Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology
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To investigate the extent and the impact of rectum and bladder motion during adjuvant conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) after radical prostatectomy (RP). ⋯ The impact of systematic uncertainty due to rectal wall motion seems to be relatively high for patients treated with adjuvant 3DCRT after RP. The detected trend of the rectum in migrating anteriorly during therapy is consistent with post-surgery settlement effects and/or some modification of rectum mobility due to irradiation. Rectal motion (and consequent shifts of CTV) was large at the half cranial portion of the rectum while it was very small below the flexure.
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We retrospectively evaluated the therapeutic outcomes of patients with primary spinal cord astrocytomas treated with conventional radiotherapy at our institute. ⋯ Our results are slightly worse than previous retrospective radiotherapy series in the literature. With new imaging and radiation therapy techniques, radiotherapy may have a role as an adjuvant treatment especially in subtotally resected tumors.
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Clinical Trial
Carbon ion radiation therapy for chordomas and low grade chondrosarcomas--current status of the clinical trials at GSI.
Carbon ion radiation therapy (RT) is available at the German Ion Research Center (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany, since December 1997. Patient treatments within the pilot project are carried out by radiation oncologists of the University of Heidelberg in cooperation with the Department of Biophysics of GSI, the Division of Medical Physics of the German Cancer Research Center Heidelberg and the Research Center Rossendorf. ⋯ Main purpose of the pilot project was to investigate carbon ion radiation therapy for different tumor entities within clinical phase I/II trials. This manuscript updates the results of the clinical phase I/II trial of carbon ion RT in chordomas and low grade chondrosarcomas of the skull base and summarizes the current status of the ongoing phase I/II trial for extracranial chordomas and low grade chondrosarcomas.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Double-blind placebo-controlled randomised trial of vitamin E and pentoxifylline in patients with chronic arm lymphoedema and fibrosis after surgery and radiotherapy for breast cancer.
Treatment-induced arm lymphoedema is a common and distressing complication of curative surgery and radiotherapy for early breast cancer. A number of studies testing alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) and pentoxifylline suggest evidence of clinical regression of superficial radiation-induced fibrosis but there is only very limited evidence from randomised trials. Arm lymphoedema after lymphatic radiotherapy and surgery has been used in the present study as a clinical system for testing these drugs in a double-blind placebo-controlled randomised phase II trial. ⋯ The study fails to demonstrate efficacy of dl-alpha tocopheryl acetate plus pentoxifylline in patients with arm lymphoedema following axillary surgery and lymphatic radiotherapy, nor does it suggest any benefits of these drugs in radiation-induced induration (fibrosis) in the breast, chest wall, pectoral fold, axilla or supraclavicular fossa.