PURPOSE To compare dosimetric results of the use of RapidArc® with simultaneous integrated boost, sliding window intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) with simultaneous integrated boost, and conformal radiotherapy with sequential boost in the management of anal canal cancer. METHODS Two patients with squamous cell cancer of the anal canal with compromised inguinal nodes were included. The s...

AIMS AND BACKGROUND Adjuvant external beam radiotherapy is highly recommended for uterine carcinomas invading beyond the inner half of the myometrium or cervical stage IIa carcinomas. The addition of a booster intracavitary dose is widely used. METHODS We assessed the feasibility and toxicity of a hypofractionated accelerated conformal radiotherapy scheme (2.7 Gy per fraction, for 14 consecut...

Radiation therapy is a cornerstone in the therapeutic management of craniopharyngioma. The close proximity to neighboring eloquent structures pose a particular challenge to radiation therapy. Modern treatment technologies including fractionated 3-D conformal radiotherapy, intensity modulated radiation therapy, and recently proton therapy are able to precisely cover the target while preserving s...

AIMS AND BACKGROUND The aim of this report was to investigate the feasibility in terms of treatment time prolongation of an on-line no-action level correction protocol, based on daily electronic portal image verification. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN The occupation of a linear accelerator (LINAC) delivering 3-D conformal treatments was monitored for two weeks (from Monday to Friday, 10 working da...

We investigate the possibility that the conformal and conformal thin sandwich (CTS) methods can be used to parameterize the set of solutions of the vacuum Einstein constraint equations. To this end we develop a model problem obtained by taking the quotient of certain symmetric data on conformally žat tori. Specializing the model problem to a three-parameter family of conformal data we observe a...

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...

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 ...