Publications by authors named "A Kacperek"

Internationally, reference dosimetry for clinical proton beams largely follows the guidelines published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA TRS-398 Rev. 1, 2024). This approach yields a relative standard uncertainty of 1.

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Although rare cancers, ocular tumors are a threat to vision, quality of life, and potentially life expectancy of a patient. Ocular proton therapy (OPT) is a powerful tool for successfully treating this disease. The Particle Therapy Co-Operative Ocular Group) formulated an Evidence and Expert-Based Executive Summary of Current Practices and Future Developments in OPT: comparative dosimetric and clinical analysis with the different OPT systems is essential to set up planning guidelines, implement best practices, and establish benchmarks for eye preservation, vision, and quality of life measures.

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The superior dose conformity provided by proton therapy relative to conventional x-ray radiotherapy necessitates more rigorous quality assurance (QA) procedures to ensure optimal patient safety. Practically however, time-constraints prevent comprehensive measurements to be made of the proton range in water: a key parameter in ensuring accurate treatment delivery.A novel scintillator-based device for fast, accurate water-equivalent proton range QA measurements for ocular proton therapy is presented.

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Complex DNA damage (CDD), containing two or more DNA lesions within one or two DNA helical turns, is a signature of ionising radiation (IR) and contributes significantly to the therapeutic effect through cell killing. The levels and complexity of CDD increases with linear energy transfer (LET), however, the specific cellular response to this type of DNA damage and the critical proteins essential for repair of CDD is currently unclear. We performed an siRNA screen of ~240 DNA damage response proteins to identify those specifically involved in controlling cell survival in response to high-LET protons at the Bragg peak, compared to low-LET entrance dose protons which differ in the amount of CDD produced.

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Purpose: This study evaluated the functional outcome and ocular side effects of patients receiving proton beam radiotherapy (PBR) for the treatment of iris melanoma (IM).

Design: This retrospective study analyzed prospectively collected data.

Participants: Patients with IM who underwent PBR as a primary treatment.

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