Survey on gynecological cancer treatment by Piedmont, Liguria, and Valle d'Aosta group of AIRO (Italian Association of Radiation Oncology).

Purpose: We focused the attention on radiation therapy practices about the gynecological malignancies in Piedmont, Liguria, and Valle d'Aosta to know the current treatment practice and to improve the quality of care.

Material And Methods: We proposed a cognitive survey to evaluate the standard practice patterns for gynecological cancer management, adopted from 2012 to 2014 by radiotherapy (RT) centers with a large amount of gynecological cancer cases. There were three topics: 1.

Salvage treatment for childhood ependymoma after surgery only: Pitfalls of omitting "at once" adjuvant treatment.

Purpose: To discuss the results obtained by giving adjuvant treatment for childhood ependymoma (EPD) at relapse after complete surgery only.

Methods And Materials: Between 1993 and 2002, 63 children older than 3 years old entered the first Italian Association for Pediatric Hematology and Oncology protocol for EPD (group A), and another 14 patients were referred after relapsing after more tumor excisions only (group B). Prognostic factors were homogeneously matched in the two groups.

Thyroid dysfunction as a late effect in childhood medulloblastoma: a comparison of hyperfractionated versus conventionally fractionated craniospinal radiotherapy.

Purpose: Primary hypothyroidism is a common sequela of craniospinal radiotherapy in the treatment of childhood medulloblastoma. Due to the strong radiobiologic rationale, hyperfractionation can reduce the delayed effects of radiation injury.

Methods And Materials: The authors compared the incidence of thyroid dysfunction after conventionally fractionated radiotherapy (Group A, n = 20 patients) vs.

Biological predictors of response to radiotherapy in cervical carcinomas.

On 21 patients with T1b-T3b tumours subjected to external radiotherapy and brachytherapy, the expression of P53 and glutathione S-transferase pi [GST-pi], immunohistochemically detected, the S-phase cells fraction (H-3-thymidine labeling index, TLI) and DNA content evaluated by image analysis were determined on biopsies before and after the first 10 Gy. P53 accumulation was reduced in 60% of P53-overexpressing tumours and not induced in P53-negative tumours, GST-pi was induced in about 40% of pretreatment GST-pi-negative cases, TLI was reduced in 70% of the cases regardless of pretreatment values, and DNA profiles remained unchanged in two-thirds of the cases. P53 accumulation was a predictor of 3-year relapse-free survival after radiotherapy, followed by GST-pi expression, whereas TLI did not influence prognosis.