Acta oncologica
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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE. Many breast cancer survivors (BCS) suffer from long-term upper limb morbidities after axillary node dissection. The purpose of this five-year follow-up study was to describe changes in long-term upper limb morbidities, physical activity level, and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and to find factors that predict HRQoL five years after surgery. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS. The overall HRQoL improved significantly from baseline to five years, despite the chronic arm pain and increase in ALE. Three independent predictive factors of HRQoL were identified.
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To evaluate diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) in liver and liver cancers during and following conformal radiotherapy (RT). To determine the feasibility of using changes in apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) as a potential surrogate for tumour control or normal tissue injury. ⋯ Changes in tumour ADC were seen during RT. Larger increases were correlated with higher doses and increased likelihood of response.
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Recently, Varian Medical Systems have announced the introduction of a new treatment technique, in which dose is delivered over a single gantry rotation with variable MLC positions, dose rate and gantry speed. In February 2008, a preclinical installation of the RapidArc beam delivery approach was carried out on a Varian Clinac at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen. The purpose of the installation was to perform measurements to verify the correctness of doses delivered with the RapidArc technique. In May 2008, the clinical release of the RapidArc application was installed at Rigshospitalet. ⋯ The delivery of RapidArc beam delivery has been verified to correspond well with calculated dose distributions for a number of different cases. The delivery was very reproducible, and was carried out with high stability of the accelerator performance.
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Comparative Study
Variation in radiation sensitivity and repair kinetics in different parts of the spinal cord.
The spinal cord, known for its strongly serial character and high sensitivity to radiation even when a small segment is irradiated, is one of the most critical organs at risk to be spared during radiation therapy. To compare the sensitivity of different parts of the spinal cord, data for radiation myelopathy have been used. ⋯ Large differences in radiation response between the cervical and thoracic region of spinal cord are thus observed: cervical myelopathy seems to be characterized by medium seriality, while thoracic spinal cord is characterized by a highly serial dose-response. The much steeper dose-response curve for cervical spinal cord myelopathy can be interpreted as a higher number of functional subunits consistent with a higher amount of white matter close to the brain.