Background: To determine if reduced dose delivery uncertainty is associated with daily image-guidance (IG) and Prostate Specific Antigen Relapse Free Survival (PRFS) in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) of high-risk prostate cancer (PCa). Methods: Planning data for consecutive PCa patients treated with IMRT (n = 67) and IG-IMRT (n = 35) was retrieved. Using computer simulations of setup erro

Introduction The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of PET and MRI guided re-irradiation of recurrent high-grade glioma (HGG) and to assess the impact of radiotherapy dose, fractionation and irradiated volume. Material and methods Patients with localized, recurrent HGG (grades III-IV) and no other treatment options were eligible for a prospective phase I trial. Gross tum

BACKGROUND: Hypoxia and increased glycolytic activity of tumors are associated with poor prognosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in radiotherapy (RT) dose painting based on the uptake of 2-deoxy-2-[(18) F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) and the proposed hypoxia tracer, copper(II)diacetyl-bis(N(4))-methylsemithiocarbazone (Cu-ATSM) using spontaneous clinical canine tumor model

Objective. The aim of this study was to prospectively assess the development of 24 urinary, gastrointestinal and sexual symptoms in patients with prostate cancer (PCa) during and after image-guided volumetric modulated arc therapy (IG-VMAT). Material and methods. A total of 87 patients with PCa participated in this study. The patients were asked to complete a modified version of the Prostate Cance

Results: The average gamma index failure rate (2% and 2 mm criteria) was < 0.01% with amplitude gating for all patients, and < 0.1% with phase gating and < 3.7% with MLC tracking for three of the four patients. One of the patients had an average failure rate of 15.1% with phase gating and 18.3% with MLC tracking.With no motion compensation, the average gamma index failure rate ranged from 7.1% to

To determine visual outcome including the occurrence of radiation induced optic neuropathy (RION) as well as tumor control after fractionated stereotactic radiation therapy (FSRT) of benign anterior skull base meningiomas or pituitary adenomas. Thirty-nine patients treated with FSRT for anterior skull base meningiomas and 55 patients treated with FSRT for pituitary adenomas between January 1999 an

Treatment of cervical cancer, one of the three most commonly diagnosed cancers worldwide, often relies on delineations of the tumour and metastases based on PET imaging using the contrast agent 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG). We present a robust automatic algorithm for segmenting the gross tumour volume (GTV) and metastatic lymph nodes in such images. As the cervix is located next to the bladder and

Background. Flattening filter-free (FFF) beams are an emerging technology that has not yet been widely implemented as standard practice in radiotherapy centers. To facilitate the clinical implementation of FFF, we attempted to elucidate the difference in plan quality and treatment delivery time compared to flattening filter beams (i.e. standard, STD) for several patient groups. We hypothesize that

Background: 18F-FDG PET/CT (FDG PET/CT) used in radiotherapy planning for extra-cerebral malignancy may reveal metastases to distant sites that may affect the choice of therapy. Aim: To investigate the role of FDG PET/CT on treatment strategy changes induced by the use of PET/CT as part of the radiotherapy planning. ‘A major change of treatment strategy’ was defined as either including more lesion

Purpose We evaluated the feasibility of treating patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with pencil beam scanned intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) in breath-hold. Methods and Materials Fifteen NSCLC patients who had previously received 66 Gy in 33 fractions with image guided photon radiation therapy were included in the present simulation study. In addition to a

Purpose Prostate motion during radiation therapy (ie, intrafraction motion) can cause unwanted loss of radiation dose to the prostate and increased dose to the surrounding organs at risk. A compact but general statistical description of this motion could be useful for simulation of radiation therapy delivery or margin calculations. We investigated whether prostate motion could be modeled with a ra

Purpose The purpose of this study was to estimate the uncertainty in voluntary deep-inspiration breath-hold (DIBH) radiotherapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Methods Perpendicular fluoroscopic movies were acquired in free breathing (FB) and DIBH during a course of visually guided DIBH radiotherapy of nine patients with NSCLC. Patients had liquid markers injected

Work hardening layer on and beneath the machined surface is one of the key factors that affects the performance and service time of the final component. However, the mechanism of the work hardening generation and its behavior are still great challenges and open issues to the academic and industry. In this paper, an investigation of the work hardening layer generated by chamfered tools is conducted

In a k-step adaptive linear multistep methods the coefficients depend on the k − 1 most recent step size ratios. In a similar way, both the actual and the estimated local error will depend on these step ratios. The classical error model has been the asymptotic model, chp+ 1y(p+ 1)(t), based on the constant step size analysis, where all past step sizes simultaneously go to zero. This does not refle

A handful of studies have investigated sexually antagonistic constraints on achieving sex-specific fitness optima, although exclusively through male-genome-limited evolution experiments. In this article, we established a female-limited X chromosome evolution experiment, where we used an X chromosome balancer to enforce the inheritance of the X through the matriline, thus removing exposure to male

Climate change is exposing high-latitude systems to warming and a shift towards more shrub-dominated plant communities, resulting in increased leaf-litter inputs at the soil surface, and more labile root-derived organic matter (OM) input in the soil profile. Labile OM can stimulate the mineralization of soil organic matter (SOM); a phenomenon termed “priming.” In N-poor subarctic soils, it is hypo

The purpose of the study is to identify and explore different applications of blockchain technology in supply chain management and suggest a framework for their analysis. The study addresses researchers' conflicting opinions regarding the hype of blockchain and clarifies which minor applications are hyped and which are currently more applicable. That helps supply chain practitioners appraise the d

Osteoblastoma is a locally aggressive tumour of bone. Until recently, its underlying genetic features were largely unknown. During the past two years, reports have demonstrated that acquired structural variations affect the transcription factor FOS in a high proportion of cases. These rearrangements modify the terminal exon of the gene and are believed to stabilise both the FOS transcript and the

Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a widely accepted safe, simple and rapid diagnostic procedure used in the examination of neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions of various locations. Since its introduction, FNAC has developed into an effective diagnostic tool practiced in a large majority of medical centres evaluating and treating oncological patients. The role of FNAC has been limited in