PURPOSE To prospectively assess the efficacy of the selective serotonin inhibitor escitalopram on painful bone metastases, in combination with external beam irradiation. METHODS Forty-three patients with cancer metastatic to bone and suffering from depression were treated with 3 Dimensional Conformal Radiotherapy (3DCRT) (30 Gy; 3 Gy/fraction, 5 days/week) combined with escitalopram (20 mg/da...

Background: The aim of this study was to compare the differences of the dosimetric parameters between three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) and simultaneous-integrated boost intensity-modulated radiotherapy (SIB-IMRT) techniques in the prone and supine positions for breast irradiation. Materials and Methods: Ten patients underwent a computed tomography simulation in both the prone a...

We present a novel global E7(7) symmetry in five-dimensional maximal supergravity as well as an E8(8) symmetry in d=4. These symmetry groups which are known to be present after reduction to d=4 and d=3, respectively, appear as conformal extensions of the respective well-known hidden-symmetry groups. A global scaling symmetry of the Lagrangian is the key to enhancement of E6(6) to E7(7) in d=5 a...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE To compare the difference of liver sparing and dose escalation between three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT), intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), and helical tomotherapy (HT) for hepatocellular carcinoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS Sixteen unresectable HCC patients were enrolled in this study. First, some evaluation factors of 3DCRT, IMRT, and HT plans were ca...

BACKGROUND The randomized TARGIT trial comparing experimental intra-operative radiotherapy (IORT) to up to 7 weeks of daily conventional external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) recruited participants in Western Australia between 2003 and 2012. We aimed to understand preferences for this evolving radiotherapy treatment for early breast cancer (EBC) in health professionals, and how they changed over ti...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to assess the recent changes of radiation therapy (RT) modalities in Korea. In particular, we focused on intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) utilization as the main index, presenting the application status of advanced RT. METHODS We collected information from the Korean Health and Insurance Review and Assessment Service data based on the National Health In...

External radiation beam treatment of cancer tumours involves delivery of invisible radiation beams through the body where internal structures can not be seen. Beam targeting of patient anatomy has to very accurate to achieve the desired therapeutic result. Good understanding of radiotherapy treatment (RT) concepts is essential to training. This paper presents a virtual environment simulator dev...

We apply the concept of equivalent uniform dose (EUD) to our data set of model distributions and intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatment plans as a method for analyzing large dose inhomogeneities within the tumor volume. For large dose nonuniformities, we find that the linerar-quadratic based EUD model is sensitive to the linear-quadratic model parameters, alpha and beta, making it ne...

PURPOSE Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) has been considered radiation-resistant, and radiotherapy is recommended only for palliation of bone metastases in current treatment guidelines. No registered prospective trial has evaluated GIST responsiveness to radiotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with GIST progressing at intra-abdominal sites or the liver were entered to this prospectiv...

Background: 3DCRT (three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy) and IMRT (intensity-modulated radiotherapy) has provided us with tools to delineate the radiation dose distribution of tumor targets. However, the precision of radiation can be compromised by respiratory motion, which usually limits the geometric and dosimetric accuracy of radiotherapy. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the imp...