OBJECTIVE To report on preliminary outcomes of single-dose intraoperative radiotherapy for early-stage breast cancer based on local recurrence rates and complications. METHODS Fifty postmenopausal women with <2.5cm breast tumors and clinically normal axillary lymph nodes were submitted to quadrantectomy, sentinel lymph node biopsy and intraoperative radiotherapy and studied. Mean follow-up ti...

Radical treatment of limb soft-tissue sarcomas is typically combination treatment of surgery and radiotherapy. The aim of radical treatment is to achieve excellent local control rates with minimal treatment-related morbidity and adverse effects on the quality of life. This article looks at the use and timing of radiotherapy and associated complications. The arguments for and against neoadjuvant...

The surgical treatment of early breast cancer has evolved from the removal of the entire breast and surrounding tissues (mastectomy) to the removal of the tumour together with a margin of healthy tissue (lumpectomy). Adjuvant radiotherapy, however, is still mainly given to the whole breast. Furthermore, external beam radiotherapy is often given several months after initial surgery and requires ...

Radiotherapy procedures fall into two main categories: external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy. In external beam radiotherapy the radiation source is at a certain distance from the patient and the target within the patient is irradiated with an external radiation beam. In brachytherapy (see Chapter 13) radiation sources are placed directly into the target volume (intracavitary or interstit...

8 Special Topics....................................................................... 36 8.1 Spinal Cord ............................................................................ 36 8.2 Plexus of Nerves.................................................................... 39 8.3 Peripheral Nerves Histology and Functional Anatomy ....... 39 8.4 Intraoperative Radiotherapy .......................

Three dimensional radiation dosimetry has received growing interest with the implementation of highly conformal radiotherapy treatments. The radiotherapy community faces new challenges with the commissioning of image guided and image gated radiotherapy treatments (IGRT) and deformable image registration software.A new three dimensional anthropomorphically shaped flexible dosimeter, further call...

This report describes the current state of flattening filter-free (FFF) radiotherapy beams implemented on conventional linear accelerators, and is aimed primarily at practicing medical physicists. The Therapy Emerging Technology Assessment Work Group of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) formed a writing group to assess FFF technology. The published literature on FFF tech...