Recurrences of cervical cancer after definitive radiotherapy often occur at common iliac or para-aortic lymph nodes as marginal lymph node recurrences. Patients with these recurrences have a chance of long-term survival by optimal re-treatment with radiotherapy. However, the re-irradiation often overlaps the initial and the secondary radiotherapy fields and can result in increased normal tissue...

OBJECTIVES To identify retrospectively through chart analysis the biochemical recurrence frequency of localized prostate cancer at diagnosis of patients submitted to surgery or radiotherapy; to correlate diagnostic characteristics associated with higher risk of biochemical recurrence. MATERIALS AND METHODS Retrospective analysis of 483 patients treated in a single center, from March 2000 to D...

The integration of intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) into the multimodal treatment of gastrointestinal cancer is feasible and leads to high rates of local control. In-field tumoral control using IORT-containing strategies can be achieved in over 90 % of most cases, regardless of the site or status of the tumor (primary or recurrent). Electron beam IORT, or intraoperative electron radiation the...

During a course of fractionated radiation therapy and between the fractions the tissues of the human body may move relative to some reference location in which the radiation therapy was planned. This has been known for over a century and simple 'coping mechanisms' (margins) have been used to approximately compensate. Since the introduction of highly accurate conformal radiation therapy and inte...

BACKGROUND Local control appears to be an important treatment aim in patients with limited metastases (oligometastases) of colorectal cancer (CRC). Those patients show a favourable prognosis, if--in addition to the local effective treatment--an occurrence of new metastases may also be postponed by effective systemic therapy. The purpose of this dose escalation phase I study was to establish the...

Conformal modulus sensors (CMS) incorporate PZT nanoribbons as mechanical actuators and sensors to achieve reversible conformal contact with the human skin for non-invasive, in vivo measurements of skin modulus. An analytic model presented in this paper yields expressions that connect the sensor output voltage to the Young moduli of the epidermis and dermis, the thickness of the epidermis, as w...

Introduction: Germinomas are malignant intracranial germ cell tumors, usually found in pineal region. These tumors are exquisitely sensitive to radiation. Whole ventricle radiation (RT) with a boost field to the primary tumor is the standard treatment for localized germinomas. RapidArc radiotherapy is considered an excellent technological advance that shows great potential for producing highly ...

In this review, we discuss the use of a variety of 3-D models (particularly 3-D skin, lung, breast and endothelial) in radiobiological research and highlight the differences in responses compared to 2-D culturing conditions (monolayers). We review the characteristics of existing 3-D models and aim to point out the substantial advantages 3-D cultures provide for modern radiobiology. In particula...

The combination of radiotherapy (RT) and function-preserving surgery is the most usual contemporary approach in the management of soft tissue sarcomas (STS). Pre- and postoperative RT result in similar local control rates, as shown by a landmark trial in extremity STS. In this review, the role of RT in the management of extremity STS will be discussed, but STS in other sites, including retroper...

PURPOSE To determine the clinical and dosimetric factors that predict prostate-specific antygen (PSA) bouncing following brachytherapy HDR and three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) for prostate cancer patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS The evaluated population consisted of 121 prostate cancer patients with a minimum of 5 years of follow-up and at least 6 post-treatment PSA levels...