OBJECTIVE To review the current management of carotid body tumours and examine our own experience at the Singapore General Hospital. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective review. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Case note review of patients treated by the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Singapore General Hospital over a period of nine years from January 1999 to December 2007. RESULTS There w...

During stereotactic body radiotherapy, high radiation dose (~60 Gy) is delivered to the tumour in small fractionation regime. In this study, the dosimetric characteristics were studied using radiochromic film during respiratory-gated and non-gated lung stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). Specifically, the effect of respiratory cycle and amplitude, as well as gating window on the dosimetry we...

A 46-year-old womanwith hypothyroid Graves' disease (EMOsyndrome) is reported. The patient had bilateral exophthalmos, conjunctival chemosis, periorbital edema and limitation of lateral gaze. Laboratory examination revealed the presence of primary hypothyroidism with positive thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) binding inhibitory immunoglobulin and thyroid stimulation antibody. These fiindings in...

Anorectal manometry was done in 10 men with chronic radiation proctitis and symptoms of urgency, frequency, and occasional incontinence of faeces. They were compared with 10 asymptomatic age and sex-matched controls. The maximum resting anal canal pressure and the physiological sphincter length were significantly lower (p less than 0.01) in the irradiated group. The rectosphincteric reflex was ...

Nicolle H. Rekers *, Veronica Olivo Pimentel*, Ala Yaromina, Natasja G. Lieuwes, Rianne Biemans, Catharina M. L. Zegers, Wilfred T. V. Germeraad, Evert J. Van Limbergen, Dario Neri, Ludwig J. Dubois **, and Philippe Lambin** Department of Radiotherapy, The M-Lab group, GROW School for Oncology and Developmental Biology, Maastricht Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Maastricht University Medical Centr...

Cases of synchronous prostate and colorectal adenocarcinomas have been sporadically reported. There are case reports on patients with synchronous prostate and rectal cancers treated with external beam radiotherapy alone or combined with high-dose rate brachytherapy boost to the prostate. Here, we illustrate a patient with synchronous prostate and rectal cancers treated using the volumetric arc ...

The brain requires a stable internal environment, which is established by the integrity of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The efficacy of chemotherapeutics in the treatment of brain malignancies is often hampered by the presence of the BBB. BBB disruption can be performed either by osmotic disruption, bradykinin or irradiation. Radiotherapy with doses of 20 to 30 Gy with fraction size of 2 Gy m...

Syncope is caused by a wide variety of disorders. Recurrent syncope as a complication of malignancy is uncommon and may be difficult to diagnose and to treat. Primary neck carcinoma or metastases spreading in parapharyngeal and carotid spaces can involve the internal carotid artery and cause neurally mediated syncope with a clinical presentation like carotid sinus syndrome. We report the case o...

Patients experiencing lower body pain resulting from bone metastases have greater levels of functional interference than those with upper body pain. The purpose of this study was to assess the levels of interference caused by pain after treatment with conventional radiotherapy using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and to validate this tool for telephone use. After radiotherapy, a total of 159, 1...

Aim The aim of this study was to investigate changes in bowel function and anorectal physiology (ARP) after anterior resection for colorectal cancer. Method Patients were recruited from November 2006 September 2008. Cleveland Clinic Incontinence (CCI) scores stool frequency determined by patient questionnaires before surgery (t0) at three (t3), six (t6), nine (t9) 12 (t12) months restoration in...