Article history: Received 26 May 2011 Received in revised form 20 December 2011 Accepted 23 December 2011 Available online 2 January 2012

BACKGROUND To assess the dosimetric effect induced by inter-observer variability in target definition for 3D-conformal RT (3DCRT) and volumetric modulated arc therapy by RapidArc (RA) techniques for rectal cancer treatment. METHODS Ten patients with rectal cancer subjected to neo-adjuvant RT were randomly selected from the internal database. Four radiation oncologists independently contoured ...

There is no consensus on whether luminance-modulated (LM) and contrast-modulated (CM) stimuli are processed by common or separate mechanisms. To investigate this, the sensitivity variations to these stimuli are generally compared as a function of different parameters (e.g., sensitivity as a function of the spatial or temporal window sizes) and similar properties have been observed. The present ...

The host-guest structures of elements at high pressure discovered a decade ago still leave many open questions due to the lack of precise models based on full exploitation of the diffraction data. This concerns in particular Ba IV, which is stable in the range 12-45 GPa. With the example of phase Ba IVb, which is characterized here for the first time, a systematic analysis is presented of possi...

The aim of this review is to explore the changing utility of radiotherapy in the treatment of patients with glioblastoma over the past 60 years. Together with surgery, radiotherapy has always been the cornerstone of treatment of glioblastoma, but techniques have significantly advanced over this time. The exploration of early two-dimensional techniques, investigation of dose escalation, concomit...

We compared the treatment outcomes, toxicities and prognoses of patients with stage IE-IIE extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL) treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) or three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT). Newly diagnosed early-stage ENKTL patients (N = 173) were enrolled and received extended involved-field radiotherapy following induction chemotherapy....

Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for complex sites such as tumors of the head and neck requires a level of accuracy in dose calculation beyond that currently used for conformal treatment planning. Recent advances in treatment planning systems have aimed to improve the dose calculation accuracy by improving the modeling of machine characteristics such as interleaf leakage, tongue and groo...

PURPOSE To report the results of dosimetric comparison between intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) using Tomotherapy and four-box field conformal radiotherapy (CRT) for pelvic irradiation of locally advanced rectal cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twelve patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who received a short course preoperative chemoradiotherapy (25 Gy in 5 fractions) on the pelvi...

This study reviewed prostate volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) plans after prostate IMRT technique was replaced by VMAT in an institution. Characterizations of dosimetry and radiobiological variation in prostate were determined based on treatment plans of 40 prostate IMRT patients (planning target volume = 77.8-335 cm(3)) and 50 VMAT pati...

As radiation therapy transitions from intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) to volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) it is important to consider the quality assurance (QA) of VMAT plans in light of what has previously been learned and developed in IMRT QA. This technical note assesses if IMRT based plan QA software, which has reduced the need in IMRT for phantom dose measurements on th...