BACKGROUND Derivation of dose-volume correlated with toxicity for multi-modal treatments can be difficult due to the perceived need for voxel-by-voxel dose accumulation. With data available for a single-institution cohort with long follow-up, an investigation was undertaken into rectal dose-volume effects for gastrointestinal toxicities after deformably-registering each phase of a combined exte...

BACKGROUND Treatment of concurrent gemcitabine and radiotherapy for pancreatic cancer was reported to have a higher rate of severe acute intestinal toxicity. This study evaluated the acute intestinal toxicity in relation to the volume of irradiated small bowel and other factors using dosimetric analyses in pancreatic cancer patients treated with gemcitabine-based chemoradiotherapy. MATERIALS ...

BACKGROUND Hepatic radiation toxicity restricts irradiation of liver malignancies. Better knowledge of hepatic tolerance dose is favourable to gain higher safety and to optimize radiation regimes in radiotherapy of the liver. In this study we sought to determine the hepatic tolerance dose to small volume single fraction high dose rate irradiation. MATERIALS AND METHODS 23 liver metastases wer...

Treatment planning for breast cancer has been traditionally based on clinical landmarks. The Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) published consensus guidelines on contouring target volumes (TV) for the breast/chest wall and draining lymphatics. The effect of these guidelines on dosimetric parameters in surrounding organs at risk (OAR) and TVs is unknown. Fourteen patients treated with clini...

PURPOSE Dose-volume histogram (DVH) is a clinically relevant criterion to evaluate a treatment plan quality. It is hence desirable to incorporate DVH constraints in treatment planning process for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Yet, these constraints usually lead to difficulties due to their non-convex nature. The purpose of this project is to solve the IMRT optimization problem w...

BACKGROUND This meta-analysis aims to ascertain the significance of early lung toxicity with 3-Dimensional (3D) conformal irradiation for breast carcinomas and identify the sub-groups of patients with increased risk. METHODS Electronic databases, reference sections of major oncological textbooks and identified studies were searched for synonyms of breast radiotherapy and radiation pneumonitis...

INTRODUCTION High rectal doses are associated with increased toxicity. A rectal displacement device (RDD) reduces rectal dose in prostate stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). This study investigates any dosimetric difference between two methods of rectal displacement (Rectafix and SpaceOAR) for prostate SBRT. METHODS Rectal dosimetry of 45 men who received SBRT within the PROMETHEUS tr...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of intraoperative MRI/TRUS fusion procedure in cT3a prostate cancer patients treated with high-dose-rate (HDR) real-time brachytherapy. MATERIAL AND METHODS Prostate gland, dominant intraprostatic lesions (DILs), and extracapsular extension (ECE) were delineated in the pre-brachytherapy magnetic resonance images (MRI) of 9 consecuti...

RapidArc is a novel treatment planning and delivery system that has recently been made available for clinical use. Included within the Eclipse treatment planning system are a number of different optimization strategies that can be employed to improve the quality of the final treatment plan. The purpose of this study is to systematically assess three categories of strategies for four phantoms, a...

PURPOSE Study goals were to characterize gastrointestinal effects of proton therapy (PT) in a large cohort of patients treated for prostate cancer, identify factors associated with rectal bleeding (RB), and compare RB between patients receiving investigational protocols versus those in outcome-tracking protocols. METHODS AND MATERIALS A total of 1285 consecutive patients were treated with PT ...