International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics
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Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. · Mar 1996
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialPhase III study of interstitial thermoradiotherapy compared with interstitial radiotherapy alone in the treatment of recurrent or persistent human tumors. A prospectively controlled randomized study by the Radiation Therapy Group.
The objectives of this randomized trial were to determine if interstitial thermoradiotherapy (ITRT) improves tumor regression/control in accessible lesions in comparison with interstitial radiotherapy (IRT) alone and to assess the skin and soft tissue complications with either modality. ⋯ Interstitial hyperthermia, as applied in this randomized study, did not show any additional beneficial effects over interstitial radiotherapy alone. Delivery of hyperthermia remains a major obstacle (since only one patient met the basic minimum adequacy criteria as defined in this study). The benefit of hyperthermia in addition to radiation therapy still remains to be proven in properly randomized prospective clinical trials after substantial technical improvements in heat delivery and dosimetry are achieved.
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Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. · Mar 1996
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialProspective clinical evaluation of an electronic portal imaging device.
To determine whether the clinical implementation of an electronic portal imaging device can improve the precision of daily external beam radiotherapy. ⋯ The use of an electronic portal imaging device in our clinic has been implemented without a significant increase in patient treatment time. Online intervention and correction of patient positioning occurred rarely, despite FPEs of > 10 mm being present in more than 10% of the treated fields. A significant reduction in FPEs exceeding 10 mm was made in the group of patients receiving pelvic radiotherapy. It is likely that this improvement was made secondarily to a decrease in systematic error and not because of online interventions. More significant improvements in portal image quality and the availability of online image registration tools are required before substantial improvements can be made in patient positioning with online portal imaging.