RATIONALE to evaluate the role of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography ([(18)F]FDG-PET) integrated with computer tomography (CT) scan [(18)F]FDG-PET/CT in the staging and target volume definition in Intensity Modulated RapidarcTM Delivery (RA-IMRT) in cervical cancer. METHODS From June 2010 to December 2011, 66 patients affected by cervical cancer, candidates for definitive or ...

Dosimetric consequences of positional shifts were studied using frameless Brainlab ExacTrac X-ray system for hypofractionated (3 or 5 fractions) intracranial stereo-tactic radiotherapy (SRT). SRT treatments of 17 patients with metastatic intracranial tumors using the stereotactic system were retrospectively investigated. The treatments were simulated in a treatment planning system by modifying ...

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common type of primary brain tumor, which is characterized by an infiltrative growth pattern. In current practice, radiotherapy planning is primarily based upon T2 FLAIR MRI despite its known lack of specificity in the detection of tumor infiltration. While hyperintensity on T2 FLAIR is widely considered to represent infiltrative tumor, it may also be caused by th...

Background: External beam radiotherapy (EBRT) is mainstay of treatment in patients with locally advanced cervical carcinoma (LACC). Three dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) and intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) are mainly used in EBRT. However which one is superior is still controversial. Materials and Methods: Forty patients of LACC treated with IMRT were selected for this study....

Morphology as demonstrated by CT is the basis for radiotherapy planning. Intensity-modulated and adaptive radiotherapy techniques would greatly benefit from additional functional information allowing for definition of the biological target volume. MRI techniques include several which can characterize and quantify different tissue properties and their tumour-related changes. Results of perfusion...

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) geometric distortions when using MRI for target delineation and planning for whole-breast, intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Residual system distortions and combined systematic and patient-induced distortions are considered. This retrospective study investigated 18 patients who underwent whole-breas...

UNLABELLED Radiotherapy (RT) is effective in head and neck cancers. Following RT, dryness and dysphagia are the 2 major sequelae which alter the quality of life (QOL) significantly in these patients. There is randomized evidence that Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) effectively spares the parotid glands. IMRT has been attempted in all head and neck subsites with encouraging results (disc...

Radiotherapy, more then any other treatment modality, relies heavily and often exclusively on medical imaging to determine the extent of disease and the spatial relation between target region and neighbouring healthy tissues. Radically new approaches to radiation delivery are inspired on CT scanning and treat patients in a slice-by-slice fashion using intensity modulated megavoltage fan beams. ...

PET scanning, because of its impressive sensitivity and accuracy, is being incorporated into the standard staging workup for many cancers. These include lung cancer, lymphomas, head and neck cancers, and oesophageal cancers. PET often provides incremental information about the patient's disease status, adding to the data obtained from structural imaging methods, such as, CT scan or MRI. PET com...

Dedicated rapid access palliative radiation therapy improves patients' access to care, allowing more timely treatment which would positively impact on quality of life. The TomoTherapy (Accuray, Sunnyvale, CA) system provides megavoltage (MV) fan-beam computed tomography (FBCT) as the image guidance technique, and a module called "statRT" that allows the use of these MV FBCT images for direct pl...