Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Acceptability of short term neo-adjuvant androgen deprivation in patients with locally advanced prostate cancer.
To determine the acceptability of short term neo-adjuvant maximal androgen deprivation (MAD) to patients treated with external beam radiation for locally advanced prostate cancer. ⋯ Despite temporary effects on sexual activity, and compliance difficulties with flutamide, short-term neo-adjuvant MAD was not perceived by patients to be a major inconvenience. If neo-adjuvant MAD in the way tested can be demonstrated to lead to improved biochemical control and/or survival, then patients would view these therapeutic gains as worthwhile. Compliance with short-term goserelin was excellent, confirming that LH-RH analogues have a potential role in more long-term adjuvant treatment. However, for more protracted androgen deprivation, survival advantages and deleterious effects need to be assessed in parallel, in order to determine the optimal duration of treatment.
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Corticospinal tract (CST) information using anisotropic diffusion-weighted imaging and magnetoencephalography were integrated into radiosurgical planning for two patients with deeply seated arteriovenous malformation. The volume of CST receiving >10 Gy, >15 Gy, and maximum dose of CST could be reduced when plans were created with the aid of CST information compared with plans without the information. The results indicate that the use of CST information might reduce the risk of post-radiosurgical motor disturbance resulting from radiation necrosis.
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Faced with rapidly increasing patient numbers, the authors adopted and modified a technique to perform prostate implants under local anesthesia in a radiation oncology facility. Our reasons for assembling the current report detailing 20 consecutive, unselected patients are to show how patients tolerate brachytherapy without the use of sedatives, to provide more technical detail regarding the procedure's practical aspects, and to summarize the time needed to complete its components. ⋯ Performing prostate brachytherapy under local anesthesia, as reported here, is simple, efficient and well tolerated.
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To evaluate clinical and lung dose-volume histogram based factors as predictors of radiation pneumonitis (RP) in lung cancer patients (PTs) treated with thoracic irradiation. ⋯ In this study the use of mitomycin or the presence of COPD is associated with a higher risk of RP. In the entire population NTCP values were not significantly correlated with the incidence of RP. Mean lung dose shows a clear trend toward statistical significance in the patient group without COPD.
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Comparative Study
The adverse effect of treatment prolongation in cervical cancer by high-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy.
The potential risk of prolongation of treatment time in cervical cancer has been reported for many low-dose rate (LDR) studies, with an estimated loss of local control ranging from 0.3 to 1.6% per day of treatment prolongation. Since the treatment schedule for fractionated high-dose rate intracavitary brachytherapy (HDRICB) is not directly comparable with that for low-dose rate studies, this report aims to evaluate the adverse effect of treatment prolongation specifically for cervical cancer treated with HDRICB. ⋯ Analysis of the data from the current study demonstrates that the adverse effect of treatment prolongation was observed later in the treatment course for the high-dose rate (HDR) series compared to the LDR analog, however, treatment-time prolongation still negatively influenced the cause-specific survival and pelvic control rate for both dosage groups.