Main recommendations Malignant disease 1 ESGE recommends placement of partially or fully covered self-expandable metal stents (SEMSs) for palliation malignant dysphagia over laser therapy, photodynamic and esophageal bypass. Strong recommendation, high quality evidence. 2 brachytherapy as a valid alternative, alone in addition to stenting, cancer patients with expected longer life expectancy. 3...

Cutaneous lymphomas are particularly radiosensitive and amenable to palliative radiation therapy. Total skin electron beam therapy (TSEB) is effective for palliation of Sézary syndrome and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma with large body surface area involvement. Focal radiation therapy is often used for treatment of localized disease. Treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma can often pose technical ch...

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) presents an interesting challenge in radiation oncology. Improved systemic therapy has significantly prolonged survival. Modern imaging has allowed practitioners to effectively identify patients with oligometastatic disease. Conventionally fractionated radiation therapy is a first-line treatment option for palliation of bone metastases, including the spine, but has li...

Although selective metabolic and receptor-based molecular agents will surely be included in the future of prostate cancer diagnosis and therapy, currently available inorganic compounds-such as 18F-NaF for the diagnosis of bony disease and 223RaCl2 for the therapy of bone metastases-were recently shown to be superior to standard 99mTc-phosphonates for diagnosis and 153Sm-ethylenediaminetetrameth...

In 1999, metastatic breast cancer claimed the lives of almost 45,000 women. For the vast majority of patients, metastatic breast cancer is an incurable disease with a median survival of only 2 to 3 years after diagnosis. The major goal of therapy is palliation. New endocrine agents developed during the last several years provide a greater opportunity for response in receptor-positive patients. ...

The techniques of treatment of carcinoma of the bronchus using 8 million volt x rays are described. In a group of inoperable cases of carcinoma of the bronchus a three-year survival rate of 10% was obtained with squamous lesions, and in anaplastic and oat-cell lesions the three-year survival rate was 4%. The factors affecting the prognosis are described and also the palliation achieved. The imm...

There is mounting evidence that androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer carries significant health risks. General awareness of the unpleasant but typically tolerable side effects of androgen suppression is not lacking. Recent studies have reported clinically significant cardiovascular morbidity and increased mortality, calling into question the safety of androgen suppression. In ...

Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program and the European Concerted Action on survival and Care of Cancer Patients (EUROCARE) project indicate that approximately 6% of women newly diagnosed with breast cancer have stage IV disease, representing approximately 12 600 new cases per year in the United States in 2005. Historically, local therapy of the primary tumor in this ...