grade 3, none had Grade 3 rectal toxicity. Uni- and multivariate analyses indicated that the volume treated was a significant factor for the incidence of Grade 2 or higher acute morbidity.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Comparative study of permanent interstitial prostate brachytherapy post-implant evaluation among seven Italian institutes.
The purposes of this multicentric study are (a) the evaluation of four different commercially available treatment planning systems (TPSs) and (b) to verify whether the dosimetric results are comparable, also when considering the inter-observer variabilities and the different scanning protocols used. This work is to be considered a first step to test the value of multicentric studies based on dosimetric evaluation of the quality of the implants. ⋯ Three-dimensional (3D) geometric reconstructions of seed distributions are slightly dependent upon the operators and the scanning protocols have little effect on the dosimetric evaluation. Some relevant discrepancies were found between one of the TPSs and the other three if few sources were used; increasing the number of seeds those differences became less pronounced. Multicentric studies on the quality of prostate implants based on post-implant dosimetry are feasible, provided an accurate step-wise evaluation of the procedure be performed.
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To evaluate the impact of two different methods of geometric distortion correction of MR images from a Siemens Magnetom Open Viva 0.2T resistive MR unit on the process of external beam radiotherapy treatment planning for prostate cancer. ⋯ Object induced distortions are negligible at such low field strengths compared to system related distortions. Treatment plans for prostate cancer do not seem to differ significantly from "standard" plans calculated on CT images when calculated on distortion corrected MR images, even if all tissues are assigned the electron density of water. Distortion correction of MR images can theoretically improve the starting point for image registration of MR and CT images.
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To measure local changes of collagen metabolism in irradiated breast skin and systemic changes in serum during and after radiotherapy and correlate these changes with skin thickness, erythema and palpable subcutaneous induration. ⋯ We demonstrated a maximum and elevated levels for PINP and PIIINP skin collagen metabolism determined from SBF during the 2 years' follow-up. Elevated levels of PINP and PIIINP correlated with the thickening of the skin and subcutaneous induration but not with erythema.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Phase I study of UFT plus leucovorin with radiotherapy in patients with inextirpable non-rectal gastrointestinal cancer.
Chemoradiotherapy is increasingly used in the primary management of patients with loco-regionally advanced gastrointestinal (GI) cancer. Oral chemotherapy with uracil and tegafur (UFT) plus leucovorin (LV) may represent a convenient way of delivering protracted infusion of fluorouracil. Our goal was to evaluate the safety of UFT plus LV combined with radiation and determine the maximum-tolerated dose (MTD) and a recommended dose for further testing. ⋯ Concomitant chemoradiation with oral UFT plus LV is feasible and well tolerated and should be further investigated since tumour responses were frequently seen.