PURPOSE Due to the high conformity of carbon ion therapy, unpredictable changes in the patient's geometry or deviations from the planned beam properties can result in changes of the dose distribution. PET has been used successfully to monitor the actual dose distribution in the patient. However, it suffers from biological washout processes and low detection efficiency. The purpose of this contr...

BACKGROUND The need for surveillance of rare late recurrence of rectal cancer has not yet been established. Local control of unresectable skeletal metastasis is important for palliation of symptoms and support for systemic chemotherapy. CASE PRESENTATION A Japanese man underwent preoperative pelvic irradiation (50.4 Gy/28 Fr) and low anterior resection at the age of 57 years. The pathological...

The adverse effect induced by carbon ion radiation (CIR) is still an unavoidable hazard to the treatment object. Thus, evaluation of its adverse effects on the body is a critical problem with respect to radiation therapy. We aimed to investigate the change between the configuration and mechanical properties of erythrocytes induced by radiation and found differences in both the configuration and...

Abstract Meningiomas represent the most common primary brain tumor type, with a recurrence rate of approximately 20% following resection. Classification by molecular classes was demonstrated to be more accurate in identifying patients at high risk disease progression meningiomas, compared WHO grading only. Novel radiotherapeutic modalities using protons or carbon ions provide an increased relat...

Carbon ion radiotherapy (C-ion RT) offers superior dose conformity in the treatment of deep-seated tumors compared with conventional X-ray therapy. In addition, carbon ion beams have a higher relative biological effectiveness compared with protons or X-ray beams. C-ion RT for the first patient at Gunma University Heavy Ion Medical Center (GHMC) was initiated in March of 2010. The major specific...

BACKGROUND/AIM This study aimed to clarify the relationship between dosimetric factors and parotid gland (PG) atrophy after carbon ion radiotherapy (C-ion RT). PATIENTS AND METHODS Fifty-four patients with head and neck tumours were enrolled and 93 irradiated PGs were analyzed. Thirty and 24 patients were treated with total doses [relative biological effectiveness (RBE)] of 57.6 Gy and 64.0 G...

BACKGROUND Desmoid tumors, which are associated with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), tend to occur frequently in the abdominal wall and mesentery. Currently, there are no recognized treatments other than surgery, and frequent surgeries result in gastrointestinal obstructions and functional gastrointestinal disorders. CASE PRESENTATION After surgery that was performed on a 39-year-old pa...

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of carbon-ion radiotherapy for non-squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, 35 patients were enrolled in this prospective study. The primary end-point was the 3-year local control rate, and the secondary end-points included the 3-year overall survival rate and adverse events. Acute and late adverse events were evaluated according to the Common Terminolog...

BACKGROUND To report on establishment of workflow and clinical results of particle therapy at the Heidelberg Ion Therapy Center. MATERIALS AND METHODS We treated 36 pediatric patients (aged 21 or younger) with particle therapy at HIT. Median age was 12 years (range 2-21 years), five patients (14%) were younger than 5 years of age. Indications included pilocytic astrocytoma, parameningeal and ...

Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease with poor survival outcomes. Recent studies have shown that the addition of radiotherapy to chemotherapy in the setting of locally advanced pancreatic cancer did not improve overall survival outcome. These studies commonly utilize conventional radiotherapy treatment fractionation and technique (typically 3-D conformal radiotherapy or intensity modulate...