The cancer journal
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To evaluate the effect of prostate brachytherapy with or without supplemental therapies on long-term rectal function by means of a patient-administered quality-of-life instrument. ⋯ Prostate brachytherapy adversely affects bowel function. However, in most patients the changes are minimal and slowly resolve with time. Overall rectal quality of life is inversely related to supplemental external beam radiation.
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Clinical Trial
A technique of partial breast irradiation utilizing proton beam radiotherapy: comparison with conformal x-ray therapy.
To develop a breast immobilization system and clinical technique to deliver partial breast irradiation with a proton beam and compare dose distributions using proton therapy and conformal x-rays. ⋯ A simple immobilization procedure provides accurate and reproducible breast positioning while simultaneously eliminating respiratory motion. The procedure has been well tolerated by the first 20 patients. Protons can provide substantial normal tissue protection compared with the use of conformal x-rays when used for partial breast treatment. We plan to continue enrollment and analyze long-term toxicity, local control, and survival.
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To evaluate the efficacy of using image-guided robotic stereotactic radioablation as an alternative treatment modality for patients with surgically resectable, but medically inoperable, T1 N0 M0, stage IA non-small cell lung cancer. ⋯ In our early experience, stereotactic radioablation using the CyberKnife system appears to be a safe, minimally invasive, and effective modality for treating early stage lung cancer in patients with medically inoperable disease. Dose escalation and/or increasing the treatment volumes, with the aid of the high conformality of this technique, may help to achieve further improvements in these promising results.
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Despite growth of palliative care programs and evidence on the effectiveness of radiotherapy in palliating cancer symptoms, radiotherapy is probably underused in this setting. Radiation and medical oncologists and palliative medicine specialists were surveyed regarding the perceived role of palliative radiotherapy and barriers to its use. ⋯ Although multiple barriers limit optimal integration, most agree that there should be greater national and professional society efforts to promote the advancement of radiation oncology in the area of palliative care.