Publications by authors named "Bryan Traughber"

Aim: To synthesize, characterize, and validate 6FGA, a fluorescent glucose modified with a Cyanine5.5 at carbon-6 position, for probing the function of sodium-dependent glucose transporters, SGLT1 and SGLT2.

Main Methods: The synthesis of fluorescent glucose analogue was achieved through "click chemistry" of Cyanine5.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ever since its introduction as a diagnostic imaging tool the potential of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in radiation therapy (RT) treatment simulation and planning has been recognized. Recent technical advances have addressed many of the impediments to use of this technology and as a result have resulted in rapid and growing adoption of MRI in RT. The purpose of this article is to provide a broad review of the multiple uses of MR in the RT treatment simulation and planning process, identify several of the most used clinical scenarios in which MR is integral to the simulation and planning process, highlight existing limitations and provide multiple unmet needs thereby highlighting opportunities for the diagnostic MR imaging community to contribute and collaborate with our oncology colleagues.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: This study quantified the dosimetric uncertainty caused by needle-tip detection errors in ultrasound images due to bevel-tip orientation differences, with respect to the location on template grid.

Material And Methods: Trans-rectal ultrasound (TRUS) system with physical template grid and 18-gauge bevel-tip brachytherapy needles were used. TRUS was set at 6.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: In this study, the utilization rates and survival outcomes of different radiotherapy techniques are compared in prostate cancer (PCa) patients stratified by risk group. Methods: We analyzed an extensive data set of N0, M0, non-surgical PCa patients diagnosed between 2004 and 2015 from the National Cancer Database (NCDB). Patients were grouped into six categories based on RT modality: an intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) group with brachytherapy (BT) boost, IMRT with/without IMRT boost, proton therapy, stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), low-dose-rate brachytherapy (BT LDR), and high-dose-rate brachytherapy (BT HDR).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Accurate coregistration of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging can provide clinically relevant and complementary information and can serve to facilitate multiple clinical tasks including surgical and radiation treatment planning, and generating a virtual Positron Emission Tomography (PET)/MR for the sites that do not have a PET/MR system available. Despite the long-standing interest in multimodality co-registration, a robust, routine clinical solution remains an unmet need. Part of the challenge may be the use of mutual information (MI) maximization and local phase difference (LPD) as similarity metrics, which have limited robustness, efficiency, and are difficult to optimize.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: The volume of Venezia applicator with vaginal caps can be relatively large compared to target volumes. This study investigated the dosimetric and radiobiological effects of applicator volume removal for cervical cancer patients treated with Venezia (VZ) and tandem and split-ring (TSR) applicators used in the clinic.

Material And Methods: A total of 40 patients (101 plans) with stage IIA-IIIC cervical cancer were retrospectively reviewed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Advances in multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) combining anatomic and functional imaging can accurately identify foci of adenocarcinoma within the prostate, offering the possibility of partial gland therapy. We performed tandem prospective pilot trials to investigate the feasibility of focal prostate SBRT (f-SBRT) based on correlating diagnostic mpMRI and biopsies with confirmatory pathology in treatment planning.

Materials And Methods: Patients with pathologic focal Gleason 6-7 disease and a corresponding PIRADS 4-5 lesion on mpMRI underwent targeted and comprehensive biopsies using MRI/ultrasound fusion under electromagnetic sensor navigation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Multi-modality imaging constitutes a foundation of precision medicine, especially in oncology where reliable and rapid imaging techniques are needed in order to insure adequate diagnosis and treatment. In cervical cancer, precision oncology requires the acquisition of F-labeled 2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance (MR), and computed tomography (CT) images. Thereafter, images are co-registered to derive electron density attributes required for FDG-PET attenuation correction and radiation therapy planning.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Purpose: We previously demonstrated the safety of doses up to 48 Gy in 4 fractions with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) in poor surgical candidates with localized renal cell carcinoma (RCC). In an additional expansion cohort, we aimed to assess the safety of further dose escalation to 48-60 Gy in 3 fractions.

Material And Methods: Patients were required to have localized RCC and be poor surgical candidates due to medical comorbidities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: The in vivo dosimetric monitoring in HDR brachytherapy is important for improving patient safety. However, there are very limited options available for clinical application. In this study, we present a new in vivo dose measurement system with a plastic scintillating detector (PSD) for GYN HDR brachytherapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: We aim to define national practice patterns to assess current clinical practice, anticipated delays and areas of concern that potentially could lead to deviations from the normal standard of care.

Methods: Anonymous surveys were emailed to members of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO). The spread of COVID-19 and its impact on gynecologic oncology care in terms of alterations to normal treatment patterns and anticipated challenges were assessed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Computed tomography (CT) provides information for diagnosis, PET attenuation correction (AC), and radiation treatment planning (RTP). Disadvantages of CT include poor soft tissue contrast and exposure to ionizing radiation. While MRI can overcome these disadvantages, it lacks the photon absorption information needed for PET AC and RTP.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We propose a new method for generating synthetic CT images from modified Dixon (mDixon) MR data. The synthetic CT is used for attenuation correction (AC) when reconstructing PET data on abdomen and pelvis. While MR does not intrinsically contain any information about photon attenuation, AC is needed in PET/MR systems in order to be quantitatively accurate and to meet qualification standards required for use in many multi-center trials.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: This study assessed the appropriateness of full parameter addition (FPA) methods with respect to the 3-dimensional deformable dose composite method for evaluating combined external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) and intracavitary brachytherapy (ICBT).

Methods And Materials: A total of 22 patients who received EBRT and high-dose-rate ICBT were retrospectively evaluated. Split-ring and tandem applicators were used for all patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Accurate photon attenuation assessment from MR data remains an unmet challenge in the thorax due to tissue heterogeneity and the difficulty of MR lung imaging. As thoracic tissues encompass the whole physiologic range of photon absorption, large errors can occur when using, for example, a uniform, water-equivalent or a soft-tissue-only approximation. The purpose of this study was to introduce a method for voxel-wise thoracic synthetic CT (sCT) generation from MR data attenuation correction (AC) for PET/MR or for MR-only radiation treatment planning (RTP).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Transrectal ultrasound images are routinely acquired for low dose rate (LDR) prostate brachytherapy dosimetric preplanning (pTRUS), although diagnostic multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) may serve this purpose as well. We compared the predictive abilities of TRUS vs MRI relative to intraoperative TRUS (iTRUS) to assess the role of mpMRI in brachytherapy preplanning.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective analysis was performed on 32 patients who underwent iTRUS-guided prostate LDR brachytherapy as either mono- or combination therapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Manual contouring remains the most laborious task in radiation therapy planning and is a major barrier to implementing routine Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Guided Adaptive Radiation Therapy (MR-ART). To address this, we propose a new artificial intelligence-based, auto-contouring method for abdominal MR-ART modeled after human brain cognition for manual contouring.

Methods/materials: Our algorithm is based on two types of information flow, i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The aim is to develop and evaluate machine learning methods for generating quantitative parametric maps of effective atomic number (Z), relative electron density (ρ ), mean excitation energy (I ), and relative stopping power (RSP) from clinical dual-energy CT data. The maps could be used for material identification and radiation dose calculation. Machine learning methods of historical centroid (HC), random forest (RF), and artificial neural networks (ANN) were used to learn the relationship between dual-energy CT input data and ideal output parametric maps calculated for phantoms from the known compositions of 13 tissue substitutes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: The addition of a braided bio-absorbable vicryl coating to the surface of radioactive seeds used for low dose rate (LDR) prostate brachytherapy is intended to reduce the incidence of seed movement and migration. Here, we present a single-institution study of the frequency and severity of seed slippage (initial seed movement) of coated seeds in comparison with uncoated seeds.

Methods: Forty-seven patients received permanent prostate brachytherapy, with either coated (n = 26) or uncoated (n = 21) seeds.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A dosimetric analysis was conducted to assess the viability of a multi-center SBRT trial for renal cell carcinoma using various radiation therapy platforms.
  • The study involved anonymized CT simulation images of 10 patients, and treatment plans were generated on five different platforms to deliver a total dose of 48 Gy in three fractions.
  • Results indicated that VMAT and PBS provided similar or better target coverage while minimizing radiation exposure to surrounding organs compared to Cyberknife, supporting the potential for a multi-center SBRT trial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To evaluate the role of 3T-MRI-guided adaptive high-dose-rate (HDR) combined intracavitary and interstitial brachytherapy for cervical cancer using a novel intracavitary split-ring (ICSR) applicator adapter.

Methods And Materials: We retrospectively reviewed all HDR brachytherapy cases from 2013 to 2015 using an ICSR applicator. Initial optimization was performed using 3T multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) series with an applicator in place.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To investigate the dosimetric effects due to interfractional changes in catheter position and variation in patient's anatomy during the course of interstitial high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy.

Methods And Materials: A total of 15 patients with either cervical or vaginal cancer underwent interstitial HDR brachytherapy. Interstitial catheters and fiducials were placed under fluoroscopy and intraoperative 3T MRI to confirm the desired catheter placement for adequate target volume coverage.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A novel FDA-approved in vivo dosimetry device using plastic scintillating detectors was tested in an endorectal balloon for real-time dose measurement during stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for prostate cancer.
  • The system measured delivered doses for a patient receiving 36.25 Gy in 5 fractions, with average measured doses showing a difference of no more than 6% compared to the planned doses, which was primarily attributed to uncertainties in detector placement.
  • The study suggests that the in vivo dosimeter enhances safety and confidence in treatment delivery, leading to plans for further evaluation in a prospective clinical trial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: This systematic review summarizes the clinical data on focal therapy (FT) when used alone as definitive therapy for primary prostate cancer (PCa).

Methods: The protocol is detailed in the online PROSPERO database, registration No. CRD42014014765.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Changes in tumor metabolic activity have been shown to be an early indicator of treatment effectiveness for breast cancer, mainly in the neoadjuvant setting. The histopathologic response at the completion of chemotherapy has been used as the reference standard for assessment of the accuracy of (18)F-FDG PET in predicting a response during systemic treatment. Although a pathologic complete response (pCR) remains an important positive prognostic factor for an individual patient, a recent metaanalysis could validate pCR as a surrogate marker for patient outcomes only in aggressive breast cancer subtypes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Notice

Message: fwrite(): Write of 34 bytes failed with errno=28 No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 272

Backtrace:

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_write_close(): Failed to write session data using user defined save handler. (session.save_path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Unknown

Line Number: 0

Backtrace: