International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics
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Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. · Jan 2000
Clinical TrialA preliminary analysis of health-related quality of life in the first year after permanent source interstitial brachytherapy (PIB) for clinically localized prostate cancer.
To prospectively assess the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and changes in HRQOL during the first year after permanent source interstitial brachytherapy (PIB). ⋯ The results of this preliminary analysis suggest that clinically meaningful decreases in HRQOL, as measured by the FACT-P instrument, are evident within weeks after PIB. By 3 months, however, FACT-P scores return to near baseline levels. A validated instrument designed to measure urinary symptoms (IPSS) demonstrates that moderate to severe urinary symptoms persist for at least 3-6 months following PIB. One year following PIB, the scores on the FACT-P and IPSS questionnaires had returned to baseline.
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Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. · Jan 2000
Local control and overall survival in atypical meningioma: a retrospective study.
To evaluate local control and overall survival after primary surgery for patients with atypical meningiomas. ⋯ In patients with atypical meningiomas, gross total resection is associated with a lower recurrence rate than in subtotal resection.
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Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. · Jan 2000
Case Reports Comparative StudyThe potential for sparing of parotids and escalation of biologically effective dose with intensity-modulated radiation treatments of head and neck cancers: a treatment design study.
Conventional radiotherapy for cancers of the head and neck (HN) can yield acceptable locoregional tumor control rates, but toxicity of many normal tissues limits our ability to escalate dose. Xerostomia represents one of the most common complications. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) to achieve adequate sparing of parotids and to escalate nominal and/or biologically-effective dose to achieve higher tumor control without exceeding normal tissue tolerances. ⋯ IMRT has the potential to significantly improve radiotherapy of HN cancers by reducing normal tissue dose and simultaneously allowing escalation of dose. SIB strategy is not only more efficient and yields better dose distributions, but may also be biologically more effective. Dose-volume-based criteria is better than purely dose-based criteria. The quality of plans improves with number of beams, reaching a saturation level for a certain number of beams, which for the plans studied was found to be 9.
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Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. · Jan 2000
Clinical TrialImproving the dosimetric coverage of interstitial high-dose-rate breast implants.
We performed a retrospective computed tomography (CT)-based three-dimensional (3D) dose-volume analysis of high-dose-rate (HDR) interstitial breast implants to evaluate the adequacy of lumpectomy cavity coverage, and then designed a simple, reproducible algorithm for dwell-time adjustment to correct for underdosage of the lumpectomy cavity. ⋯ Lumpectomy cavity coverage sometimes appears suboptimal with interstitial HDR breast brachytherapy using our current technique. A simple dwell-time increase at only 1-3 dwell positions can compensate for some underdosage without creating significant regions of overdosage. Using simple methodology, a single reference point representing the underdosed region can be utilized for initial selection of the dwell positions to be increased.