With 40,000 to 50,000 patients diagnosed annually, stage III lung cancer represents approximately one third of all non-small-cell lung cancer cases. It is a heterogeneous disease stage encompassing stage IIIa, for which surgery in combination with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy represents a treatment strategy for select patients, and stage IIIb, for which chemoradiation represents the pr...

Two patients, aged 29 and 40, with nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's disease, in complete remission for four and six years respectively after intensive radiotherapy and combination chemotherapy, developed carcinoma of the lung in the previous radiation port. Although radiotherapy and chemotherapy can eradicate Hodgkin's disease involving the thorax, this treatment may be associated with the developm...

Radiation induced sarcomas (RIO) are rare tumors that develop after a latent period after radiation, within the field of radiation. A 22-year-old woman with a history of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, treated with standard neo-adjuvant chemotherapy followed by irradiation. 4 years after, computed tomography showed an extensive loco regional lesion of the left maxilla. Biopsy revealed high-grade oste...

Chondrosarcoma, a primary malignancy of bone, has eluded successful treatment with modern chemotherapeutic and radiation regimens. To date, surgical resection of these tumors remains the only curative treatment offered to patients with this diagnosis. Understanding and exploring the nature of chemotherapy and radiation resistance in chondrosarcoma could lead to new molecular targets and more di...

The treatment of head and neck cancer has traditionally consisted of surgery with postoperative radiation therapy. Chemotherapy has been reserved for palliation. In recent years, induction chemotherapy has been shown to allow for larynx preservation in patients with laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer. Concomitant chemoradiotherapy has been shown to provide a statistically significant survival b...

We report a 72-year-old male with past medical history of stage IV squamous lung cancer treated with radiation therapy and chemotherapy with gemcitabine/carboplatin. One year later, he presented with hemoptysis treated with another session of palliative radiotherapy. Two weeks later, patient developed aspiration pneumonia and further workup showed trachea-esophageal fistula documented by barium...

Chordomas are rare, benign tumors that account for 1-4% of bony lesions and most frequently occur in the skull base, mobile spine, and sacrum. Historically, they have been most effectively managed with en bloc surgical resection, as they are resistant to conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Currently, the gold standard treatment for spinal chordomas is en bloc excision with negative marg...

Book Reviews J.L. Meyer, J.M. Vaeth (eds.) Radiotherapy/Chemotherapy Interactions in Cancer Treatment Frontiers of Radiation Therapy and Oncology, vol. 26 Karger, Basel 1992. XII + 202 pp.; SFr. 198DM 237.-/$ 158.50 ISBN 3-8055-5493-1 The book is divided into two parts. In the first, comprising 4 articles, basic experimental results on the interactions of radiotherapy and chemotherapy are discu...

PURPOSE To determine whether the risk of secondary breast cancer (SBC) is reduced in women with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) treated with smaller field radiation therapy (SFRT) versus mantle field radiation therapy (MRT). METHODS AND MATERIALS We used the BC Cancer Agency (BCCA) Lymphoid Cancer Database to identify female patients treated for HL between January 1961 and December 2009. Radiation ther...

While sparsely reported in the literature, Wilms tumor may differentiate into more mature mesenchymal tissue types, such as skeletal muscle, following chemotherapy. The frequency of this event is unknown. Chemotherapy and radiation may induce cytodifferentiation of Wilms tumor cells or select for the survival of less mitotically active cells. In follow-up biopsies, the presence of rhabdomyomato...